Hebrew word of the Week: nashyanut

Modern languages have many new words, such as racism, feminism, sexism, etc., relating to modern societal trends. Feminism is prominent among them. This global trend has its “glocal” version in Israel and in Hebrew. In particular, the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and ’70s, with its emphasis on unity and sisterhood, is reflected by the Hebrew word nashyanut.

While the English term (like in French, Italian, etc.) is derived from the Latin femina “woman” (singular), the Hebrew one is from nashim “women” (plural of ishshah “woman”), plus the suffix –an, which designates “one who has a certain skill or quality,” such as safran “librarian,” madde‘an “scientist,” ‘atslan “lazy” or rashlan “sloppy.” To create an abstract noun, or one ending with -ism (or -ship, -ness), Hebrew uses the suffix -ut, such as shamranut “conservatism,” badlanut “isolationism” or rashlanut “sloppiness.”  

Other more or less recent –isms include giz’anut “racism,” minanut “sexism” and gilanut “agism.” “Misogyny” is mizogenyah (היניגוזימ) (or sin’at nashim).

Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA.