מִמְטָרִים (mimtarim) — rain showers

Etymology

The word מִמְטָרִים is the Hebrew meteorological term for "showers" — brief intense bursts of rain that start and stop suddenly, as opposed to prolonged general rainfall. The need for the word arose after Israel's Meteorological Service began operating as a state institution after 1948, and the service needed to Hebraize the foreign terminology used during the British Mandate.

The root מ.ט.ר (rain) is ancient and shared across Semitic languages. Hebrew has מָטָר as a near-synonym of גֶּשֶׁם (both mean rain), and the two appear as parallel terms in the Bible. In 1949, the Terminology Committee for Meteorology was established jointly by the Meteorological Service and the Hebrew Language Committee. Most terms were easy to translate, but the English shower (German Regenschauer) — "a type of rain that falls in streams, starts suddenly and stops suddenly, generally of high intensity" — proved difficult. After deliberation, committee member Natan Shifris proposed simply using מָטָר (rain) as a narrower technical term for shower, distinguishing it from the everyday גֶּשֶׁם. The forecasters accepted this, and from autumn 1949 they began broadcasting "מְטָרִים" (showers) on Kol Yisrael radio.

Complaints arose immediately. Legal scholar Kopel Blum wrote to HaTzofeh in March 1950 objecting that "מטר ו׳גשם׳ הם היינו הך" (מטר and גשם are the same thing). The Meteorological Service director acknowledged the word was not fully "kosher" but defended it as a stopgap. In 1965, after years of committee work, the Academy plenary approved the full meteorological terminology list — but could not agree on a shower term. The linguist Ali Etan explained that זֶרֶף (another proposed word) was rejected. Several root-מ.ט.ר alternatives were proposed but none won majority support.

After the inconclusive 1965 session, Academy president Naphtali Herz Tur-Sinai devised מִמְטָרִים — a noun built on root מ.ט.ר in an unusual plural-only form. The word was accepted by the committee and approved by the Academy plenum in June 1966. When forecasters began using it on air that autumn, the public reaction was fierce — the largest public controversy over language since the founding of the state. Hundreds of angry letters poured into Kol Yisrael and newspaper offices. Poet Yonatan Ratosh joined the fray, claiming he had coined a word mimtar (singular) years earlier as a collective noun for "all rainfall" (i.e., an equivalent to English rainfall), not for a single shower, and that his word had been borrowed and misapplied.

The criticism was led by the combative linguist Yitzhak Avineri, who accused the Academy of "undermining the foundations of our language" and said "מִמְטָרִים bring shame upon us and our forefathers and our language." Maariv eventually closed the debate in November 1968 with an editorial note saying "both sides have had their full say; this letter closes the controversy." מִמְטָרִים survived and remains standard in Israeli weather forecasts today.

Key Quotes

"שנים הייתי מתענג על האבחנה הדקה של תחזית מזג האויר בקול ישראל... עד שערב אחד שמעתי ברדיו, כי צפוי לנו ׳ממטר יחיד׳" — מיכאל תרן, הארץ, אוקטובר 1966

"׳ממטרים׳ ממיטים חרפה עלינו ועל אבותינו ולשוננו!" — יצחק אבינרי

"פולמוס הממטרים נמשך כבר עת רבה מאוד. דעות הצדדים באו לביטוי, לדעתנו, במלואן" — מערכת מעריב, נובמבר 1968

Timeline

• 1949: Meteorology Terminology Committee established; Natan Shifris proposes מָטָר for "shower"
• Autumn 1949: מְטָרִים (showers) first broadcast on Kol Yisrael radio
• March 1950: First public complaint in HaTzofeh about the term
• 1965: Academy plenum approves meteorological terms; cannot decide on shower term
• After 1965: Tur-Sinai proposes מִמְטָרִים
• June 1966: Academy plenum approves מִמְטָרִים
• Autumn 1966: מִמְטָרִים first broadcast; massive public controversy erupts
• 1966–1968: Controversy sustained; Avineri leads opposition
• November 1968: Maariv editorially closes the debate
• Present: מִמְטָרִים standard in Israeli weather forecasts

Related Words

• מָטָר — rain (biblical synonym of גֶּשֶׁם; the interim term for "shower")
• גֶּשֶׁם — rain (the common word)
• זֶרֶף — proposed alternative for shower (rejected)
• תַּחֲזִית מֶזֶג הָאֲוִיר — weather forecast