how to say “to embed” in Hebrew

The resurrection of Hebrew as a spoken language began over 100 years ago, but it didn’t stop then – new words enter the language all the time. Usually they fly in from the English-speaking west – words like telephone and information.

When such words land in Tel Aviv they’re called by their foreign names, just with an Israeli accent: טלפון

and אינפורמציה

. Some of them, though, eventually make their way to Jerusalem, where the Academy of the Hebrew Language sits, and convert to proper Hebrew. For example, אינפורמציה has given way to מידע

– information, which uses the root י.ד.ע

meaning knowledge to produce this 20th-century word authentic-Hebrew word.

A 21st-century example is to embed, which many Israelis – especially those in high tech – translate as לאמבד

.

For example:

לא, לא צריך לקסטם את הקוד – פשוט תאמבד אותו בעמוד.

No, you don’t need to customize the code – just embed it in the page.

But more and more, the proper-Hebrew version – להטמיע

– is coming into use:

איך מטמיעים סרטון של יוטיוב?

How do you embed a YouTube video?

להטמיע a הפעיל verb of the root ט.מ.ע

, which is close to the root ט.מ.נ

. meaning to hide or to place.