How to say "enthusiasm, zeal" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningenthusiasm, zeal
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ḥamāsחמאס
حماس
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
hitlahavutهِتْلَاهَاڤُوت
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ح-م-سHebrew root
ח-מ-סRoot ح-م-س / ח-מ-ס seems to have started somewhere around 'fierce, intense' — Arabic channeled that into martial zeal and enthusiasm (a classical anthology of battle poetry is even named Kitāb al-Ḥamāsa), while Hebrew חָמָס kept the harsher edge: violence, wrong, injustice ("the earth was filled with ḥamas", Genesis 6:11). Traditionally compared, not identical — one word's fire is the other's harm. Note the everyday overlap this creates: the Palestinian movement's name is this same Arabic word for zeal, spelled exactly like the unrelated-in-meaning Hebrew word for violence.
Related Hebrew word:חמסkhamasخَامَاس
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In a phrase
great enthusiasm