How to say "broth" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningbroth
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
maraqמרק
مرق
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
marakمَارَاك
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
م-ر-قHebrew root
מ-ר-קHebrew מרק and Arabic maraq are the same word letter for letter, מ-ר-ק on both sides. Modern Hebrew broadened it to 'soup', the whole dish with its solids; Arabic keeps the older, narrower sense — the broth or gravy itself, as in سمك بالمرق, 'fish in sauce'.
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
Cairo says maraʾa, with the feminine ending and the qāf a glottal stop, for broth or gravy.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's merqa is the sauce or gravy of a tagine.
In a phrase
chicken broth