How to say "hat" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaninghat
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
qubbaʿaקבעה
قبعة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
kovaكُوڤَا
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic root
ق-ب-عThe Bible itself spells this hat both ways — Goliath wears a כּוֹבַע but David is handed a קוֹבַע in the very same chapter (1 Samuel 17) — and that ק/כ wobble is the classic fingerprint of an ancient loanword, possibly Anatolian (compare Hittite kupaḫḫi 'helmet'). Arabic qubbaʿa is traditionally connected to the same wandering headgear, though linguists debate the exact path.
Related Hebrew word:קובעkovaكُوڤَا
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
The everyday word for a brimmed Western-style hat, from Italian berretta; a knitted cap or skullcap is ṭāʾiyye.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo, too, says burnēṭa.
In a phrase
a wool hat
Plural
sound feminine plural -āt