How to say "Palestine" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningPalestine
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
filasṭīnפלסטין
فلسطين
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
palestinپَالِسْتِين
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Both names preserve the same ancient people: the Philistines, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, who gave their name to פְּלֶשֶׁת (Pleshet) in the Bible. Arabic Filasṭīn most likely reached Arabic through Greek Palaistínē (already used by Herodotus) rather than straight from Hebrew — but it is the very same three-thousand-year-old name, worn down along two different routes.
Related Hebrew word:פלשתpleshetپْلِشِت
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo says falasṭīn, with a in the first syllable.
In a phrase
he is from Palestine