How to say "lazy" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaninglazy
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
كَسُول
kasūlכסול
كسول
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
עצל
atselأَتْسِل
How the two words are related
Shifted meaning
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ك-س-لHebrew root
כ-ס-לThe root k-s-l shows up across the Semitic family for a cluster of related faults: Hebrew kesil (כסיל) is 'a fool', and Arabic kasal is 'laziness'. Klein's dictionary connects them as two ways a culture can insult the same kind of person. The everyday Hebrew word for lazy, atsel, is unrelated.
Related Hebrew word:כסילkesilكِسِيل
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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
كَسْلَان
kaslānכסלאןCairo says kaslān.
In a phrase
طَالِب كَسُول
ṭālib kasūlטאלב כסולa lazy student
Feminine
كَسُولَة
kasūlaכסולה