רַכְבָּל (rakhval) — cable car; aerial tramway
Etymology
The word רַכְבָּל is a portmanteau — termed in Hebrew a הֶלְחֵם — formed by fusing two words with the loss of at least one consonant. Portmanteaus are rare in classical Hebrew and in Semitic languages generally, though they grew gradually more common in twentieth-century Modern Hebrew. The pioneering modern coiner of Hebrew portmanteaus was Yosef Klausner, who proposed the form מִגְדַּלּוֹר (lighthouse, from מגדל + אור) in 1896 and קַרְנַף (rhinoceros, from קֶרֶן + אַף) in 1900. Further portmanteaus followed across the century: דַּחְפּוֹר (bulldozer), רַמְזוֹר (traffic light, 1950), מַחֲזֶמֶר (musical, 1952), שְׁמַרְטַף (babysitter, 1958), עַרְפִּיחַ (smog, 1967), and מִדְרְחוֹב (pedestrian street, 1974).
The word רַכְבָּל was coined in 1959 by the Israeli Ministry of Transport. A Ma'ariv report from April of that year stated that "the management decided to call the underground railway in Haifa 'rakhval', which is a combination of the words 'rakevet' (train) and 'kevel' (cable)." This explanation was technically imprecise: the word was actually built from רֶכֶב (vehicle) rather than רַכֶּבֶת (train), which the ministry itself recognized. The vehicle in question — the Haifa Carmelit — is in fact a funicular, not a railway. Its carriages are drawn by cable with the descending car serving as counterweight for the ascending one, and the motor sits at the upper station. The founding ministerial order of June 1959, signed by Transport Minister Moshe Carmel, defined the term correctly as "a vehicle drawn by a mechanically-powered cable, whose track passes through a tunnel within a municipality, used or intended for the conveyance of persons or goods."
Public resistance to the name was immediate. One correspondent argued in Ma'ariv that the word was "artificial, heavy, and without parallel in Hebrew," proposing כַּבְלִית instead. Haifa mayor Abba Hushi rejected the ministry's decision and held his own naming competition; by September 1959 the municipality chose כַּרְמֶלִית (Carmelit), a play on Mount Carmel and the rail suffix. Yet רַכְבָּל did not disappear. When Israel's first aerial cable car was installed over the Tel Aviv exhibition grounds in 1962, a competition among 585 proposals gave the official nod to רָחָף (hoverer), but the public persistently called the vehicle רַכְבָּל. The name attached equally to the Masada cable car installed the following year. The Academy of the Hebrew Language ratified the slightly altered vocalization רַכֶּבֶל as the standard form in 1993, yet the original popular form רַכְבָּל remains the dominant everyday usage.
Key Quotes
"ההנהלה החליטה לקרוא את הרכבת התחתית בחיפה בשם 'רכבל', שהוא צרוף המלים 'רכבת וכבל'." — Ma'ariv, April 1959
"המונח 'רכבל' — צירוף של 'רכבת' ו'כבל' — לרכבת התחתית בחיפה, הוא מלאכותי, כבד, ואין לו אח בעברית." — Dr. Ya'akov El'ami, letter to Ma'ariv, July 1959
"'רכבל' זר לרוח הלשון, צורם את האוזן ואין לו סיכויים להקלט." — anonymous column, Ha'aretz, 1959
Timeline
- 1896: Yosef Klausner coins מִגְדַּלּוֹר, the first modern Hebrew portmanteau
- 1959: Ministry of Transport coins רַכְבָּל for the Haifa funicular
- 1959: Haifa municipality rejects the name; chooses כַּרְמֶלִית instead
- 1962: First aerial cable car in Israel (Tel Aviv); management opts for רָחָף, public uses רַכְבָּל
- 1963: Masada cable car also called רַכְבָּל by the public
- 1968: Rosh Hanikra cable car inaugurated; vocalization רַכֶּבֶל crystallizes
- 1993: Academy of the Hebrew Language ratifies רַכֶּבֶל as the standard form
Related Words
- הֶלְחֵם — portmanteau (the morphological process that created the word)
- כַּרְמֶלִית — the Haifa funicular's actual official name
- מִגְדַּלּוֹר — lighthouse (first modern Hebrew portmanteau, 1896)
- קַרְנַף — rhinoceros (second portmanteau, 1900)
- רַמְזוֹר — traffic light (portmanteau, 1950)
- עַרְפִּיחַ — smog (portmanteau of עֲרָפֶל + פִּיחַ)
- מִדְרְחוֹב — pedestrian street (portmanteau, 1974)