tuna

Yesterday we discussed how the word nun נון can mean "fish" in Semitic languages. Stahl writes that there are those that say that the word tanin תנין is related to the word nun. In the Tanach the tanin clearly refers to more than one type of animal, and not all experts agree in every case which one. Kaddari writes that the tanin is a snake (Shmot 7:9, together with Shmot 4:3), crocodile (Yechezkel 29:3 - here tanim תנים, this is the meaning in modern Hebrew), viper (Tehillim 91:13), leviathan (Yeshayahu 27:1). Of course the identity of the leviathan is also not clear, and from here we get the tanin translated as "giant fish" (Rashi on Bereshit 1:21), whale, and the general "sea monster". (For an interesting article on the significance of the mention of the creation of the tanin, go here.)

Klein does not connect tanin with the word nun, but rather with a root תנן , which has cognates in a number of Semitic languages - such as the Ugaritic tnn , meaning "dragon".

However, both Stahl and Klein mention a theory that the Greek word thynnos was borrowed from the Hebrew tanin. From the Greek came the Latin thunnus - and from here the English words tuna and tunny. (Tuna is actually much more recent than tunny, and entered American English via Spanish, and the Spanish was borrowed from Arabic, which took the word from Latin.)

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nun

The 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet is nun. As we once saw earlier, David Sacks discusses in Letter Perfect the history of the letter N, and by association, nun:

Two letters could hardly be closer than N and M, fraternal twins in shape, name, sound and positioning...

Most of N's life has been lived in relation to M ... the 13th letter of the Phoenician alphabet of 1000 B.C. was the wavy-lined mem, ancestor of our M. The name mem meant "water". The Phoenicians' 14th letter was their N, called nun, meaning "fish". Yet the shape of nun was a serpentine undulation, not at all suggesting a fish, aside from an eel.

Modern scholarship has determined that N was invented (by Semitic soldiers or laborers in Egypt) through copying of an Egyptian hieroglyphic picture of a snake. The shape of the Semitic N looked like a snake. The attested letter name "fish" therefore becomes problematic.

In ancient Semitic language, one word for snake was nahash, which began with the sound "n". By the rules of ancient Semitic letter names, this would have been a perfect name for a snaky-looking letter that took the "n" sound. So why didn't the early alphabet users just call their wiggly N letter by the name "snake"?

The answer may be: They did. They did perhaps call the letter nahash at the start, around 2000 or 1900 B.C., but later the name got changed - for the sake of M. Perhaps, in the centuries after 1900 B.C., a need was felt to bring the letters M ("water") and N ("snake") more into line with each other, on account of their unique nasal factor. The two letters had been placed together in sequence at the alphabet's invention; now they would develop even closer associations. In these centuries, the N letter grew more to look like the M letter. And if N's name had been "snake" (as is theorized), then it now changed to "fish", to better fit mem's "water". The purpose of such associations would have been to supply a memory aid for Semitic children learning the alphabet: In the letters' sequence, "fish" would follow "water", the two letters looking and sounding rather similar.

Steinberg points out that in the ancient Ethiopian alphabet Ge'ez the word for the N sound is nahas נחס , which is related to the Hebrew nahash נחש .

Klein writes that the word nun נון meaning "fish" derives from the root נין meaning "to sprout, increase". From the same root we get the word nin נין - which in Modern Hebrew means "great-grandchild". However, in the Tanach, it almost always appears before the word neched נכד - grandchild, as in Bereshit 21:23 וּלְנִינִי וּלְנֶכְדִּי . Therefore, it would appear that this a descendant "before" a grandchild, and in fact, Onkelos translates nin there as "son".

However, there is another root - נון , which means "to waste away, degenerate." Nivun ניוון means "degeneration". Klein quotes Fleischer as claiming that this root derives from the letter name nun and literally means "to be come as lean as the final nun ן ".

As we have seen before, nun alternates with lamed and mem, and it also changes with resh (כנע and כרע ) and (בן and בר).

We have noted many times in the past that the letter nun has a tendency to assimilate or drop out of words (see here here here here and here) - and there should be at least one more this week.

As a suffix, nun can create three kinds of nouns: abstract nouns (בנה - בנין - building), agential nouns (למד -למדן - a learned man), and chemical elements (מים -מימן - hydrogen.)

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mem

The 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet is mem. The shape of the letter represents the waves of water, and the name is directly related to the word for water מים - mayim.

There is some debate as to whether or not the word mayim should be viewed as a plural. Steinberg writes that the singular form is mai מי - although the word never appears in that form. There are two forms in the construct state (smichut) - mei מי or meimei מימי . Ibn Ezra, as quoted here, says that mayim is a dual form plural. In post-biblical Hebrew we find the plural of mayim - meimot מימות.

The letter mem alternates with other labials - bet, nun and peh.

Klein writes that mem works as a substantive prefix - it creates nouns or noun equivalents. It can create nouns - מדע from דע (knowledge), places מאבוס from אבס (storehouse), and instruments מגן from גנן (shield). Mem is also added to piel verbs in the present tense (e.g. מדבר midaber - speak). This can lead to confusion about the proper pronunciation of some more modern words. For example Almagor-Ramon writes, although it is an instrument, the correct pronunciation of refrigerator מקרר in Hebrew is mikarer, not makrer, for the Academy of the Hebrew Language gave it the name based on the action it does. On the other hand, the proper pronunciation of computer מחשב is machshev, not michashev, for the formation of its name is due to it being an instrument.

