# model



## do10292

a person or thing that serves as a subject for an artist, etc.:
the model for the art class.

في المثال بالأعلى؟ model بماذا يسمى بالعربية ال
"لا أعتقد أنه "عارض


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## cherine

I checked two dictionaries:
Al-Kamel French-Arabic, and it gives a translation I've never heard of or read before:
ماثِلة، ماثِل: فتاة أو شخص يَمثل أمام الفنان ليرسم التقاطيع أو الملامح
And the Atlas Encyclopedic Dictionary, which translates it as:
الموديل: شخص يجلس أمام الفنان أو الرسام لكي يستعين به لرسم صورته
I've heard and read موديل, but I'm not sure how acceptable it is in fuS7a. I was frankly surprised to see it given in a dictionary, but I think this means it is ok to use it.


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## barkoosh

معجم العربية الكلاسيكية والمعاصرة uses "ماثِل" with the definition: "فتاة أو شخص يَمثُل أمام الفنّان ليرسم التقاطيع أو الملامح".

معجم اللغة العربية المعاصرة uses "موديل", with the same definition as in Atlas Encyclopedic Dictionary.


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## cherine

Interesting.  Which would you use, Barkoosh? I'm tempted to go for موديل because it's the word I expect most people to understand and I believe artists use it. My only problem with it is that it's not Arabic, but I still prefer it. How about you?


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## barkoosh

Hi

I would also go for موديل


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## elroy

To be honest I wouldn't understand either.   I feel like I would need an explanation either way.


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## cherine

How would you translate it, then?


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## elroy

I don't have a better single-word suggestion.  I'm not saying either translation is wrong; I'm just saying that if either ماثل or موديل were used without an explanation and the context didn't help me figure out the meaning, I wouldn't understand it.  Would you?

My solution would probably be to provide an explanation to make sure it's clear what is meant.  This is frequently done in Arabic when unfamiliar/unknown words are used (especially when they're foreign).


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## Matat

The term generally used for a physical model, mathematical model, scientific model, statistical model, data model, computational model, etc. is نموذج. The term نمذجة is used to describe modelling a system.


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## elroy

Yes, but that doesn’t fit here.


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## Matat

Why wouldn't it?


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## elroy

Because that’s a different meaning of “model.”


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## Matat

Not at all. Model here means a visual or physical representation of an object, event, idea, or system, which applies to art and everything I mentioned. A scale model, for example, is referred to as a نموذج مصغر.


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## elroy

In _Arabic_, you can’t use نموذج for this meaning of “model.”  Languages don’t work that way.


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## Matat

Wow, I just reread the OP and realized we're talking about a person here and not a piece of artwork. For some reason, when I initially read the OP, I was thinking of an artistic model as in a visualization. I was extremely confused when I read Cherine and Barkoosh's posts.


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## cherine

Sorry about the confusion, Matat. But maybe that's the problem. Dictionaries give 2 translations, one is obscure (to me at least) and the other is just an arabization. I am familiar with موديل for I've heard it a few times, including in movies, but I thought there should be a term in fuS7a for it. Now I see that the term does exist but is so obscure that I wouldn't have understood it, maybe not even in a context other than the dictionary that put the foreign word against it.


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## Mahaodeh

cherine said:


> Interesting.  Which would you use, Barkoosh? I'm tempted to go for موديل because it's the word I expect most people to understand and I believe artists use it. My only problem with it is that it's not Arabic, but I still prefer it. How about you?


If we were having this discussion 80 years ago, I would opt for ماثل: a nice Arabic word that would give the meaning of something that people did not yet know much about or have a word to describe.

However, the discussion is today. I would go for موديل for the same reason you gave: most people (except elroy apparently ) know what it means. I have no problem of it not being Arabic, I mean نموذج is not an Arabic word and I don't see anyone looking for a replacement. My problem with it is that the word has multiple meanings in English, many of them don't have an Arabic equivalent so the word is used to mean so many different things, it could be confusing.


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## elroy

Mahaodeh said:


> most people (except elroy apparently ) know what it means.


 Are you saying most Arabic speakers - even those who don't speak English - would understand it immediately?


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## Mahaodeh

I can't say for sure, but I think so. Then again, I might be wrong.


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