Does the word "Jinn" from arabic have an equivalent in Hebrew?

Question

Does the word "Jinn" from arabic have an equivalent in Hebrew?

Answer 1

Good question! It depends what you mean by equivalent. If you mean a Hebrew translation for the Arabic concept of jinn, there isn’t one really, and the Arabic word is borrowed into Hebrew as ג׳יני.

If you mean a Hebrew/Jewish concept which is equivalent to the jinn of Arabic folklore, the best place to start looking is the folklore of שדים (shedim), which are very similar.

If you mean linguistic cognates of the Arabic word, then while the form of the word does not have an exact equivalent, the Arabic root does have a cognate in Hebrew. The root of the Arabic word is ج-ن-ن (j-n-n or g-n-n), which has several meanings, among them “conceal” and “shield.” It is related to the Hebrew word מגן (magen), which means “shield,” and is part of the term Magen David (shield of David).

I hope that helps!