How to say "cotton" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningcotton
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
قُطْن
quṭnקטן
قطن
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
כותנה
kutnaكُوتْنَا
How the two words are related
Loanword
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic root
ق-ط-نEuropean cotton — English cotton, Spanish algodón (al-quṭn!) — is Arabic quṭn on tour. Modern Hebrew כותנה was borrowed from the Arabic too, its shape smoothed toward biblical כֻּתֹּנֶת 'tunic' (Joseph's coat); whether quṭn is ultimately kin to that ancient tunic word — which also gave Greek chiton — is still debated among linguists.
Related Hebrew word:כתונתkutonetكُتُونِت
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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
قُطْن
ʾuṭnאטןCairo turns the qāf into a glottal stop: ʾuṭn.
In a phrase
قَمِيص مِنَ الْقُطْن
qamīṣ mina l-quṭnקמיץ מן אל-קטןa cotton shirt