how to say “a painting” and “a drawing” in Hebrew
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צִיּוּר
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As a child, I loved to draw. So did my Hebrew teacher, my father. So among my first verbs growing up was to draw in English and לְצַיֵּר (leh-tsah-YEHR) in Hebrew. לצייר also means to paint a picture (not a building – that’s לִצְבּוֹע – leets-BOH-ah).
I don’t know where this word comes from exactly, though I imagine it’s an adaptation of the verb to create – לִיצוֹר (lee-TSOHR), whose root is י.צ.ר (y.ts.r) – while the root of לצייר, strictly speaking, is צ.י.ר (ts.y.r).
So with the active-intensive פיעל verb, to draw – לצייר – we get the noun, a drawing or a painting – צִיּוּר (tsee-YOOR).
