bettieħ

Maltese

Alternative forms
  • bettiħ, bittiħ

Etymology

From Arabic بِطِّيخ‎ (biṭṭīḵ). The etymologically more justified (and prescriptively preferred) spelling bettiħ is very rare in practice since the word is treated as belonging to the common measure C-e-CC-ie-C. (The phonemes /iː/ and /ɪː/ are merged before /ħ/ and /ʔ/.)

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /bɛtˈtɪːħ/

Noun

bettieħ m (collective, singulative bettieħa, plural btietaħ, paucal bettiħat or bettiħiet)

  1. melon, melons
  2. (Gozo, humorous) testicles of a donkey
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