How to say "backgammon" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningbackgammon
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
nardנרד
نرد
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
sheshbeshشِشْبِش
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Nard (from Persian) is the classical/MSA word for the game, but Levantine speakers actually call it طاولة (ṭāwle, literally "table") — you'll rarely hear nard on the street. Hebrew's own game name, ששבש, is an unrelated loan: from Turkish şeşbeş, ultimately Persian shash o panj, "six-five" (the most prized opening roll), borrowed straight into Hebrew slang rather than through Arabic.
Related Hebrew word:ששבשsheshbeshشِشْبِش
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
This colloquial name — not nard — is what people actually say for the game (also just means "table").
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo also calls the game ṭāwla.
In a phrase
We played backgammon.