A reader asked about the origin of the biblical word be'ir  בעיר, meaning "cattle" or "domesticated animals." Let...

 A reader asked if there was a connection between the verb קשש - "to gather", and kashish  קשיש - "elderly."  I didn...

The Hebrew word for "electricity" is chashmal  חשמל. That is originally a biblical word, only appearing three times (all in the bo...

There are a lot of theories as to the origin of the word "almanac." Here's what the Online Etymology Dictionary has to say: l...

A number of readers have written to ask about a connection between beged  בגד - "garment" and begida בגידה - "betrayal."...

Over the past few months, I've been primarily using questions I received by email as inspiration for my posts here. While the volume o...

I've written about many of the words for directions in Hebrew, but I realized I never wrote about darom דרום - "south." Da...

The Hebrew word for the Divine Presence is shechinah שכינה.  It derives from the root שכן, meaning "to dwell, settle down," so th...

There are two Hebrew words that are very similar: shevet  שבט and matteh   מטה.  They both have the same two non-synonymous meanings: stick ...

The Hebrew phrase for "birthday" is יום הולדת yom huledet. While it's certainly a familiar phrase, it's actually kind of a...

 Is there any difference between the two Hebrew words for "here" - po  פה and kan כאן? They originate in different strata of Hebre...

I've discussed a few   times in the past that the root חרט means "to engrave", as in the word charita חריטה - "engraving...

I recently wrote an essay for the journal Tradition entitled " Words of Ailing, Words of Healing " where I discussed the origins o...

One of the most popular words in Israel slang is stam סתם. It means "just kidding." How did it come to mean that? In Biblical He...

In modern Hebrew, tzedek  צדק and tzedakah צדקה have very different meanings. Tzedek  is "justice, which is obligatory and compels all....

The Haggadah opens up with a song , to help the participants remember, via rhyme, the various actions they need to perform throughout the s...

The Hebrew word karov קרוב means "near." All the verbs that derive from the root of that word - קרב - mean "to come near, app...

A reader asked about the origin of the Hebrew word for diagonal - אלכסון alakhson. It first appears in Rabbinic Hebrew (also as lokhsan  לוכ...

I was recently asked if there was any connection between the root of the Hebrew word for engagement (i.e. betrothal) - ארוסין erusin (the ro...