How to say "knife" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningknife
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
sikkīnסכין
سكين
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
sakinسَاكِين
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic root
س-ك-نHebrew סכין came in through Aramaic סכינא — Proverbs 23:2 already has שכין — and Arabic sikkīn is the same Semitic word. One of the rare pairs where the two languages still sound almost identical.
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
Usually said as a feminine: sikkīne.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Usually said as a feminine: sikkīna.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
A different word: mūs is the everyday Darija knife.
In a phrase
He cut the bread with the knife.
Plural
broken plural CaCāCīC — like شُبَّاك→شَبَابِيك
The root family
س-ك-نש-כ-ן· dwelling
The dwelling root of שכן and שכונה: sakana is שכן, and maskan "residence" is the same shape as משכן, the Tabernacle — God's dwelling. A bonus twin: Israeli מסכן "poor thing" and Arabic miskīn are one word, an ancient loan (ultimately Akkadian muškēnu) that both languages folded into this root. Even the sukūn diacritic belongs here — the mark of a consonant at rest.
- سَكَنَ sakanahe lived (in), dweltשָׁכַןhe dwelt
- سَاكِن sākinresident; living (in)שָׁכֵןneighbor
- سُكَّان sukkāninhabitants, populationשְׁכֵנִיםneighbors
- مَسْكَن maskandwelling, residenceמִשְׁכָּןthe Tabernacle — God's dwelling
- مِسْكِين miskīnpoor, pitifulמִסְכֵּןpoor thing — the same ancient loanword
- سُكُون sukūnstillness; the sukūn (no-vowel) mark