# Hebrew translation help

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-translation-help/958387>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 25, 2022, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-translation-help/958387 "2022-01-25T22:34:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-translation-help/958387/21 "2022-01-29T00:32:56Z")

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> [@susan](#):
>
> Yup. It makes it easier to spot some Arabic loan words!

Like the Hebrew word for pistachio, “_Fistuk_”.

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-translation-help/958387/22 "2022-01-29T05:47:43Z")

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If you go by the dictionary, the _Hebrew_ word is “boten” or “botneh”, fruit of the “botna” (Pistacia vera), cf. Akkadian “butnu”, Arabic “butm(un)”, with a remark that in the modern spoken language this can refer to ground-nuts. Arabic “fustuq” is ultimately of Persian origin (“pistak”)

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**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-translation-help/958387/23 "2022-01-29T06:10:19Z")

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I only ever heard “fistuk” in Israel. Hebrew for apricot is “mishmesh,” but I only ever heard “mishmish,” which is Arabic.

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-translation-help/958387/24 "2022-01-29T07:49:12Z")

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> [@DPRK](#):
>
> If you go by the dictionary, the _Hebrew_ word is “boten” or “botneh”, fruit of the “botna” (Pistacia vera), cf. Akkadian “butnu”, Arabic “butm(un)”, with a remark that in the modern spoken language this can refer to ground-nuts. Arabic “fustuq” is ultimately of Persian origin (“pistak”)

“Boten” means peanut. Sort of.

The word “boten” appears in the bible, and researchers are almost sure it referred to pistachios. However, over the years the meaning was lost and it was replaced in modern Hebrew with the Arabic “fistuk”. When peanuts came along, they were officially called “egoz-adama” (ground nut), but people started to refer to them as “boten”, on the ground that it was a perfectly good word that nobody was using. You still hear some protests from the prescriptivists about it (the descriptivist/prescriptivist debate is particularly fierce in Hebrew), but as of now, the descriptivists are winning, as they always do. If you go to a pitzuchia (nut store) and ask for “botnim”, they’ll give you peanuts.

> [@susan](#):
>
> I only ever heard “fistuk” in Israel. Hebrew for apricot is “mishmesh,” but I only ever heard “mishmish,” which is Arabic.

As is often the case, “mishmesh” is the “formal” and “correct” way of saying the word, while “mishmish” is what people actually use.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-translation-help/958387/25 "2022-01-29T14:22:20Z")

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Am I the only one amused that this thread managed to drift to the topic of pistachios, through two different routes?

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**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-translation-help/958387/26 "2022-01-31T20:17:58Z")

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Mmmmm, pistachios!

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