מַטְאֲטֵא (matateh) — broom
Etymology
The word מַטְאֲטֵא appears only once in the Bible, in Isaiah 14:23: "וְשַׂמְתִּיהָ לְמוֹרַשׁ קִפֹּד וְאַגְמֵי מָיִם וְטֵאטֵאתִיהָ בְּמַטְאֲטֵא הַשְׁמֵד" ("I will make her a possession of the hedgehog and pools of water, and I will sweep her with the broom of destruction"). Remarkably, the Talmud reports (in Rosh HaShanah 26b and Megillah 18a) that by the early 3rd century CE, Rabbi Judah the Prince and his students no longer knew what the word meant.
According to the Talmud, the sages learned the word's meaning when the Rabbi's maidservant asked her companion to bring her a מַטְאֲטֵא to sweep the house — a story that, as the column notes, was probably embellished in transmission: the original account (in the Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah 2:2) concerned a different word, and the maidservant story was later attached to מַטְאֲטֵא. In Rabbinic Hebrew the broom was typically called מְכַבֶּדֶת (the date-palm frond branch used for sweeping, still in use today) or מְבִינָא (of unknown origin).
The word מַטְאֲטֵא lay dormant until the 19th century. Abraham Mapu, the author of the first Hebrew novel, revived it in "Ahavat Tziyon" (Love of Zion, 1853): "שוד משדי לא יבדיל בין טוב לרע, צדק ורשע יחדו יטאטא במטאטא השמד" — directly echoing the Isaiah verse. From Mapu's novel the word entered the Hebrew vocabulary of the Haskalah era and eventually passed into everyday use in modern Israeli Hebrew.
The column also treats two related cleaning words: יָעֶה (dustpan/shovel), a word that appears in the Bible in the plural יָעִים as a Temple vessel and was repurposed in modern Hebrew as a dustpan; and מַגָּב (squeegee/mop blade), a modern coinage from the root נג"ב (dry) — which, like מַגָּל (sickle from root נג"ל), has its initial nun assimilated into the following consonant, producing a doubled gimel.
Key Quotes
"וְשַׂמְתִּיהָ לְמוֹרַשׁ קִפֹּד וְאַגְמֵי מָיִם וְטֵאטֵאתִיהָ בְּמַטְאֲטֵא הַשְׁמֵד" — ישעיהו י״ד, כ״ג
"שקולי טאטיתא וטאטי ביתא" — שפחת רבי (כפי שמסופר בתלמוד הבבלי, ראש השנה כ״ו ב׳)
"שוד משדי לא יבדיל בין טוב לרע, צדק ורשע יחדו יטאטא במטאטא השמד" — אברהם מאפו, אהבת ציון, 1853
Timeline
- Biblical era: מַטְאֲטֵא attested in Isaiah 14:23
- Early 3rd century CE: Rabbi Judah the Prince reportedly does not know the word's meaning
- Rabbinic period: Brooms are called מְכַבֶּדֶת and מְבִינָא instead
- 1853: Abraham Mapu revives מַטְאֲטֵא in "Ahavat Zion," the first Hebrew novel
- 20th century: Word enters everyday spoken Israeli Hebrew
Related Words
- מְכַבֶּדֶת — date-palm frond used for sweeping; the Rabbinic-era alternative
- יָעֶה — dustpan (modern meaning); a biblical Temple vessel word repurposed
- מַגָּב — squeegee/mop blade; modern coinage from root נג"ב