Steinberg goes one step further. As we have seen before, he often writes that many of Hebrew's three letter roots are based on two letter roots. He claims that it is very common for the two letter roots to have a mem added either at the beginning or the end to create a three letter root. For example, we have seen earlier the theory that matar מטר derives from טר . For an example of mem coming after a two letter root, he brings the case of Noach, whose name is explained in Bereshit 5:29 -

וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ נֹחַ, לֵאמֹר: זֶה יְנַחֲמֵנוּ

The name Noach נח is connected to the three letter root נחם .

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bensch

Yesterday we discussed the Hebrew bracha - today let's look at the Yiddish equivalent - bensch ( or bentsh / bentsch / bentch). It means to bless, make a bracha in general, but when used without any qualifier usually refers to birkat hamazon (the blessing after the meal.)

While most Yiddish words derive either from Hebrew or German, with some others from the Slavic languages, bensch (or bentshn in the infinitive) is one the few to derive from Latin, and perhaps therefore one of the earliest Yiddish words.

The Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich wrote that Jews came to Germany from two main areas - France and Italy. Each group of immigrants brought words of their own. From Old French we get what Weinreich calls "western laaz" and from Old Italian "southern laaz". And so, bensch derives from the Old Italian benedicere (or benedictere), meaning "to bless". German also borrowed from the same Latin root for their word benedeien.

The English word "benediction" also derives from the same Latin root:

1432, from L. benedictionem (nom. benedictio), noun of action from benedicere "to speak well of, bless," from bene "well" + dicere "to speak"

Interestingly, the word eulogy has a similar etymology, although via Greek, not Latin:

from Gk. eulogia "praise," from eu- "well" + -logia "speaking"

So looking back at yesterday's post, the word bensch seems to fit a blessing from man to God, for those who understand it as meaning "praise".

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bracha

Last week we discussed the concept of nisayon, and I mentioned that I have a problem where the verb נסה would have one meaning from God to man, and an entirely different one from man to God.

Well, another verb that has that same issue, and has interested me for many years is ברך - the root of the word ברכה bracha - blessing. In this weeks parasha, we find God blessing man (Bereshit 24:1, 25:11), man blessing God ( 24:48), and man blessing man (24:60). God is also described as ברוך baruch (24:27).

There are those that describe bracha from God to man, or man to man as bestowing something on the recipient, but bracha from man to God is considered "thanks" (JPS on Devarim 8:10) or "praise" (Chizkuni on Bereshit 24:27, Abarbanel on Bereshit 27).

However, there are a large number of sources that do not take this approach, and rather say that when man blesses God, there is something "given". (See for example, Sefer HaIkkarim 26, Rabbeinu Bachye's intoduction to Zot HaBracha, Teshuvot Rashba 23, HaEmek Dvar Shmot 18:10, Harchev Dvar Bereshit 24:27). Perhaps the best description is by Rav Hirsch on Bereshit 9:58, discussing the word baruch:

The understanding of this term has been confused because people have objected to take this word "to bless" referring from man to God, in the same meaning as it has when used from God to man. It has been taken to be adjectival like חנון, רחום, so that, like these, it designates the active source, the holder of blessing as of pity and grace. But that does not get us much further, we are constantly called upon לברך את השם ... If the man is active is blessing God, then God must be blessed in a passive sense, He must be receiving blessing from man, one can not get away from it. And why should one have to try and get away from it? At the moment that God made the fulfillment of His Will on earth dependent on the free decision of Man He said to them ברכני , bless me...The whole Torah teaches us nothing else than how we can מברך את השם and that we are to do so. To take it to mean praise or thank God, by which one has lost the true conception of ברך את השם ...

Two other words that some scholars connect to the root ברך are berech ברך - knee, and breicha בריכה - pond, pool. Steinberg says bracha is related to berech, since bowing at the knee is part of prayer. Stahl connects breicha to berech by writing that animals kneel down to drink at the pool, as do people washing clothes.

And for those that missed it, we've previously discussed how perhaps the English word "broker" and the phrase "break a leg" derive from bracha...

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nes and nisayon

In the fifth chapter of Pirkei Avot we have a number of mishnayot discussing sets of ten:

עשרה נסיונות נתנסה אברהם אבינו
עשרה ניסים נעשו לאבותינו במצריים
עשרה נסיונות ניסו אבותינו את המקום במדבר
עשרה ניסים נעשו בבית המקדש

"Avraham our forefather was tested with ten trials...Ten miracles were performed for our ancestors in Egypt...With ten trials did our ancestors test God in the wilderness ... Ten miracles were performed for our ancestors in the Temple"

Is there any connection between nes נס - miracle and nisayon נסיון - test or trial?

