Learn Arabic › B2 › عِلْك
عِلْك
gum (chewing gum / resin gum) /ˈʕilk/
nounB2#4339 most common
Also: mastic, resin, chewed resin (historically chewed for dental hygiene)
Example sentences
أُحِبُّ العِلْكَ.
I like gum.
أَعْطِني قِطْعَةَ عِلْكٍ مِن فَضْلِكَ.
Give me a piece of gum, please.
لا تَبْتَلِعِ العِلْكَ عِنْدَ مَضْغِهِ.
Don't swallow the gum while you chew it.
يُصْنَعُ بَعْضُ أَنْواعِ العِلْكِ مِن راتِنجِ الأَشْجارِ.
Some types of gum are made from tree resin.
كانَ العَرَبُ قَديمًا يَمْضُغونَ عِلْكَ اللُّبّانِ لِتَنظيفِ أَسْنانِهِم.
Arabs in ancient times used to chew frankincense gum to clean their teeth.
يُعَدُّ عِلْكُ المَصْطَكى مِن أَقدَمِ أَنواعِ اللِّبانِ الطَّبيعِيِّ المَعروفِ مُنذُ العُصورِ القَديمَة.
Mastic gum is one of the oldest known types of natural gum, known since ancient times.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | عِلْكٌ | عُلُوكٌ |
| Genitive | عِلْكٍ | عُلُوكٍ |
| Accusative | عِلْكًا | عُلُوكًا |
| Vocative | يا عِلْكُ | يا عُلُوكُ |
Word family
عَلَكَto chew
عَلْكthe act of chewing
عِلْكَةa stick or piece of chewing gum (colloquial)
عالِكone who chews
مَعْلوكchewed, masticated
Etymology
عِلْك comes from the Semitic root ع-ل-ك ('-l-k), whose base verb عَلَكَ means 'to chew' or 'to masticate'. The noun عِلْك denotes the chewed substance itself: originally the hardened resin of certain trees, such as mastic or frankincense, which people chewed long before manufactured chewing gum existed. The word later extended to cover modern chewing gum as well.
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