A reader asked about the word shidah  שִׁדָּה, translated by Morfix as "dresser, chest of drawers." That seemed like an easy task ...

 A reader asked me to write about the Hebrew words kadosh קדוש and kodesh  קודש - generally translated as "holy" and "holines...

After writing about words deriving from the root פלג , a reader asked if there was a connection to the word pilegesh פילגש - "concubine...

I recently finished reading John McWhorter's book  Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English . Throughout the book, ...

The English word "ghoul" derives from Arabic. Here's the Online Etymology Dictionary entry for ghoul : 1786, goul , in the Eng...

Last week on Purim we read the book of Esther, and next week we start the month of April. It turns out that Esther and April have more in co...

Several years ago, I wrote about the root gazar גזר - "to cut". After pointing out that it's not related to gezer  גֶּזֶר - &...