How to say "laptop" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaninglaptop
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ḥāsūb maḥmūlחאסוב מחמול
حاسوب محمول
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
makhshev nayadمَاخْشِڤ نَايَاد
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ح-م-لHebrew root
ח-מ-לmaḥmūl, 'carried, portable', is the passive participle of ḥamala, 'to carry' — already in this app under 'to carry', where Klein's dictionary traces a debated link to Hebrew חמל, 'to pity, to spare' (bearing a load sliding into bearing with someone). A laptop, by that folk-etymology account, is 'the pitied one' — cute, but the honest link is to carrying, not to compassion.
Related Hebrew word:חמלkhamalخَامَال
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
The English loan is what everyone actually says.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo too says lābtōb.
In a phrase
I brought my laptop.