How to say "butcher" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningbutcher
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
jazzārג'זאר
جزار
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
katsavكَاتْسَاڤ
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ج-ز-رHebrew root
ג-ז-רArabic j-z-r 'cut up, slaughter' lines up with Hebrew ג-ז-ר 'cut' — the root of גזר 'decreed' (a decree is something cut, like English 'decide') and גזרה. Same knife, different counters: Arabic took it to the butcher shop, Hebrew to the courtroom.
Related Hebrew word:גזרgazarگَازَار
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
Hard g in Cairo: gazzār.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
One of Darija's hard-g words: gezzār.
In a phrase
The butcher has fresh meat.
Plural
sound masculine plural -ūn