how to say “sculpting” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/פיסול-#.m4a” /]פִּסּוּל
If you’ve read some of the Bible in Hebrew, you are almost certainly familiar with the word פסל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/פיסול-#.m4a” /] – graven image or statue. There, the simple פעל verb לפסול[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/פיסול-#.m4a” /] means to chisel, as in:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/פיסול-#.m4a” /]פְּסָל לְךָ שְׁנֵי לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים כָּרִאשֹׁנִים (שמות ל”ד, א’)
Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones (Exodus 34:1)
But since the Bible, the word פסול[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/פיסול-#.m4a” /] came into Hebrew, probably via Aramaic. פסול means a defect, and לפסול came to mean to disqualify.
Thus the modern word for to sculpt is not the simple verb לפסול, but the intensive פיעל verb לפסל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/פיסול-#.m4a” /]. And sculpting or the activity of scultpure? That’s פיסול.
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/פיסול-#.m4a” /]היא רשמה את הילדים לחוג פיסול.
She signed the kids up for a sculpture class.