Thursday, August 17, 2006

Even-Shoshan - Dictionary and Concordance

Abraham Even-Shoshan published two very important works in the field of linguistics:

"A New Concordance of the Bible" and "HaMilon HaIvri" - a Hebrew-Hebrew dictionary.

While the Concordance certainly is a helpful way to find all the locations of a word in the Tanach, it may seem to only be of technical use. However, Even-Shoshan does provide brief definitions of the words, and creates groups of words based on connotation and meaning. While the information he provides may be subtle, it is possible to learn about the connection (or lack thereof) between words based on a listing in the concordance.

As far as the dictionary, the full six-volume edition is full of etymological information, but unfortunately, I don't have it (yet). But even in the one volume abridged edition, there are symbols to indicate whether the origins of words are Biblical, Talmudic, Medieval, Modern or Foreign.

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