How to say "eraser" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningeraser
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
mimḥāhממחאה
ممحاة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
makhakمَاخَاك
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
م-ح-وHebrew root
מ-ח-הRoot م-ح-و/ي, 'to erase', matches Biblical Hebrew מ-ח-ה, 'to wipe out, blot out' (Exodus 32:32, מְחֵנִי, 'blot me out') — final-weak roots regularly alternate ה↔و/ي. Modern Hebrew's actual word for 'eraser', מחק, comes from a look-alike but separate root, מ-ח-ק — so the true cognate survives only in the older, more dramatic verb למחות, not in the everyday word for the little rubber block on your desk.
Related Hebrew word:מחהmakhaمَاخَا
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
A different word: astīka, from Italian elastica, is the Cairo eraser.
In a phrase
a small eraser