מִקְלֶדֶת

The word "מִקְלֶדֶת" (mikledet) evolved to become the Hebrew term for computer keyboard, but in the 1970s, this device was called "לוּחַ מַקֵּשִׁים" (luach makeshim, "key board"), a calque of the English term "keyboard." The word "מִקְלֶדֶת" itself was coined in 1952 by the Music Terminology Committee of the Hebrew Language Committee, but then it was used to describe the system of keys in a piano and similar instruments. The word was derived from "קְלִיד" (klid), which was also established in 1952 as the Hebrew term for piano keys, replacing the previous term "מַקֵּשׁ" (makesh) that was set in 1945. The word "קְלִיד" was borrowed from the Aramaic word "אַקְלִידָא" (aklida), meaning "key," which appears in the Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 56a). Interestingly, the Aramaic word itself is borrowed from the ancient Greek word "κλαβίς" (klavis, "key"), which is also the source of the Latin word "clavis" and the Yiddish word "klavish." In the 1960s, as computer use developed, the word "מִקְלֶדֶת" began to be applied to the computer keyboard as well, and gradually pushed out the term "לוח מקשים." An early example of such use can be found in a report in the newspaper "LaMerhav" in 1963 about a computer for translation from Chinese to English. With the expansion of computer use in the 1970s and the establishment of the term "מִקְלֶדֶת," the verbs "הִקְלִיד" (hiklid, active) and "הֻקְלַד" (huklad, passive) were also derived from it, as well as the action noun "הַקְלָדָה" (haklada), which for a time was also called "קְלִידָה" (klida).