Let's look first at nes. In the Tanach, it means a flag or a flagpole. There is some debate as to whether it ever also means "miracle" biblically. Amos Chacham in Daat Mikra on Shmot 17:16 says it never has that meaning (despite Onkelos and a number of midrashim on that same verse.) Even Shoshan in his Concordance gives Bamidbar 26:10 and Yishayahu 11:10 as meaning mofet מופת - generally translated as "miracle".

However, even with these three verses, the connection to flag is clear. And I think we can see the development of nes from flag to miracle via an understanding of the word as "sign". These aren't just miracles for their own sake - they are trying to show something, to act as a sign. Another word with both meanings in Hebrew is ot אות. Even in Biblical Hebrew, it means both "sign" and "miracle" (with debate between linguists as to which meaning came first.)

According to Klein and others, nes is related to the root נשא - meaning "to lift up". This makes sense for the early meanings of both flag and pole.

As to nisayon - this derives from the root נסה , meaning "to test, to try, to attempt" (in Biblical Hebrew a trial was known as a masa מסה .) Some scholars do not connect נסה and nes (whose root is נסס ) but I find Steinberg's explanation intriguing. He writes that the way we test the weight of an object is to lift it up, and a person's strength is measured by his ability to lift, to bear. From here developed the sense of testing in general.

Because of the similarity of the words, there are a number of attempts to replace the meaning of "test" with "mast" or "flag". For example, in Bereshit 22:1 and Shmot 20:17 it says that God was minase מנסה Avraham and Bnei Yisrael respectively. In both places Rashi, based on midrashim, says that the verb נסה means "to make great". In his commentary on Shmot, the Ramban rejects Rashi's approach. Chavel says that Ramban's opinion is based on a different view of the root of the word נסות. But I think that we can see from the mishnayot quoted above, a bigger problem. For those that say that נסה means "to make great" or "to lift up" - how do they explain Bnei Yisrael's nisyonot of God? Certainly their complaints weren't to make God greater, but rather a test of Him.

However, Jastrow points us to an interesting verse that might help us understand the issue better. He defines נסה as "to put up a sign, ask for a test" and refers us to Yishayahu 7:11, where God is asking Ahaz to test him:

שְׁאַל-לְךָ אוֹת, מֵעִם השם אֱלֹהֶיךָ; הַעְמֵק שְׁאָלָה, אוֹ הַגְבֵּהַּ לְמָעְלָה.
"Ask for a sign (ot) from the Lord your God, anywhere down to Sheol or up to the sky."

And Ahaz replies (7:12):

לֹא-אֶשְׁאַל וְלֹא-אֲנַסֶּה, אֶת-השם.

"I will not ask, and will not test the Lord".

So Ahaz realized that asking for a sign - a nes - is a test - a nisayon. (See the Daat Mikra for further explanation of the motivation of Ahaz.) But perhaps this understanding could apply to Avraham and Bnei Yisrael as well - when God tested them, he was asking for a sign.

So in a way, with their response - particularly Avraham's at the akeidah - they were performing nissim!

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chalila and chas

In this weeks parasha, Avraham argues with God over his plans to destroy Sdom. When he claims that the killing of the innocent would be unjust, he says (Bereshit 18:25)
חָלִלָה לְּךָ מֵעֲשֹׂת כַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה

"Chalila lecha to do a thing like this"

What does chalila mean here? A very popular explanation is based on the Gemara (Avoda Zara 4a, Berachot 32a) - חולין הוא לך - "it would be chulin for you". This gemara is also subject to interpretation. Most explain chulin as "sacrilege, profanation, desecration" - in other words "beneath your honor" (this also fits with Steinberg, who derives chalila from the root חלה - from which we get choleh חולה "sick" - and means "to be low") . Rashi, however, on Ber. 18:25 explains chulin as "usual or ordinary" - this would seem to be the way God acted with the generation of the flood and the generation of the tower of Bavel. However, while this may work where Avraham is speaking to God, it does not fit the many other examples of chalila where one man is speaking to another.

Ben-Yehuda, in his dictionary, has difficulties with the Gemara's explanation. He writes that "the scent of drush (midrash) wafts too strongly from this (explanation) and it is difficult to believe that in ancient times they would use a metaphor such as this. The origin of this usage has not been explained well."

Ibn Ezra has a slightly different explanation. He says it means "impossible", perhaps deriving from the word חלול halul, meaning "hollow", something with no content.

Amos Chacham in the Daat Mikra on Iyov 34:10 writes that chalila always appears in the Bible as a form of oath (perhaps to damn?), where a person forbids himself or another to do a certain action.

Onkelos, who in his translation makes great efforts to protect God's honor, would clearly have difficulty having Avraham accuse God of a desecration. And therefore he translates chalila lecha as קֻשְׁטָא אִנּוּן דִּינָךְ - "your laws are true". However, in a different location where chalila is used - where the brothers are speaking to Yosef's steward (Bereshit 44:7) - Onkelos has no such reservations. And here his translation is interesting: חַס - chas.

Rashi quotes Onkelos in his commentary on 44:7 and writes:

חלילה לעבדיך - חולין הוא לנו, לשון גנאי. ותרגום חס לעבדיך, חס מאת הקב"ה יהי עלינו מעשות זאת והרבה חס ושלום יש בתלמוד בלשון הזה:

"It would be profane for us (Avoda Zara 4a); an expression of disgrace. Onkelos translates; 'chas to your servants' as, may there be chas from the Holy One, Blessed is He, upon us from doing this. There are many examples of this word in the Talmud as chas v'shalom"

This brings up a number of questions. What does chas mean? And does Rashi's first explanation agree or disagree with Onkelos?

