כַּסְפּוֹמַט (kaspomat) — ATM (automated teller machine)
Etymology
The word כַּסְפּוֹמַט is a hybrid portmanteau, combining a biblical Hebrew root with a classical Greek suffix. It is linguistically unusual — what the column calls "a strange creature, a portmanteau made of mixed fabric [שַׁעַטְנֵז] with a Hebrew beginning and a Greek end."
The first part, כֶּסֶף, is the ancient Hebrew and Semitic word for silver and, by extension, money in general. It appears throughout the Bible and has been in continuous use for three millennia. The second part, -omat, derives ultimately from the Greek automatos (αὐτόματος), meaning "self-acting, acting on its own will," itself a compound of auto- ("self") + mēma ("will, desire"). This Greek suffix became a productive morpheme in modern European languages to denote automatic machines, as in Automat, Bankomat, and similar coinages.
The history of the word maps onto the history of ATMs in Israel. The first ATM in the world was installed outside a Barclays Bank branch in north London in the summer of 1967, developed by De La Rue. Israel's first ATM was inaugurated by Bank Leumi outside its branch at 100 Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv in the summer of 1970 at midnight after the premiere at a nearby theater. Bank Leumi called it bankomat, after the Swedish company Bankomat (founded 1968), which was itself a blend of bank + automat. Bank Discount followed in the summer of 1973 with its own diskontōmat. Bank Hapoalim joined in 1976 with a machine it called bankat. The International Bank inaugurated its first snifōmat in Rehovot that same year.
In 1977, Bank Leumi and Bank Discount decided to merge their ATM networks and needed a unified name. Bank Discount turned to advertising copywriter Reuven Weimer. "Right away I said 'kaspomat,'" Weimer later recalled in an interview with Ha'aretz Magazine. When asked if he had other suggestions, he said no: "People will understand immediately what you mean." The bank took the proposal to the advertising agency Dachaf, which organized a public competition for a name. "In the end they chose kaspomat," Weimer said with satisfaction. After 1977, כַּסְפּוֹמַט displaced all competing terms from the Israeli lexicon — with the sole exception that Bank Hapoalim's machines still carry their old name, a small island of resistance.
Weimer was also responsible for two other coinages that entered standard Hebrew: מָקוֹן (online, from מוּקְנָט, later spelled מְקֻוָּן) and פְּלֶאפוֹן (mobile phone, from פֶּלֶא + פוֹן).
Key Quotes
"ישר אמרתי ׳כספומט׳... אנשים יבינו מיד למה אתה מתכוון" — Reuven Weimer, interview with Ha'aretz Magazine (recalling the 1977 naming)
Timeline
- Summer 1967: World's first ATM installed by De La Rue outside Barclays Bank in London
- Summer 1970: Israel's first ATM (bankomat) inaugurated by Bank Leumi on Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv
- 1968: Swedish company Bankomat founded, lending its name to the Israeli machine
- Summer 1973: Bank Discount inaugurates the diskontōmat
- 1976: Bank Hapoalim introduces the bankat; International Bank introduces the snifōmat
- 1977: Reuven Weimer coins כַּסְפּוֹמַט for the joint Leumi–Discount network; word spreads to replace all competitors
Related Words
- כֶּסֶף — silver, money (the Hebrew root)
- אוֹטוֹמָט — automat (the Greek-origin suffix)
- בַּנְקוֹמַט — bankomat (Bank Leumi's original name, 1970)
- מָקוֹן / מְקֻוָּן — online (another Weimer coinage)
- פְּלֶאפוֹן — mobile phone (another Weimer coinage)