Categories: Ktzat Ivrit

In Hebrew: 'Shopping'

By Ami Steinberger

|

February 4, 2013, 12 PM ET

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קְנִיּוֹת

Whereas שׁוֹפִּינְג

(shoh-ping) is still the term that refers to that activity that my mother loves so much, shopping for clothes, Israelis call general shopping - like for food and electronics - קְנִיּוֹת

.

קְנֵה פָּחוֹת, חְיֵה יוֹתֵר
buy less, live more
(picture of graffiti at a bus stop in Tel Aviv).

For example:

עָשִׂיתִי קְנִיּוֹת אֶתְמוֹל בַּסּוּפֶּר.

I went (literally, did) shopping yesterday at the supermarket.

קניות comes from the active-simple פָּעַל verb, לִקְנוֹת

, which means, in Modern Hebrew, to buy or to purchase (in Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew, it also means to possess). A single act of purchasing is a קְנִיָּה

, in Modern Hebrew (in Rabbinic literature, this is aקִנְיָן

). For example:

אֶתְמוֹל עָשִׂיתִי קְנִיָּה גְּדוֹלָה.עַכְשָׁיו יֵשׁ מַסְפִּיק אֹכֶל.

Yesterday I made a big purchase. Now there's plenty of (literally, enough) food.

From the same root of ק.נ.ה, a shopping mall is a קַנְיוֹן

. Visit Ktzat Ivrit.