The Rashi HaShalem edition (published by the Ariel Institute) has three possible answers:

a) Chas comes from the root חוס and means "pity". (Another possibility is that it comes from the root חסה which means "to protect". According to Klein, the two roots don't seem to be related - something I should have paid more attention to in this post.) Onkelos disagrees with the Gemara, and believes that chalila actually means "pity" - perhaps based on midrashim that explain ויחל משה (Shmot 32:11) as "he asked for pity and mercy". This is the explanation of the Lifshuto Shel Rashi by Rav Shmuel Gelbard, but the Rashi HaShalem rejects it for grammatical reasons. (The Mizrachi also explains the translation of Onkelos on 18:25 as due to a need to show that God doesn't need pity.)

b) Chas means "pity" but Onkelos is not giving a literal translation of chalila, but rather using an expression with the same meaning. If chalila is an oath, then chas would be more of a prayer, as the Mizrachi explains chas v'shalom - "may God bring mercy and peace upon us to prevent this from happening". (Rav Gelbard- as quoted in the Margolin Chumash Rashi - has a slightly different translation - "Have pity [on us that it should not happen] and [then] peace [will be with us].")

It also could be here that Onkelos would agree with Ibn Ezra (above) and not Rashi, and doesn't see chalila as associated with "disgrace".

c) Onkelos agrees with Rashi, but chas here means "desecration, disgrace" - like chalila. This is the opinion of Kohut in Aruch HaShalem (entry חס ). He writes that chas is related to an Arabic root meaning "contemptible". He rejects the opinion of the Mizrachi by saying that God is not mentioned anywhere in the verse (and therefore it should not be seen as a prayer.) He also writes that the shalom in chas v'shalom does not mean "peace" but "completely" and therefore the expression should be translated "completely disgraced".

Rashi HaShalem seems to find the second explanation the least forced, and I think I agree.

So we can see a development of the phrases meaning "God forbid" or "Far be it from me". The Tanach has chalila and the Talmud has חס לי and chas v'shalom. In the Middle Ages we begin to see chalila v'chas חלילה וחס and in more modern Hebrew we see chas v'chalila חס וחלילה .

It should be noted that the phrase chozer chalila חוזר חלילה - meaning "and so forth", referring to going around in a circle or loop, isn't related to chalila as desecration, but from the root חול meaning "to move in a circle." (We've seen some etymological confusion between those two meanings before.)

And after such a heavy post, I'll end with a joke brought by Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish.

Two Jews decide to assassinate the czar. They bring sharp knives and conceal themselves behind trees in a park where the Russian leader takes his daily stroll. Hours pass, and the czar fails to appear. At sundown one of them worries: “I hope nothing happened to him, chalila."

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malta

In this comment, Lonnie asked:

Someone once suggested to me that "Lot" is a play on the word "lehimalet" (See Bereishit 19:17(x2), 19, 20, 22) - or perhaps that should be that the verb lehimalet plays off the name Lot. Admittedly, a play on words does not necessarily reflect a real etymological connection.

It is an interesting theory - I've never seen it before. Certainly Lot was the first person to have the verb מלט -to escape -associated with him. Steinberg and Klein both point out that מלט -also to escape - is related to פלט - mem and peh, both labials, can alternate. In Modern Hebrew they've come up with a nice sounding phrase for input-output: kelet-pelet קלט-פלט.

Steinberg says that melet מלט - mortar (from Yirmiyahu 43:9) is related to the verb מלט, which can mean "to slip away", and mortar smooths the walls of a building (the verb חלק also means both "to be smooth" and "to be slippery".)

Lastly, as the title of this post hints, the name of the island country Malta may be related to the root מלט . As the Online Etymology Dictionary writes:

from L. Melite, perhaps from Phoenician melita, lit. "place of refuge," from malat "he escaped."

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lot

The origin of the name of Avraham's nephew, Lot לוט, is unclear. Sarna writes that the origin is unknown, presumably following Cassuto, who rejects a connection to the name Lotan in Bereshit 36:20 (which is the suggestion by Kil in Daat Mikra on Bereshit 11:27) or a connection to the old Egyptian name of the eastern portion of the Land of Israel - Ruten - as suggested by Paton in The Early History of Syria and Palestine.

However, Rabbi Eldad Zamir writes here that:

Lot is portrayed in a variety of different ways in the Torah, Midrash, and commentators. While at times he is portrayed as a positive figure, at times he is portrayed as a negative figure as well. This ambivalence can even be seen in Lot's name. 'Lot' has two possible meanings: it either comes from the noun lot (laudanum, a fragrant plant extract; see Bereishit 37:25, 43:11) or from the Aramaic verb lut (to curse; see Targum Onkelos, 12:3, et al.). Lot is either fragrant or worthy of curse.

