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 →