מַצִּיתִים (matzitim) — lighters / spark plugs (plural forms)

Etymology

The word מַצָּת (matsat), meaning "spark plug," was coined in 1934 by Shimon David Yaffe, editor of the agricultural journal HaSadeh, and Binyamin Zussman, a tractor driver from Kibbutz Beit Alfa. The two were commissioned by the British-Levant Agency to translate the instruction manual for the International T-20 crawler tractor into Hebrew — one of the first major Hebrew technical manuals ever produced. They derived מַצָּת from the biblical root י.צ.ת, which denotes the kindling or igniting of fire, since a spark plug's function is to ignite the fuel-air mixture inside an engine cylinder.

The translators acknowledged the enormous difficulty of their work. Hebrew lacked a living tradition of practical-technical writing, and vocabulary for mechanical parts was almost entirely absent or inconsistent. Many of their coinages did not survive (e.g., מַפְלִיט for exhaust pipe, עִתּוּת for timing — later displaced by עִתּוּי). But several succeeded: זַחְלִיל (crawler track, from זַחַל — worm/caterpillar) and מְאַיֵּד (carburetor, from אֵד — vapor) both entered standard Hebrew.

While מַצָּת was spreading through mechanic circles, a new device appeared in civilian life: the cigarette lighter. It was first called מַצִּית סִיגַרְיוֹת and eventually shortened to מַצִּית. The grammarian Yitzhak Avinery found this troubling. In December 1944 he published a column in Al HaMishmar arguing that מַצִּית was an agent noun (the person who kindles fire), not the device — and that the device should be called מַצָּת, paralleling pairs like מַפִּיל/מַפָּל, מוֹצִיא/מוֹצָא, and מוֹשִׁיב/מוֹשָׁב.

Avinery's appeal had partial effect. The decisive outcome was on the plural: even speakers who call the device מַצִּית typically form the plural as מַצָּתִים (the plural of מַצָּת) rather than the grammatically regular מַצִּיתִים. This is an instance of suppletion (תַּשְׁלִים, or סוּפְּלֶצְיָה in the international term) — the use of inflected forms from a different etymological paradigm as part of another word's conjugation. Hebrew has other familiar examples: אִישׁ/אֲנָשִׁים, חֲמוֹר/אָתוֹן, שָׁתָה/הִשְׁקָה.

Key Quotes

"יש להבחין בין המצית, כלומר, האדם המבעיר אש, ובין הכלי, כשם שאנו מבחינים בין מפיל למפל, בין מסיע למסע, בין מציב למצב, בין מגיע למגד, בין מביע למבע - כך נבחין בין מצית למצת" — Yitzhak Avinery, Al HaMishmar, December 1944

"רצינו לתת לעובד העברי את האפשרות ללמוד את הטפול והשמוש במכונה ע״י הוראות הכתובות בשפתו" — Foreword, Instruction Manual for the International T-20 Crawler Tractor, 1934

Timeline

• 1907: Yehuda Gur coins דַּוְשָׁה (pedal) in his pocket dictionary supplement, drawn from Babylonian Talmud Aramaic
• 1934: Yaffe and Zussman produce the T-20 tractor manual; coin מַצָּת (spark plug), זַחְלִיל (crawler track), מְאַיֵּד (carburetor)
• Early 1940s: מַצִּית סִיגַרְיוֹת (cigarette lighter) enters common usage, shortened to מַצִּית
• December 1944: Avinery publishes objection in Al HaMishmar arguing for מַצָּת as the device name
• Present: Suppletion stabilized — device called מַצִּית, but plural regularly מַצָּתִים; מַצִּיתִים (grammatically expected plural) remains rare

Related Words

• מַצָּת — spark plug; the 1934 deliberate coinage
• מַצִּית — lighter; organically emerged form
• זַחְלִיל — crawler track; coined in same 1934 manual; later shortened to זַחַל in IDF use
• מְאַיֵּד — carburetor; coined in same 1934 manual
• דַּוְשָׁה — pedal; coined by Yehuda Gur (1907), popularized partly through the 1934 manual
• תַּשְׁלִים / סוּפְּלֶצְיָה — suppletion; the linguistic phenomenon this entry illustrates