How to say "since, for (a duration)" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningsince, for (a duration)
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
mundhuמנד'
منذ
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
me'azمِئَاز
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic grammarians analyze مُنْذُ as a fossilized fusion of مِن ('from' — Hebrew's own מִן, see that entry) plus إذ ('then, at that time' — the particle behind إذن idhan, hedged against Hebrew אָז in that same entry). If the etymology holds, 'since' is literally 'from-then' in both languages — Hebrew just built its own version out in the open, as two separate words, מֵ־אָז, instead of fusing them into one like Arabic did.
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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 just says min: min zamān — since long ago.
In a phrase
I've lived here for two years.