how to say “diagnosis” in Hebrew
The links are now corrected in the online version of yesterday’s Dose of Hebrew, which you can find here.
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אִבְחוּן
In Biblical times, diagnosis was done not by medical professionals (these did not exist), but rather by spiritual leaders. And since they didn’t exactly do what we call today diagnosis, Modern Hebrew had to come up with a new word for it.
That word is אִבְחוּן
listen and repeat when referring to a diagnosis or the act of diagnosing. Likewise, to diagnose is לְאַבְחֵן listen and repeat, an active-intensive verb.For example:
הַיֶּלֶד עָבַר אִבְחוּן אֵצֶל הָרוֹפֵא.
The child underwent diagnosis with the physician.
and
הָרוֹפֵא אִבְחֵן אֶת הַיֶּלֶד.
The physician diagnosed the child.
הָרוֹפֵא הִגִּישׁ אֶת אַבְחָנָתוֹ לַצֶּוֶת.
The physician submitted his diagnosis to the team.
The root of all of these is א.ב.ח.נ (a.b.kh.n), which itself derives from the more basic root ב.ח.נ (b.kh.n) meaning testing.
