How to say "handkerchief" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaninghandkerchief
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
mindīlמנדיל
منديل
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
mitpakhatمِتْپَاخَات
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic منديل and rabbinic Aramaic מַנְדִּיל sit in the same small word-family as Byzantine Greek mandēlion and Latin mantele, 'hand towel' — the same ultimate root as English 'mantle'. Scholars still debate the exact direction of borrowing between Aramaic, Greek, and Arabic, but all three point back to the same late-antique Mediterranean cloth. Modern Hebrew moved on to מטפחת, leaving מנדיל behind as the old word, tied around a hand much like its Arabic cousin.
Related Hebrew word:מנדילmandilمَنْدِيل
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 mandīl.
In a phrase
a paper tissue
Plural
broken plural CaCāCīC