How to say "nail (fastener)" in Arabic
CognateMeaningnail (fastener)
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
mismārמסמאר
مسمار
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
masmerمَاسْمِر
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
س-م-رHebrew root
ס-מ-רA shared Semitic root, letter for letter (ס↔س, מ↔م, ר↔ر) — biblical Hebrew's מסמרות (Jeremiah 10:4, idols fastened 'with nails') and Arabic's mismār both build the same instrument-noun pattern on ס-מ-ר/س-م-ر, a root meaning roughly 'to bristle, stand up straight.' The word is also well attested in Aramaic (מַסְמְרָא), which likely helped keep it current in later Hebrew.
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 musmār.
In a phrase
a long nail
Plural
broken plural maCāCīC — like مِصْبَاح→مَصَابِيح