How to say "lighter (fire-striker)" in Arabic
CognateMeaninglighter (fire-striker)
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
qaddāḥaקדאחה
قداحة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
matsitمَاتْسِيت
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ق-د-حHebrew root
ק-ד-חHebrew's everyday word for lighter, מצית, is unrelated — but the Arabic word is transparent: qaddāḥa, 'the fire-striker,' from qadaḥa, 'to strike sparks, bore, kindle.' Hebrew's own קדח means exactly that (and gives us קדחת, 'fever' — the burning). Even אקדח, 'pistol,' is built on this root: in Isaiah 54:12, אַבְנֵי אֶקְדָּח are sparkling, fiery gems, and Modern Hebrew reused the old word for a gun that strikes fire.
Related Hebrew word:קדחkadakhكَادَاخ
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's lighter is a wallāʿa, from walla, to light.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
From French briquet: brīki.
In a phrase
He lit the cigarette with the lighter.
Plural
sound plural -āt