how to say “hairbrush” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מברשת-שיער-#.m4a” /]מִבְרֶשֶׁת שֵׂעָר
The Hebrew word for brush is מברשת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מברשת-שיער-#.m4a” /]. Look at it closely. Its root is ב.ר.ש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מברשת-שיער-#.m4a” /], the same consonants as the English brush.
Does this word really have an English origin?
Yes and no. Someone – possibly Eliezer Ben Yehuda – coined the term מברשת in the late 19th century, based on foreign words like the English brush. But there is also a proper Semitic word – barāšu – from the long-extinct Akkadian language, a cousin of Hebrew – which meant to pluck wool (source – ויקימילון).
Anyway, today מברשת is a brush, so that מברשת שיניים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מברשת-שיער-#.m4a” /] is a toothbrush, and מברשת שיער[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מברשת-שיער-#.m4a” /] is a hairbrush.
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מברשת-שיער-#.m4a” /]מוכרים מברשות שיער בזול בחנות ליד הבית שלי.
They sell hairbrushes for cheap at the store next to my house.
(Not really, this was just an example.)
