Shisha Or Something Else?

[popete]

Ok I know Im a nerd but I was looking up the history of the hookah on Wikipedia (usually I just sit on my computer and look up things on wikipedia cause I like to learn ). But anyways the person who wrote the article said that shisha is really the arabic word for hookah and that its a common misconception that the western culture has started calling the tobacco shisha.

So does anyone actually know if this is true because every shop ive seen calls it shisha and I havent really figured out what the actual arabic name for the tobacco is. The article said that shisha is kind of used as slang to ask for the hookah and the tobacco together like when your buying it. So does anyone know?

[meeheeheeheehee]

hmm actually i thought it was the other way around. when i went to Egypt no one called it hookah, only shisha. so i figured that "hookah" is probably just some American nickname for it. or maybe "hookah" came from hubbly bubbly. not too sure though.

[Hookah_Bob3]

Depending on where you go, you'll get different names for the pipe and tobacco. Some places call the pipe a narghuile, others arguile, others still shisha and others hookah. For the tobacco, it's either moassel, ma'assell, or shisha..all depending on where you go.

Remember, just because it's one thing in one country doesn't make it the absolute right name!

[shisha fan]

i also call the pipe a shisha, as far as i know most people in europe call it either "shisha" or "nargile"

[Molson]

when i first learned about hookah back in isreal when my cousins introduced it to me. we called it nargileh (pronounced nar-gee-la) and never heard the temr shisha or hookah untill i came back from my vacation and wanted one.

[Joseph]

Shisha was originally the name of the pipe, and Americans started calling the tobacco shisha. So, if you want to be authentic you would call the style of tobacco you are used to maassel and the pipe a shisha, but in America the term shisha can be used for tobacco and still be correct.