how do you say “invention” in Hebrew?

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/המצאה-1.m4a” /]הַמְצָאָה

When I was growing up, some kids wanted to be firemen, others wanted to be sports stars. Most of the time, I wanted to be a movie director. But after watching episodes of Mr. Wizard, sometimes I also wanted to be an inventor.

An invention, in Hebrew, is a ממציא[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/המצאה-2.m4a” /] if he’s a male and a ממציאה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/המצאה-3.m4a” /] if she’s a female. An invention is a המצאה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/המצאה-1.m4a” /].

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/המצאה-4.m4a” /]אני תמיד אוהב לשמוע על המצאות מדעיות.

I (a male) always love hearing about scientific inventions.

המצאה derives from the active-causative verb להמציא[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/המצאה-5.m4a” /] – to invent. להמציא also means to make up or to fabricate, as in:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/המצאה-6.m4a” /]את סתם ממציאה סיפורים.

You (a female) are just making up stories.

The root of all these words is מ.צ.א[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/המצאה-7.m4a” /] meaning find: an invention is sort of a finding, well, at least if it’s not fabricated.