There are many theories as to the etymology of the word "mafia." One of the leading ones says it comes from the Arabic marfud  -...

A Spanish word that has entered English slang is loco  - "crazy." The Online Etymology Dictionary provides the following origin: ...

The word for gerbil , the small rodent, has Semitic origins : 1849, gerbile , from French gerbille , from Modern Latin Gerbillus , the genus...

According to Klein , the Hebrew preposition etzel  אצל means "by the side of, beside, near." Milon Morfix (a more recent resource...

The Hebrew root pakad פקד has many meanings. Some of them seem to be opposites. For example, a mifkad  מפקד is a census, where those present...

A number of years ago, I discussed the root סכן and the relate words misken, sakana and sochen . One of the words I mentioned was מסוכן mesu...

Here's one I wouldn't have ever thought of.  "Gambit" is a ploy or strategy, used to gain an advantage. The Online Etymolo...

The English word "gala" today means "festival, celebration." But it originally meant "festive dress." Klein su...

When I was a kid, I realized that while I clearly knew what "metal" was, it was difficult to define.  Metal is hard? Well, so is w...

On the breastplate of the High Priest, were affixed twelve gemstones (Shemot 28:17-20). There is almost no mention of most of them anywhere ...

 A phrase often used in eulogies (too frequently heard these days) is taken from this passage Bava Batra 91a-b: And Rav Ḥanan bar Rava says ...

What is the origin of the Hebrew word for "nerd" - חנון khnun ?  At first glance, it might seem that chnun  is related to the Hebr...

The most common English translation for the Hebrew word malach  מלאך is "angel." Is that a good translation?  Well, it depends. If...

 I don't discuss grammar much here, because I don't feel confident in explaining all the intricacies of the various rules of Hebrew ...

 Way back in 2006 , I mentioned briefly the etymology of segulah : segula סגולה - "property" is related to the Akkadian word sugu...

 The English word "boss" is so common, I would never had assumed it had a possible connection to Hebrew. It likely entered into En...

 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...