In 2007, we discussed the Hebrew word for "cucumber", melafefon מלפפון. In the end of the post, I quoted an article that stated: ...

One of the most common queries I receive is if two similar looking words - one in Hebrew and one in English (or some other language) are rel...

 I was surprised to learn that the English word "cherry" may have Semitic roots. The Online Etymology Dictionary has the following...

The Hebrew word for "elbow" - מרפק marpek  is not of biblical origin. It first appears in Rabbinic Hebrew, for example in Mishna S...

If you haven't noticed, my recent posts have frequently referred to Klein's Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Lan...

For the past few decades, Amazon has been one of the most recognized brand names worldwide. The founder chose the name because of the exoti...

We've previously discussed the Hebrew word שקד  shaked , meaning "almond." But what about the etymology of the word "almo...

In an earlier post, we discussed the Semitic etymologies of two towns in upstate New York: Utica and Ithaca . Both are named for cities in t...

Mitchell First is a scholar of Jewish history who, like me, has a fascination with the origin of Hebrew words and phrases. He has published...

When I was a young kid, I visited Spain. It was my first overseas trip, and I really enjoyed it. We drove all over the southern part of the ...

 A while back , I discussed Hebrew words that begin with the letters קצ. In that list I wrote: קצה - cut, from it we have קצין, captain, jud...

The last post was discussing the word dfus  דפוס - "printing," and how it derives from the Greek  typos, meaning "type."...

As I've written before, I'm a major podcast listener, and am always looking for podcasts that discuss language, particularly the Heb...

The English word tripe has two definitions: 1 ...

In Pharaoh's famous dream, he was standing by the river,  "when out of the Nile there came up seven cows, handsome and sturdy, and ...

I recently came across an early draft of the speech my son prepared for his bar mitzva , ten years ago this month. It was rather nostalgic t...

The Hebrew word for jam or jelly , ribah ריבה, was coined by the father of modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. On that, everyone agrees. How...

I was recently asked if there is a connection between the English word "cameo" and the Hebrew word קמיע kamea  - "amulet....