שַׁדְכָן (shadkhan) — stapler; matchmaker
Etymology
The word shadkhan has a long history as a term for a Jewish matchmaker — a professional who arranges marriages between families. It derives from the Aramaic root shin-dalet-kaf, related to the Aramaic word shidukha (betrothal). The matchmaker was a fixture of traditional Jewish community life, and the word passed naturally into modern Hebrew.
The stapler was invented by the American E.H. Hotchkiss Company in 1895 — the first model that used a strip of pre-loaded staples rather than requiring individual loading for each use. When the device reached Palestine (by at least 1937, when the Jewish National Fund archive had one), it had no Hebrew name. The Va'ad ha-Lashon (Language Committee) briefly discussed the question in 1937 when its secretary Ze'ev Ben-Hayyim was asked at the JNF archive what to call "a machine for attaching papers with clips." The committee decided on mekhonnat hekhber (joining machine), but this was never published or adopted.
A series of competing coinages followed over the next four decades. David Ettinger's 1943 illustrated dictionary Sefatenu be-Marot called it mekhonnat klivah (from kilev, a rare mishnaic word for a type of stitch). The analogy was with Russian sshivatel (stapler, from a verb for "joining by sewing"), translated into Hebrew using a rare biblical word for stitching. Subsequent proposals included makhber, maftzel, mahek hiduk, makhlev, and others — each with its own advocate but none achieving dominance. In 1981, the Academy's Office Terminology Committee formally approved makhlev and published it.
Meanwhile, in December 1975, soldier Orna Meshiah wrote to the Academy asking for the Hebrew name for "a machine that joins documents with a staple," and listed the names she had already heard: makhber, metsaref, shadkhan, sakhekhet. Her letter is the first documented instance of shadkhan being used for the stapler — a leap of wit by some unknown speaker, based on the idea that the matchmaker joins two parties together, just as the stapler joins two sheets of paper. The Academy's response pointed her to makhlev, but shadkhan spread through popular usage like wildfire.
The Academy's formally approved term makhlev is used by almost no one. Shadkhan is the universally understood word for the office stapler in modern Hebrew — a case of spontaneous popular coinage triumphing over official prescription.
Key Quotes
"ברצוני לשאול, שם של מכשיר משרדי שעד כה שמעתי הרבה שמות כגון: 'מחבר' 'מצרף' 'שדכן' (מכשיר שמצרף מסמכים בסיכה)" — Orna Meshiah, letter to the Academy, December 1975
"בקרוב יאושר שמו מכלב. הפעולה תהיה כליבה. מכאן ואילך תהיי אפוא מכליבה במכלב" — Shoshana Bahat, Academy of the Hebrew Language, 1981
Timeline
- 1895: E.H. Hotchkiss Company produces the first strip-loading stapler
- 1937: First documented office stapler in Palestine (JNF archive); Va'ad ha-Lashon coins mekhonnat hekhber (never published)
- 1940: David Ettinger proposes mekhonnat klivah in his illustrated dictionary
- 1943: Sefatenu be-Marot published with mekhonnat klivah
- 1954: Ruti Shlomi asks linguist Ali Eitan; gets answer mekhonnat haklavah
- 1957: Yitzhak Peretz in Davar proposes makhber
- 1964: Three Bnei Brak residents propose maftzel to the Academy; rejected
- 1967: Two competing dictionaries: one with makhlev, one with mekhonnat hiduk
- December 1975: Orna Meshiah's letter documents shadkhan as a name for the stapler
- 1980: Academy establishes Office Terminology Committee
- June 1981: Academy plenum approves makhlev as the official term
- Present: Shadkhan dominates popular usage; makhlev barely used
Related Words
- שִׁדּוּךְ — a match (arranged marriage); from the same root as shadkhan
- מַכְלֵב — the Academy's approved term for stapler (from kilev, mishnaic stitching)
- מְהַדֵּק — paper clip (the Academy's approved term; this one did take hold)
- סִיכָּה — pin, staple; variants like sakhekhet and mesayekhet also circulated