משכנתא
mash-kan-TA
Mortgage.
What does it literally mean, and what do Israelis actually mean?
What it literally means
Literal: "the thing made to dwell [as security]" (root ש.כ.נ, "dwell").
לקחנו משכנתא לשלושים שנה.Lakachnu mashkanta le-shloshim shana.We took a thirty-year mortgage.
What Israelis actually mean
A home mortgage.
הבנק אישר להם משכנתא על הדירה החדשה.Ha-bank isher lahem mashkanta al ha-dira ha-chadasha.The bank approved their mortgage on the new apartment.
Where did this word come from?
Rabbinic legal term: Mishnah and Talmud use mashkon (משכון) for a pledge and the Aramaic mashkanta for a mortgaged property (e.g., Bava Metzia discussions of mortgaged fields). The root שכנ "dwell" also gives mishkan (the Tabernacle) and shekhina (the divine Presence), so mortgage, Tabernacle, and Presence share a root about "dwelling." Modern Hebrew (revival-era legal language, adopted in Ottoman/British-period land law) re-activated mashkanta specifically for bank mortgages.
Register & social context
Universal in banking and home-buying, the default word every Israeli learns at the bank. Not a modern coinage.
Root & morphology
Root ש.כ.נ ("dwell; settle"). משכון (mashkon, pledge) → Aramaicized מַשְׁכְּנְתָא (mashkanta, a mortgaged property).
Influences & contact languages
- Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)Biblical root ש.כ.נ "dwell", mishkan (Tabernacle), shekhina (Presence), shachen (neighbor) are its family.
- Jewish Aramaic (Ancient Judeo-Aramaic)Talmudic legal Aramaic mashkanta, "mortgaged property" (Bava Metzia).
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
לקחנו משכנתא לשלושים שנה.
Lakachnu mashkanta le-shloshim shana.
We took a thirty-year mortgage.
הבנק אישר להם משכנתא על הדירה החדשה.
Ha-bank isher lahem mashkanta al ha-dira ha-chadasha.
The bank approved their mortgage on the new apartment.
What English speakers get wrong
It's not a modern coinage, it's a Talmud-era legal word; and its root-mates (Tabernacle, divine Presence, neighbor) make it one of the best root-family stories in Hebrew.
What lives next to this word?
Sources & review
Want to use this word? Understand it inside a full sentence: Open baba →