Klein says that the name laudanum may derive from lot:

Probably related to Akka. ladunu, Arab. ladan ( = ladanum). Persian ladan is an Arabic loan word. Greek ledon ( = rockrose), whence ladanon ( = labdanum) is a Semitic loan word.

He also writes that the word "lotus" derives from lot, as does the Online Etymology Dictionary (who might be relying on Klein):

from L. lotus, from Gk. lotos, name used for several plants before it came to mean Egyptian white lotus (a sense attested in Eng. from 1584); perhaps from a Sem. source (cf. Heb. lot "myrrh")

Rashi on 37:25 identifies lot with לוטס - lotes as mentioned in the Mishna - Sheviit 7:6. However, the Mishna actually uses the word לוטם - lotem. Similarly, Shadal says that Onkelos translates lot as לטוס - but the edition of Onkelos that I have has the version לטום letom. This confusion could be related to a mix-up between the letters samech and mem-sofit, but there is also a plant called lotem - from which, according to Felix, the fragrance lot is made.

As to the Aramaic lut, Jastrow says it derives from the root לוט meaning "to cover", and the development to the meaning "curse" comes from a sense of "to talk secretly". The root לוט is used in the Hebrew phrase לוט בזה - lut b'zeh - meaning "hereby enclosed" (explained here).

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tzchok

We find the root צחק - "to laugh" a number of times in the story of Yitzchak (which isn't surprising, considering it is the source of his name.) The verb appears in both the kal form - צחק tzachak and the piel form - ציחק tzichek. Just as laughter itself can be interpreted many different ways (are you laughing at me or with me?) - so to does the verb have different connotations: joy (Bereshit 17:17, 21:6), surprise / disbelief (18:12-15), jesting (19:14), mocking / teasing (21:9) and intimacy / foreplay (according to Chizkuni) in Bereshit 26:8.

The root שחק is closely connected to צחק - both in meaning and form. As Al Silberman wrote in Mail-Jewish:

The verbs "tzachak" and "sachak" appear many times in Tanach. "Tzachak"occurs 15 times and "Sachak" occurs 51 times. Both have the same meaning; a"tzaddi" and "seen" are interchangeable consonants since they are formed from the same part of the mouth. I would like to offer up the following observation:

The form "tzachak" is used exclusively until the time of the Shoftim (Judges). The form "sachak" is used exclusively in the seforim written during the first Temple. Both forms appear in the seforim written after the destruction of the first Temple.

Thus, the subject name appears in the Torah and Yehoshua as Yitzchak. It appears exclusively as Yischak in Tehillim, Amos and Yirmiyahu. It appears again as Yitzchak in M'lochim (Kings) and Divrei Hayomim (Chronicles).

The following are to be noted:

1. Both forms are used in the same posuk in Shoftim (Judges) 16:25. See Malbim for his explanation.

2. There is a dispute in Bava Basra 14b (and following folios) dealing with Iyov's era (when he lived or when the sefer was written). Iyov uses "sachak" exclusively.

3. Tehillim 105:9 and 1 Divrei Hayomim 16:16 are the same exact posuk with variant spellings of the subject name.

In Modern Hebrew שחק means "to play", and צחק retained the meaning "to laugh".

Kutscher writes that the origin of tzchok is onomatopoeic- it imitates the sound of laughter. (The English word "laugh" is said to have similar origins.) He also writes that the Aramaic roots גחך and חייך are related to צחק and שחק , and that the original Semitic root was probably close to the Arabic צחך (dahak). Why did all these various forms come about? Through a process called dissimilation, where "similar consonant sounds in a word have a tendency to become different over time, so as to ease pronunciation." (For a good description of the process in Hebrew, see here. I should have looked at that post when I wrote about keshet.) So for example, by changing from צחק to שחק - we end up with only one emphatic consonant, which is easier to pronounce.

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bamah and bimah

In my synagogue, they recently fixed up the בימה bimah. That made me think that I should probably write a post about the difference between bimah and במה bamah.

Bamah is a biblical word, meaning a "high place". It is found often in the books describing the First Temple period, where it refers to altars in the open - not in the Temple. Because the Temple at that time was the only legitimate place for sacrifices, it gained the sense of "pagan altar". The word apparently comes from an earlier word meaning back - as in the Ugaritic bmt- "back of a person or animal", and it maintains that meaning in a few places in the Tanach as well (Tehilim 18:34, Yeshayahu 14:14).

Bimah is a post-biblical word meaning "platform, pulpit". Klein derives it

"from Greek bema ( = pace, step, platform, stage) which derives from the stem of bainein ( = to go), whence also basis (a stepping, pedestal)."

However, the important archaeologist William Albright believed that the Greek word was borrowed from the Semitic root, via Phoenician.

Both words mean "stage" in modern Hebrew, although in the synagogue, only bimah is used.

There seems to be some disagreement as to the origin of the word for "director" - במאי bamai. Almagor-Ramon writes that it is related to bimah, whereas Klein writes that the word was coined by A. Shlonsky from the word bamah. However, Klein feels this was in error, for the base of bamah is בום not במה.

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lamed

No, this isn't a post about the interesting blog LAMED, but about Hebrew's 12th letter. The letter lamed originally referred to an ox-goad or taming whip - see the noun malmad מלמד in Shoftim 3:31. However, the more familiar root is למד - meaning to learn or to teach. Klein writes that lamed got that association from being the "rod of the teacher", and the verb meant "to prick, sting, incite, goad".

