How to say "failure (Arabic) → screw-up, botch (Israeli slang)" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningfailure (Arabic) → screw-up, botch (Israeli slang)
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
فَشَل
fashalפשל
فشل
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
פשלה
fashlaفَاشْلَا
How the two words are related
Loanword
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic root
ف-ش-لMSA fashal is 'failure'; colloquial speech shaped a single flop into fashle, which Hebrew took as פשלה. The loan then went native: Hebrew conjugates a full verb, לפשל, 'to botch it', from the Arabic root.
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
فَشْلِة
fashleפשלהOne concrete flop — the direct source of the Hebrew word.
In a phrase
فَشِلَت الْخُطَّة
fashilat al-khuṭṭaפשלת אל-ח'טהthe plan failed
More in Arabic You Already Speak
- broke, penniless (colloquial Arabic and Israeli slang)ṭafrānطَفْرَانתפרן
- bad luck, ill omen (Arabic) → rotten luck, a jinx (Israeli slang)naḥsنَحْسנאחס
- market stall, spread-out display (Arabic → Israeli Hebrew: shuk stall)basṭaبَسْطَةבסטה
- original, genuine (Arabic) → authentic, the real deal (Israeli slang)aṣlīأَصْلِيאסלי
- one (Arabic wāḥid) → 'one heck of a...' (Israeli slang intensifier)wāḥidوَاحِدוואחד
- to finish, be free of (Arabic) → enough!, done! (Israeli slang)khalaṣخَلَصחלס
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