סַרְבָּל (sarbal) — overalls, coveralls

Etymology

The word סַרְבָּל has a winding history spanning Persian, Aramaic, Biblical Hebrew, medieval usage, and Modern Hebrew, picking up a new meaning along the way.

The origin is Persian שַׁלְוָור (shalvar), a compound of שַׁל (thigh) and a verbal element meaning "cover." The word denoted trousers — a garment the ancient Hebrews did not wear, as they wore robes. When the Persians conquered the Middle East, they came wearing trousers, and the word entered Aramaic as סַרְבָּל. It appears twice in the Bible in Daniel 3 (verses 21 and 27), in the plural סַרְבָּלֵיהוֹן, as a garment worn by Daniel's companions thrown into the fiery furnace: "Then these men were bound in their coats (sarbaleyehon)."

Ancient translators disagreed about what sarbal meant. The Septuagint translates it as "sandals" in one verse and uses the Greek loanword σαράβαρα (sarabara, "trousers") in the other. Saadia Gaon offered both "shoes" and "leg coverings." Rashi interpreted it as a "wrapping garment" (beged me'atafotam); Abraham ibn Ezra agreed it was an outer garment. This ambiguity — trousers vs. robe/coat — followed the word through the centuries.

Medieval Ashkenazic rabbis settled on "coat/cloak" and the word was used in this sense by Maimonides, the Aruch, and later writers including Mendele Mokher Seforim (Masa'ot Binyamin ha-Shelishi, 1896), Bialik (Don Quixote, 1912), and Agnon (Ba-Derekh, 1944). Yehuda Gur's 1903 pocket dictionary gave the competing meaning "wide trousers," following Russian шаровары (sharovary, from the same Persian root via Greek).

The modern meaning — a one-piece garment combining jacket and trousers (German: Overall, English: overalls) — was assigned to the word by Hagana writers in July 1942, in a training pamphlet titled "Hitkefat Oyev Mutas" (Enemy Airborne Attack and Defense). The pamphlet uses סַרְבָּל as the Hebrew term for a parachutist's one-piece jumpsuit, with a footnote explaining it means "Overalls." The word did not immediately catch on, but by March 1948 Haaretz was already quoting it (in quotation marks, explaining the loanword). By 1949–1950 it appeared in government procurement tenders and gradually entered popular usage.

The word also spawned a family of derivations. From the Aramaic denominative verb (meaning "to dress in sarbal") came the Talmudic use of מְסֻרְבָּל in the sense of "wrapped in flesh" (meaning fat: "the Persians eat and drink like bears and are wrapped/fat like bears" — Kiddushin 72a). Later the adjective was used metaphorically: "clumsy, unwieldy" — a 1914 article in Ha-Ahdut speaks of "encyclopedia articles wrapped/laden with excessive knowledge." This is the sense of מְסֻרְבָּל that survives in Modern Hebrew as "clumsy, cumbersome."

A related word, שַׁרְוָול (sharval, "sleeve"; also: harem pants), entered Hebrew from Arabic שַׁרְוַאל, which is itself from the same Persian root. And שַׁרְוָולִים (sharvalim) — loose, colorful harem-style trousers — also trace back to the same Persian original, via Arabic.

Key Quotes

"בֵּאדַיִן גֻּבְרַיָּא אִלֵּךְ כְּפִתוּ בְּסַרְבָּלֵיהוֹן" — Daniel 3:21 ("Then these men were bound in their garments")

"מאמרים אינציקלופדיים יבשים מסורבלים בידיעות ובמחקרים יתרים" — Ha-Ahdut, February 1914 (early use of מסורבל in the sense of "cumbersome")

"מעל למדים ילבש הצנחן סרבל* סגור ברוכסן..." — Hagana pamphlet, July 1942 (first use of סַרְבָּל for overalls/jumpsuit, with footnote: Overalls)

Timeline

• Ancient Persia: Original word שַׁלְוָור (shalvar) for trousers
• ~500 BCE: Word borrowed into Aramaic as סַרְבָּל; Persians conquer Middle East wearing trousers
• ~550 BCE–164 BCE: Book of Daniel composed; סַרְבָּל appears in Daniel 3
• Ancient period: Septuagint translators disagree on meaning (sandals? trousers?)
• Medieval period: Ashkenazic rabbis settle on meaning "cloak/coat"; Rashi, ibn Ezra concur
• Late 19th–early 20th century: Used by Mendele, Bialik, Agnon in sense of "coat/cloak"
• 1903: Yehuda Gur's dictionary gives alternate meaning "wide trousers" (following Russian)
• July 1942: Hagana pamphlet uses סַרְבָּל as Hebrew for "overalls/jumpsuit"
• March 1948: Haaretz uses it (with explanation)
• 1949–1950: Spreads through government procurement and popular usage
• Modern Hebrew: סַרְבָּל = overalls; מְסֻרְבָּל = clumsy/cumbersome; שַׁרְוָול = sleeve (and harem pants)

Related Words

• שַׁרְוָול — "sleeve"; also "harem pants" (from Arabic שַׁרְוַאל, same Persian origin)
• שַׁרְוָולִים — loose colorful trousers (same origin chain)
• מְסֻרְבָּל — "clumsy, cumbersome" (derived from the Aramaic verb "to be wrapped in sarbal")
• אוֹבָרוֹל — "overalls" (the English loanword that סַרְבָּל replaced)