מִתְחַזְלְשִׁים (mitchazleshim) — returning to routine

Etymology

The verb הִתְחַזְלֵשׁ and its conjugated forms are among the most striking products of Israeli military slang: verbs back-formed from an acronym. The acronym חזל"ש stands for חֲזָרָה לַשִּׁגְרָה ("return to routine"), a phrase that became ubiquitous in Israeli public life following the Six-Day War of 1967.

The word שִׁגְרָה at the heart of this phrase has a long history. It was first coined by the 12th-century Provençal translator Rabbi Yehuda ibn Tibbon, who drew on the Aramaic root שג"ר (to pour), connecting it to a Mishnaic passage in which Rabbi Akiva describes prayer that "flows (שגורה) from one's mouth" (Berakhot 4:3). Ibn Tibbon used the word שִׁגְרָה in his preface to a Hebrew translation of Rabbi Yona ibn Janah's grammar of Hebrew, to describe how Arabic flowed from his tongue. The word remained rare for centuries. Chaim Nachman Bialik rescued it in 1908 and in 1917 extended its meaning from "fluent speech" to "routine" in general — the sense we know today.

The phrase חזרה לשיגרה became a fixed idiom particularly after the Six-Day War. By 2001 at the latest, IDF personnel had compressed it into the acronym חזל"ש, then extracted from that acronym a new verbal root ח-ז-ל-ש, producing: חִזְלֵשׁ ("caused someone to return to routine"), חֻזְלַשׁ (passive), and הִתְחַזְלֵשׁ ("returned to routine oneself"). By 2003, all three forms were in use among both soldiers and civilians — a rare case of an acronym generating a full verb paradigm.

Key Quotes

"כל שכן עם שגרת הלשון הערבי בפינו וברעיוננו בהיותו לפנינו" — יהודה אבן תיבון, הקדמה לתרגום ספר הרקמה, ~1160

"גם בשגרת הלשון וגם בשגרת החיים" — חיים נחמן ביאליק, גילוי וכיסוי בלשון, 1917

"באיזו שִגְרָה הם משליכים את השילינג" — מנחם שינקין, הארץ, 14 אוקטובר 1919

Timeline

• ~1160: Yehuda ibn Tibbon coins שִׁגְרָה in his translation preface
• 1789: Mendel Lefin uses שִׁגְרָה in "Igrot HaHokhma"
• 1895: Yosef Klausner uses the phrase שגרת הלשון in Ha-Tzfirah
• 1908: Bialik uses שִׁגְרָה in the essay "Havlei Lashon"
• 1917: Bialik extends the meaning to general "routine"
• October 1919: Ha'aretz spreads the word broadly in Palestine
• 1930s: Derivatives שִׁגְרָתִי and שִׁגְרָתִיּוּת appear
• Summer 1967: חזרה לשיגרה becomes a fixed post-war idiom
• ~2001: IDF acronym חזל"ש first attested
• ~2003: Verbs חִזְלֵשׁ, חֻזְלַשׁ, הִתְחַזְלֵשׁ attested in use

Related Words

• שִׁגְרָה — routine; the base noun underlying this entire family
• שִׁגְרָתִי — routine (adjective)
• חזרה לשיגרה — the full phrase whose acronym generated the verb
• חזל"ש — the IDF acronym itself