Sunday, January 08, 2023
deyokan
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What is the origin of the Talmudic word דְּיוֹקָן deyokan ? In rabbinic literature it meant "image, likeness", and today, in moder...
Sunday, January 01, 2023
persimmon and afarsemon
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I was listening to an episode of The History of English Podcast , and I was surprised to hear "persimmon" included in a list of wo...
Monday, December 26, 2022
hedyot and idiot
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What is the connection between the Hebrew hedyot הֶדְיוֹט - "layman, layperson" and the English "idiot"? They share a c...
Sunday, November 27, 2022
choref and cherpa
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A reader recently asked if I've explored the words חֹרֶף choref - "winter" and חֶרְפָּה cherpa - "shame." I know tha...
Sunday, November 20, 2022
pulmus and polemic
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The connection between the English word "polemic" and the Hebrew פּוּלְמוּס pulmus seems fairly obvious. They both mean "con...
Monday, November 07, 2022
chesed and chasid
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There are some words in Biblical Hebrew that are difficult to interpret because they only appear once in the entire Tanakh. We've discus...
Monday, October 31, 2022
chok and chakika
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The Hebrew word for "law, statute" חֹק chok , derives from the root חקק. That root can mean "to decree, legislate", but ...
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