Kaddari provides a long note with various theories as to the etymology of למד. Some say it comes from "to accustom an animal to carry a load"; other have "to connect, to bind".

Lamed alternates with resh ( שלשלת and שרשרת ) and nun ( לחץ and נחץ ). Additionally, as Jastrow writes "lamed as first radical letter often rejected in inflection" - the root לקח becomes קח . On the other hand, as Klein notes, "the lamed sometimes appears at the end of nouns as an additional consonant, as in גבעל ( = stalk, stem), כרמל ( = garden land.)"

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tzohar

In this weeks parasha (Bereshit 6:16), Noach is commanded to "make a tzohar in the ark" צֹהַר תַּעֲשֶׂה לַתֵּבָה

The word tzohar (or tsohar) appears only here in the Tanach and there are a number of explanations for the meaning:

• window (Onkelos, Rashi, Ibn Ezra) - based on tsohorayim צהרים - noon. The light of noon is compared to the light entering the ark via the window. Also related to zohar זוהר - brilliance. This may be the window mentioned in 8:6.
  
• lamp, or oil for a lamp (Menachem, Radak, Chizkuni)- based on yitzhar יצהר - oil.
  
• roof (Shadal, Cassuto, Kaddari) - via Arabic zahr, Akkadian seru, Ugaritic zr - meaning "back, top".
  
• luminous stone (Rashi) - based on a Midrash

Klein connects the first three interpretations. He offers a root צהר , meaning "to be bright, clear". He translates yitzhar as "fresh oil" and says it means either "that which newly appears" or "that which shines". He also writes that the Arabic zahara means "appeared, became visible", and this is connected to the roots meaning "back, top". Therefore tzohorayim means "culminating point, zenith". Stahl explains it somewhat differently, by saying that at noon, the sun begins turning away from us.

Based on the root צהר Ben Yehuda coined הצהיר - to declare, from the sense of putting something for all to see, in the light of day (the Biblical verb הצהיר - Iyov 24:11 - meant "to make yitzhar".) Apparently the coinage of Ben Yehuda (who died in 1922) caught on quickly, for the Balfour declaration (in 1917) is known as הצהרת בלפור - Hatzharat Balfour, and not הכרזת בלפור - Hachrazat Balfour which would have used the older verb הכריז.

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bidur

After discussing bilui בילוי - recreation, let's look at a similar word: bidur בידור - entertainment.

The verb בדר originally meant "to scatter, to disperse". According to Stahl, entertainment disperses your boredom and scatters your worries. The English word "sport" has a similar background. Sport derives from the word disport, whose origin is:

from Anglo-Fr. disporter "divert, amuse," from O.Fr. desporter, lit. "carry away" (the mind from serious matters), from des- "away" + porter "to carry," from L. portare "to carry"

You may have noticed that בדר resembles בזר and פזר - which also mean "to scatter". This makes sense, for we have seen that bet interchanges with peh, and dalet interchanges with zayin.

However, Stahl goes further, and suggests that בדר is part of a collection of roots that start with the letters בד. Steinberg, Jastrow and Horowitz all agree - and point out that these words all mean "single, separate (either as an adjective or a verb)".

Lets look at some examples:

• בדד and לבד - alone
  
• בד - bad - fabric. Klein writes that it may be related to בד meaning "part, portion".
  
• בדה - to invent, concoct. While the English word "fabricate" derives from "fabric", this doesn't seem to be the case here. However, Jastrow writes that this verb originally meant "to take out (a piece of dough)" and from here "to shape, to form".
  
• אבד - lost
• בדל - separated. This is the root of havdala הבדלה .
  
• בדיל - tin, alloy. Horowitz writes this "originally meant that which is separated from the precious metal".
  
• בדק - The word bedek originally meant "a breach" - something broken off (Malachim II 12:6). From here the verb developed to mean "to mend, repair", and Klein says that most scholars say that from that meaning came the sense "to examine, inspect".
  

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titchadesh

Today I was asked why do we say to someone wearing new clothes ! תתחדש - Titchadesh! The blessing is parallel to "Wear it in good health", but it literally means "renew (yourself)". How did this phrase come to be?

The Rama mentions in Orach Chaim 223:6 that there is a custom to say to someone wearing new clothes תבלה ותתחדש - tibale v'titchadesh. Other sources (quoted here and here) have תבלה ותחדש (this seems to me to be the more logical, perhaps the original.) The meaning of this phrase therefore means ''May you wear out (this garment) and buy a new (one).'' It is therefore a wish for long life.

Interestingly, the Rama writes that there are those that say that this blessing should not be said on shoes or clothes made of leather, because it is not proper to wish the death of another animal.
The verb בלה - to wear out - is the source of the term bilui בילוי - "recreation, pastime". How did we go from "waste" to "recreation"?

