how to say “taxi” in Hebrew
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מוֹנִית
When visiting Israel, you can get with using the word taxi. But the locals use a different word – מוֹנִית .
.For example:
אֲנִי לֹא מֵבִין לָמָּה אֵין כָּאן מוֹנִיוֹת!
I don’t understand why there aren’t any taxis here!
The word מונית, just like the vehicle it labels, is an invention of the 20th century. Its root, however, goes back to Biblical times.
מונית comes from the root מ.נ.ה (m.n.h), which means counting or enumerating (the counter in the taxi is called a מוֹנֶה ). Plugged into the ל”ה variety of the active-simple verb form, the root becomes לִמְנוֹת – to count. It’s a synonym of לִסְפּוֹר , whose root ס.פ.ר (s.p.r) also bears the meaning of telling over.
). Plugged into the ל”ה variety of the active-simple verb form, the root becomes לִמְנוֹת – to count. It’s a synonym of לִסְפּוֹר , whose root ס.פ.ר (s.p.r) also bears the meaning of telling over.