How to say "sick, ill" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningsick, ill
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
marīḍמריצ'
مريض
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
kholeخُولِي
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
م-ر-ضHebrew root
מ-ר-צArabic ض regularly matches Hebrew צ, and dictionaries like BDB traditionally link Arabic m-r-ḍ 'be ill' with Biblical Hebrew נמרץ 'grievous, severe' (as in קללה נמרצת). Modern Hebrew then flipped the sense into מרץ 'energy' — the likely cousin of 'sick' now means 'vigor'.
Related Hebrew word:מרץmeretsمِرِتْس
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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
Cairo's everyday 'sick' is ʿayyān (f. ʿayyāna); marīḍ sounds clinical.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija: mrīḍ, first vowel dropped.
In a phrase
I am sick today.