מָלַאנְתַּלָּפִים

The word "מָלַאנְתַּלָּפִים" (malantalafilm) is a humorous Hebrew slang word denoting a particularly large quantity. It was created by replacing the word "עֲשֶׂרֶת" (aseret, "ten") in the quantity "עֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים" (aseret alafim, "ten thousand") with the word "מָלַאן" (malan), a loan word from Arabic meaning "full" or "a lot." The word "malan" is borrowed from the Arabic word "ملان" (malān, "full"), which was used in some dialects of spoken Arabic also in the meaning of "a lot." A relatively early documentation of the use of the word "malan" in Hebrew can be found in Asher Barash's book "Gardeners" (1944), where the author puts in the mouth of a Yemenite girl in Tel Aviv the words "She would buy me 'malan' (a lot) gifts." Rafael Saban in his book "Dictionary of Israeli Slang" (1965) notes the use of "malan" in Hebrew and adds that this use parallels the use of the word in spoken Arabic. The compound word "malantalafilm" was probably created in the 1970s, and there is evidence of its use in an article by Michal Miron published in "Maariv" in 1979: "He would send me at the end of each letter malantalafilm kisses." Similar words were created at the same time, such as "malantzilionim," which combines "malan" with "millions."