In Iyov 21:13 we find the phrase יבלו בַטּוֹב יְמֵיהֶם. Iyov is complaining about the wicked and how "they spend (waste) their days in happiness". The kri is יְכַלּוּ בַטּוֹב יְמֵיהֶם - "they will end their days in happiness". The verse has a negative connotation, but the phrase - through a misreading according to Amos Chacham in the Daat Mikra - has gained a positive sense, "recreation". I agree that there is certainly a linguistic change here, but I think perhaps more significantly over the years there has been a major shift in society's view of "free time". The entertainment industry could not have been contemplated not so long ago, before industrialization freed up so much of our time.

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lute

In my previous post I wrote:

Stahl writes that the spelling איד was probably influenced by another meaning of איד : "calamity, misfortune"

Klein writes that this meaning of איד derives from a Hebrew root אוד , meaning "to bend, to oppress". While he doesn't provide any examples of verbs with this root, he does say it may be the source of the phrase "al odot" על אודות meaning "because of, concerning". He writes:

Several scholars derive it from base אוד ( = to bend, turn, enclose) appearing in Arabic 'ada ( = he bent), SArab אוד ( = around, about). Compare Hebrew בגלל ( = on account of), which is related to גלל (= he rolled) and Medieval Hebrew סבה ( = cause) from Biblical Hebrew סבה (= a turn), from סבב ( = he turned, enclosed.)

As a side note, I find it interesting that Hebrew websites use the term אודות where English ones use "about". The meanings aren't exactly identical, but they have the same number of letters and a similar sound. It wouldn't be the first time English has influenced Hebrew this way (as we saw here.)

Steinberg goes even further than Klein. He gives the same definition to the root אוד ( to surround, to turn over) and agrees that איד and אודות derive from it. He also adds two more Hebrew words that have the same origin.

The first is ed אד - "vapor, steam" that we saw in last weeks parasha (Bereshit 2:6). He says that an ed is cloudlike, and the plant galgal גלגל also makes a cloud (Yeshayahu 17:13, Tehilim 83:14). Therefore there is a connection between ed and "to surround, turn over".

The other word that Steinberg connects is ud אוד - "firebrand, firestick". He writes that the fire is surrounding the stick. Amos Chacham in the Daat Mikra on Yeshayahu 7:4, while not discussing the etymology of ud writes that the purpose of an ud was to "turn over the wood and the coals in the oven in order to increase the flame". This also fits in with Klein and Steinberg's understanding of the root אוד .

Ben-Yehuda, in his dictionary (which I don't have regular access to unfortunately - it's a great resource), writes that there are those that derive ud from "to bend" while others connect it to the Arabic word for wood - also ud. This is the opinion of Klein and Stahl.

The connection between these various words is not clear. However, there is an interesting development from the Arabic word 'ud - "wood". From the meaning "piece of wood" came the musical instrument oud, whose name entered English. Additionally, the English word "lute" also derives from the same Arabic word:

from O.Fr. lut, from O.Prov. laut, from Ar. al-'ud, the Arabian lute, lit. "the wood" (source of Sp. laud, Port. alaude, It. liuto), where al is the definite article.

English seems to have a problem with "a" or "an" as a definitive article in foreign words, as we saw earlier with the word apron.

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eid ul-fitr

Next week the Muslim world will celebrate Eid ul-Fitr - the holiday marking the end of the month of Ramadan. The name Eid ul-Fitr literally means "the feast of the breaking of the fast". Not surprisingly, both "eid" and "fitr" have Hebrew cognates.

Hebrew has two related words meaning festival - עיד and איד . Both refer to non-Jewish holidays, and the first Mishna of Avoda Zara what business practices are permissible for Jews in the days leading up to those days. While our version of the Mishna says אידיהן - their festivals, the Gemara (2a) says that there are those that say the word in the Mishna should be עידיהן , and both versions are correct. Steinsaltz notes that this may be seen as a proof that the Mishna was not originally written down, but passed over orally.

According to Klein and others , the word eid עיד is related to the word od עוד - whose basic meaning is "repeat" or "do again", and therefore eid means "that which returns (every year)". From עוד we get a number of words: ed עד - witness, "someone who repeats what he says, i.e. affirms that it is true" and idud עידוד - encouragement, "do it again!". However, as Mike Gerver points out:

Hebrew מועד, “festival,” in spite of its similarity in meaning and spelling to Arabic ‘id, is not related, but literally means “appointed time,” and comes from the word יעד, “appoint.”

Stahl writes that the spelling איד was probably influenced by another meaning of איד : "calamity, misfortune", and was used derogatively towards the non-Jews, or referred to the difficulties the Jews had during those festivals. Gloating in Hebrew is שמחה לאיד - joy at someone else's misfortune.

Fitr is related to a more recognizable Hebrew root - פטר . The basic meaning of the root is "to break" - and from here the name of the Muslim holiday. In fact, the Arabic word for the breakfast meal in the morning is ftor. From פטר we get a number of words:

• peter פטר - "first-born", the child that breaks through, opens the womb
• pitria פטריה - fungus, mushroom. Stahl writes that the name comes from the way the pitria "breaks out" from the ground or the tree.
  
