קְנִיּוֹת
Whereas שׁוֹפִּינְג (shoh-ping) is still the term that refers to that activity that my mother loves so much, shopping for clothes, Israelis call general shopping – like for food and electronics – קְנִיּוֹת.
buy less, live more
(picture of graffiti at a bus stop in Tel Aviv).
For example:
עָשִׂיתִי קְנִיּוֹת אֶתְמוֹל בַּסּוּפֶּר.
I went (literally, did) shopping yesterday at the supermarket.
קניות comes from the active-simple פָּעַל verb, לִקְנוֹת, which means, in Modern Hebrew, to buy or to purchase (in Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew, it also means to possess).
A single act of purchasing is a קְנִיָּה, in Modern Hebrew (in Rabbinic literature, this is aקִנְיָן).
For example:
אֶתְמוֹל עָשִׂיתִי קְנִיָּה גְּדוֹלָה.עַכְשָׁיו יֵשׁ מַסְפִּיק אֹכֶל.
Yesterday I made a big purchase. Now there’s plenty of (literally, enough) food.
From the same root of ק.נ.ה, a shopping mall is a קַנְיוֹן.
Visit Ktzat Ivrit.