What does “muftaris” (مفترس) mean in Arabic?

السمكة المفترسة in this experiment is “the predatory fish,” and the word carries its food chain inside it: فريسة is prey, the verb افترس is to devour prey, and مفترس is the one doing the devouring. Every nature documentary in Arabic leans on this family — الحيوانات المفترسة are the predators. Learn one root, ف-ر-س, and the whole hunting scene comes with it.

The clip retells the classic pike experiment: a glass pane separates predator from goldfish, the predator slams into it مرة بعد مرة (“time after time”) until it gives up — and keeps avoiding the goldfish even after the glass is removed. That phrase مرة بعد مرة is a keeper, as is حوض, the word for tank, basin, and even bathtub across the Arab world.