• לפטר - to dismiss, release from the sense "to break away"
  
• פטור patur - exempt, released from an obligation
• נפטר niftar - died, originally from the phrase נפטר מן העולם - departed this world
• התפטר - he quit, released himself
• הפטרה haftara - the reading from the Prophets after the reading of the Torah. From the meaning "to release" developed a meaning "to conclude", and so it referred to "a conclusion from the Prophets"

Steinberg writes that פטר is related to the the root with similar sound and meaning: בתר - "to cut off".

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racquet

We've recently discussed yad יד and kaf כף - two Hebrew words meaning "hand". Now lets look at another Semitic root meaning "(palm of the) hand". The Semitic Etymology database provides a number of related words:

• Akkadian: rittu
• Ugaritic: rḥt
• Arabic: rāḥat

as well as many other Semitic languages that I've frankly never heard of.

The Arabic rahat developed into the English "racquet" (but not the unrelated "racket" meaning "noise"). From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

c.1500, "device used in tennis, etc.," probably originally "tennis-like game played with open hand" (c.1385), from Fr. requette "racket, palm of the hand," perhaps via It. racchetta or Sp. raqueta, both from Arabic rahat, a form of raha "palm of the hand."

Klein points out that an early form of tennis was called in French "jeu de paume" - "game of the palm (of the hand.)"

What about Hebrew? We find one related word in the Tanach: rachat רחת in Yeshayahu 30:24. There it means "winnowing shovel". In modern Hebrew rachat means spatula, which goes along with Rashi's commentary on Yeshayahu. He offers the Old French pele, which in the related English "peel" means "a shovel-like tool used by bakers".

There is one issue that is not entirely clear to me. Klein connects rachat to the other Semitic cognates meaning "palm of the hand". That makes sense both in terms of the structure of the word, and also in regards to the similarity of shape between a winnowing shovel (a kind of pitchfork) and a hand.

However, Klein also follows the Radak (and later Jastrow and Steinberg) who claim that rachat is related to ruach רוח wind. This also makes sense, for winnowing means "to separate the chaff from (grain) by means of a current of air", and the English word winnow derives from "wind".

But I don't understand Klein's statement, where he says that the Semitic words for palm of the hand "probably derive from רוח ( = wind)." Other than perhaps waving, what is the connection between hands and wind?

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jumper

Yesterday we wrote that the two roots כפף and גבב are related to each other and both have a meaning of "bent".

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, one of these roots may be the source of a common word in English.

Here they provide the etymology of jumper:

1. A sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or sweater. 2. A loose, protective garment worn over other clothes. 3. A child's garment consisting of straight-legged pants attached to a biblike bodice. Often used in the plural. 4. Chiefly British A pullover sweater.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably from jump, short coat, perhaps from obsolete jup, bodice, from obsolete French juppe, from Old French jupe, jube, from Italian giuppa, giubba, from Arabic jubba, long garment with wide open sleeves, from jabba, to cut. See gbb in Appendix II.

And under gbb they continue:

Also kpp. To be(come) bent, curved, to cut

I'm not actually sure of the connection between "bent, curved" and "cut". Perhaps they are referring to the root קבב . Klein provides two entries for that verb. The first means "to utter a curse", and he says perhaps it is related to נקב - "to pierce". The second means "to be bent, crooked", and is probably related to גבב. He connects both entries with the meaning "to hollow out" - maybe this is somehow related to "cut".

Rosenthal writes that the Hebrew slang for money - juba ג'ובה - comes from the Arabic jubbah as well, although he also mentions jeb, Arabic for pocket.

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kaf

The 11th letter in the Hebrew alphabet is kaf (or kaph): כ

The letter gets its name due to its similarity to the shape of the palm of a hand: כף היד kaf hayad. Besides meaning "hand, palm of the hand", kaf can also mean "sole of the foot", "pan, censer", branch (of a palm tree - כפות תמרים kapot tamarim, the Torah's name for lulav), handle, scale, spoon. The word kfafa כפפה - glove, kapit -כפית - teaspoon, and kafkaf כפכף - "wooden shoe, clog", all come from kaf. According to Klein, "all of these words derive from base כפף and literally mean 'that which is bent'".

From כפף - "to bend, be bent" and the related verb כפה -"to force, compel" we get a number of words:

• kfifa - כפיפה - wicker basket, perhaps called so because of a bent shape. When two people can't work together, it is said they can't live בכפיפה אחת - "in the same basket".
  
• kfia - כפיה - compulsion. A big issue in Israeli politics is always kfia datit כפיה דתית - "religious coercion."
• kippah כיפה - originally meaning "arch, vault, dome" and later "cap, skullcap"

However, the Arabic headdress keffiyeh gets its name from the town of Kufa, Iraq, where it was originally manufactured.

Kaf alternates with kof (qof) and gimmel - as can be seen by Stahl, Klein and others who say that כף is related to קב and גב - all having meanings related to "bend".

An interesting etymological side note: kaf means both the "palm" of the hand and the branches of "palm" trees. In English, the two meanings of "palm" are related, but they derive from an earlier root meaning "spread out, flat", whereas the Hebrew kaf means "bent".

(A less interesting, non-etymological side note. After my post on uchmanit, I have received a number of hits that seem to come from people looking for information about Blackberry devices in Hebrew. Am I going to get similar ones for people looking for information about Palm Pilot handhelds in Hebrew?)

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