קיבוץ
ki-BUTZ
Collective agricultural community.
What does it literally mean, and what do Israelis actually mean?
What it literally means
Literal: "gathering, ingathering."
סבתא שלי עלתה ארצה והצטרפה לקיבוץ בגליל.Savta sheli alta artza ve-hitstarefa le-kibbutz ba-Galil.My grandmother immigrated and joined a kibbutz in the Galilee.
What Israelis actually mean
The collective commune, and the exported institution-name in world languages.
בקיבוץ של פעם כולם אכלו יחד בחדר האוכל.Ba-kibbutz shel pa'am kulam achlu yachad be-chadar ha-ochel.In the old-time kibbutz everyone ate together in the dining hall.
Where did this word come from?
From root ק.ב.ץ "gather", biblical "kibbutz galuyot," the prophetic ingathering of exiles. The modern institution: the first kvutza (small commune), Degania, founded 1909/1910 on the Jordan's exit from the Sea of Galilee; the larger communal settlement form took the name kibbutz in the 1920s. The word spread worldwide as one of Hebrew's most successful exports ("kibbutz" in every major dictionary).
Register & social context
Universal; iconic. Note the hierarchy: kvutza (small intimate commune) preceded the larger kibbutz; kibbutznik = a member.
Root & morphology
Root ק.ב.ץ ("gather, collect"). קיבוץ = gathering; kvutza (קבוצה) = the smaller pre-kibbutz commune.
Influences & contact languages
- Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)Biblical root ק.ב.ץ "gather", the prophetic "ingathering of exiles" applied to Degania, 1909/1910.
- English· contactExported worldwide as "kibbutz", the Israeli collective in every dictionary.
Which places are associated with this word?
This word travels through people, not places, so we don't pin it.
See where it lives in the language constellationHear it in the wild
סבתא שלי עלתה ארצה והצטרפה לקיבוץ בגליל.
Savta sheli alta artza ve-hitstarefa le-kibbutz ba-Galil.
My grandmother immigrated and joined a kibbutz in the Galilee.
בקיבוץ של פעם כולם אכלו יחד בחדר האוכל.
Ba-kibbutz shel pa'am kulam achlu yachad be-chadar ha-ochel.
In the old-time kibbutz everyone ate together in the dining hall.
What English speakers get wrong
Not every Israeli farm is a kibbutz (moshav = cooperative smallholders; moshava = private colony); and the "kibbutznik" stereotype ( sandals, shorts, idealism) is a type, not a rule.
What lives next to this word?
See the language constellation
Follow this word into a guided story
Sources & review
Want to use this word? Understand it inside a full sentence: Open baba →