Zoom Words in Hebrew
In our Hebrew Literature and Culture class with Mrs Rozenbloom this year, we have been studying the evolution of the Hebrew language. We learned about how Eliezer Ben Yehuda invented new Hebrew words in the late 1800s and how the Academy of the Hebrew Language continues to add to the language today. Hebrew is a living and evolving language so it is crucial that the vocabulary matches the words used during different time periods. As we are in the middle of a pandemic and have switched all of our classes to Zoom, our class felt like it was important to create Hebrew words for the different Zoom functions that have become a part of our daily vocabulary.
When first thinking about how we wanted to approach creating new words for the Hebrew language, we started simple. We wanted to find a word for the host of the Zoom call. In Hebrew the word אורחים (orchim) means “guests” and someone who hosts guests is called a מארח (meareach). The host of a Zoom meeting is also the person who invites and hosts all the participants of the meeting. Therefore, we decided that the word מארח (Meareach) can be applied here as well and translated as “Zoom host.” Additionally, “co-host” we translated as “מארח משותף” (meareach meshutaf), which directly translates to “shared host.”
Another word there wasn’t a good translation for was “participants.” We translated “host” as “מארח” (meareach) and the Hebrew word for “guest” is “אורח” (oreach), and they both come from the same root word. We wanted to connect these two, and decided that “אורח” works for “participants” as well.
To the word “room,” which is חדר (cheder) in Hebrew, we added ון (on) at the end to give it the suffix that it needed to become חדרון (Chadron) which we translated as “breakout room.” The suffix “ון” signifies something big rather than small. For instance, the word מסר (meser) is a message and the word מסרון (misron), which means “text message,” is the same word with the same suffix at the end. We used similar logic for a translation for “chat.” The word for “conversation” in Hebrew is “שיחה” (sicha), and we figured that since a chat is kind of like a mini-conversation, a good word for it would be “שיחון” (sichon).
Another word that we realized comes up a lot was the word “mute” because people are constantly either told to stay on mute or told that they are, in fact, on mute as they begin to speak. We thought using the root שתק (shatak), which means silence, is a good way to explain what happens when you mute yourself. So instead of telling someone, “you’re on mute,” you can also say, “אתה בהשתק” (ata beheshtek). You can also tell someone to “להשתיק” (lehashteek) their microphone.
In the Hebrew language, many words are used as verbs, whereas in English it would take a few words to get the same concept across. For example, the word “להתלבש” (leheetlabesh) means “to get dressed”-- three words in English compared to one in Hebrew. We thought it would make sense to have a way to say you are going to go on a Zoom call, or are in the middle of one. We used the structure of a בניין (beenyan) — a way Hebrew verbs are built — called התפעל (heetpael) and made זום (Zoom) a root word in order to create the word “להזדוום” (lehizdaven). If you are going to go on a Zoom call later, you can say “אזדוום” (azdaven), and if someone is asking if you’re busy during a Zoom call, you can say that you are “מזדוום” (mezdaven).
Zoom Hebrew Dictionary
Host - מארח (Meoreach)
Co Host - מארח משותף (Meoreach Meshutaf)
Participant - אורח (Oreach)
Breakout Room - חדרון (Chadron)
Chat Box - שיחון (Sichon)
To Mute (your Microphone) - להשתיק (Le-hashtik)
To Zoom - להזדוום (Le-Hizdaven)
The goal for this project is to publicize these new Hebrew words and integrate them into the Hebrew language (or at least the Hebrew language that is spoken at JCHS). We hope that you begin to use these words both in and out of your Zoom calls!
