How to say "policeman" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningpoliceman
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
shurṭīשרטי
شرطي
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
shoterشُوتِر
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ش-ر-طHebrew root
ש-ר-טBy the traditional account the first shurṭa were elite troops with distinguishing marks — from sharaṭa 'to incise, mark', cognate with Hebrew שרט 'scratch' (Arabic ش regularly matches Hebrew sin שׂ). The resemblance to שוטר is a happy accident: that root, ש-ט-ר 'keep records', answers instead to Arabic سَطَّرَ 'to write lines'.
Related Hebrew word:שרטsaratسَارَات
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
On the street the police are simply il-bolīs, from French.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
The police in Cairo are il-bulīs; a single officer is ẓābiṭ or ʿaskari.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
A Moroccan policeman is a bolīsi; the force is l-bolīs.
In a phrase
The policeman is in the street.
Plural
sound masculine plural -ūn; the force as a whole is الشُّرْطَة ash-shurṭa