How to say "to wait" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningto wait
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
intaẓaraאנתט'ר
انتظر
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
khikaخِيكَا
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ن-ظ-رHebrew root
נ-צ-רRoot נ-צ-ר matches ن-ظ-ر through the regular ظ↔צ shift (the same shift as أرض/ארץ). Both trace back to old Semitic 'watching, guarding' — compare Akkadian naṣāru. Hebrew נצר narrowed to 'guard, keep' (one folk explanation for נוצרי, 'Christian,' is 'a keeper [of the faith]'); Arabic naẓara narrowed instead to plain 'look, see.' intaẓara, 'to wait,' is literally 'to keep looking out for.'
Related Hebrew word:נצרnatsarنَاتْسَار
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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
Levantine speech overwhelmingly prefers istanna, 'wait!', over the more formal intaẓara.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo: istanna — istanna shwayya, 'wait a bit'.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's 'to wait' is tsenna: tsenna shwiya — 'wait a bit'.
In a phrase
He waited for his friend in front of the station