How to say "to jump, leap" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningto jump, leap
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
wathabaות'ב
وثب
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
kafatsكَافَاتْس
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
و-ث-بHebrew root
י-ש-בRun the regular shifts — init و↔י, ث↔ש, ب↔ב — and وثب maps exactly onto Hebrew י-ש-ב. This is a real shared root, not a coincidental look-alike: Akkadian (w)ašābu and Hebrew ישב both mean 'to sit, settle, dwell,' and Old South Arabian wtb even means 'to take one's seat, be enthroned' — but Classical Arabic wathaba pivoted the same root the other way, from settling down to launching up. One old root for 'planting yourself somewhere,' split between sitting and leaping.
Related Hebrew word:ישבyashavيَاشَاڤ
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
Spoken Levantine almost always says naṭṭ for 'jump'; wathaba is Classical and bookish.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo says naṭṭ too.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's 'to jump' is neqqez.
In a phrase
The cat jumped onto the table