how to say “tourist” in Hebrew
תייר, תיירת
I’m writing to you from an Internet center (“centre”) in Central London. I just spent the afternoon touring with a friend. We went to the British Museum, the Wallace Collection and walked around Oxford Street. London’s a cool place. In the next couple days perhaps I’ll upload a picture/photo of my trip/journey (mixing American and British vernacular).
While the more common Hebrew word for touring is לְטַיֵּל (le-tah-YELL) – which means, literally, to travel leisurely – the word for tourist is תַּיָּר (tah-YAHR) when speaking of a male, and תַּיֶּרֶת (tah-YEH-ret) when speaking of a female.
The Biblical Hebrew word for to tour is לָתוּר (lah-TOOR). Dictionary.com claims that the English word comes from the Greek predecessor of the verb to turn. Though perhaps the Greek got it from the Hebrew… Etymologists, feel free to throw in your two cents.
