חָרָא (khará) — shit
Etymology
The word חָרָא is the oldest Hebrew word for excrement and the one shared most directly with the Semitic sister languages of Hebrew — Aramaic and Arabic both have cognate forms with the same meaning. Its earliest attested appearance is in 2 Kings 18:27, set in 701 BCE during Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem. When King Hezekiah's advisers asked Sennacherib's envoy to speak Aramaic rather than Hebrew so the common people on the city wall would not understand, the envoy refused, saying he had been sent specifically to address the people — to tell them they would have to "eat their own חַרְאֵיהֶם and drink their own [urine]." The shock value was the point: he spoke Hebrew so the soldiers on the wall would understand every crude word.
In later generations the word came to be regarded as too coarse to pronounce publicly, and rabbinic tradition established that wherever חראיהם appears in the biblical text, readers should substitute the euphemism צוֹאָתָם (from the root צ.ו.א, meaning filth or contamination). This liturgical substitution continues in synagogue Torah readings to this day. The substituted word צוֹאָה itself derives from an ancient Semitic root for dirt and impurity, shared by Hebrew and Aramaic; a closely related form, צֵאָה, appears as early as the Babylonian exile in Ezekiel 4:12.
The Talmudic-era vocabulary for excrement was rich. חרא had dropped from polite use, but the Sages used גָּלָל (from גַּל, a heap — also found in Arabic galla), פֶּרֶשׁ (with Akkadian cognate paršu and Aramaic partā; refers more specifically to intestinal contents in some biblical contexts, e.g., Exodus 29:14), צוֹאָה, and the Aramaic word רְעִי. Misidentifying the root, the Sages also read the word רֵאִי into a difficult verse of Nahum (3:6) where the text actually has a different word, adding both רעי and ראי to the synonym list.
During the Middle Ages and early modern period, most Jewish discourse about excrement happened in everyday vernacular languages (Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish, Arabic, German), not in Hebrew, which was reserved for religious and learned writing. The Haskalah (late 18th–19th centuries) revived secular Hebrew prose and with it the need for words in this register; writers used primarily צוֹאָה and גָּלָל. The writer Mendele Mocher Sforim in his 1862 natural history Toldot HaTeva used a wider range including גָּלָל, צוֹאָה, פֶּרֶשׁ, רְעִי, and צִפְעֵי בָּקָר (cow chips), plus a single instance of חרא.
In modern colloquial Israeli Hebrew, חָרָא was restored — almost certainly under the influence of Arabic, which preserved the same word in daily use, and Arabic-speaking Jewish communities brought it back into the vernacular. The word is now the standard popular vulgar term for excrement. From the same Arabic influence, the term חִרְבּוּן was coined among early students at the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv. German-origin קָקִי (from Kacke) entered Hebrew as the child-friendly register.
Key Quotes
"הֲלֹא עַל הָאֲנָשִׁים הַיֹּשְׁבִים עַל הַחֹמָה לֶאֱכֹל אֶת חַרְאֵיהֶם" — מלכים ב' י"ח, כ"ז (Sennacherib's envoy, 701 BCE)
"וְזֵרִיתִי פֶרֶשׁ עַל פְּנֵיכֶם" — מלאכי ב', ג'
Timeline
- 701 BCE: חַרְאֵיהֶם appears in 2 Kings 18:27 (Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem)
- Babylonian exile (6th c. BCE): Ezekiel uses צֵאָה as a euphemism (Ezekiel 4:12)
- Talmudic period: חרא falls from polite use; גָּלָל, פֶּרֶשׁ, צוֹאָה, רְעִי used instead
- Masoretic tradition: Liturgical rule established to read צוֹאָתָם wherever חָרָא appears
- 1862: Mendele Mocher Sforim uses the full range of terms in secular Hebrew prose
- Early 20th century: חָרָא re-enters Israeli Hebrew colloquial usage, influenced by Arabic
- 20th century: חִרְבּוּן coined among Herzliya Gymnasium students; קָקִי adopted from German for child register
Related Words
- צוֹאָה — feces (formal/medical Hebrew; from root צ.ו.א, "filth"); Masoretic substitute for חרא
- גָּלָל / גָּלָלִים — dung (Talmudic; from גַּל, "heap")
- פֶּרֶשׁ — intestinal contents/dung (biblical; with Akkadian cognate)
- רְעִי — excrement (Aramaic word used by the Sages)
- חִרְבּוּן — derived slang term, coined at the Herzliya Gymnasium
- קָקִי — child-register term (from German Kacke)