מַגָּב

Yesterday we saw the Hebrew word for towel – מגבת

.

What we might call the masculine form of מגבת is מגב

– a mop. מגב is usually for cleaning floors, but it could also refer to a smaller mop-like device, as in:

יש לך מגב לנקות את השמשה?

Do you (a female) have a mop to clean the windshield?

מגב and מגבת come from the root נ.ג.ב

, meaning to wipe. If you’re wondering where the נ in the word disappeared to, try saying mangav, emphasizing the gav part, quickly five times.

The acronym מג”ב

stands for משמר הגבול – Border Patrol.