saraf

In this weeks parasha (Chukat) we see that as a punishment God sends: הַנְּחָשִׁים הַשְּׂרָפִים - the serafim snakes (Bamidbar 21:6). What is being referred to here?

According to Ibn Ezra and others, serafim is an adjective for the nahashim (snakes). As Rashi explains, they burn שורף - soref - with their venom. However, we eventually see the saraf taking its place as a noun. First, in the same story where it is placed on a banner. Yeshayahu (14:29, 30:6) refers to a שרף מועפף - a flying saraf (even the classic commentaries say that the snake would jump as if it was flying.) And apparently from the imagery of a flying snake, we get the famous description of the Seraphim angels (Yeshayahu 6:2,6) with their six wings.

The root שרף has a number of related roots, all following the same pattern: a sibilant consonant, followed by resh, followed by a labial consonant. And so we have:

• צרב - to burn, to scorch. From here we get the word צרבת - heartburn, and the verb לצרוב is used to describe "burning" CDs and DVDs.
• שרב - to glow, be parched, as in sharav - burning heat (I discussed the similar hamsin here).
• צרם - Steinberg adds this root, which is understood as originally "to cut", "to grate (on the ears).
• צרף - to smelt, to refine, and later to attach, to join and to change money. Klein says that the word literally means "to purify by burning." From here we get the word tzrif צריף - meaning according to Klein "a cone shaped hut, literally 'that which is joined together'." Today it is used to describe a bunk - in camp, or in the army.

Steinberg writes that the city Tzarfat צרפת - originally referring to a Phoenician town, but later associated with France - got its name from the glass manufacturing which developed in the region.
Also from צרף we get the English word "silver":

Middle English, from Old English siolfor, seolfor, probably ultimately from Akkadian sarpu, refined silver, verbal adj. of sarapu, to smelt, refine.

Klein points out that the root רצף - "to make continuous" is a metathesis of צרף, the source of ritzpa רצפה - floor. A similar word is the noun רצף retzef - meaning "burning coal". Stahl connects retzef with reshef רשף - "flame"; perhaps this is another metathesis of the previous pattern of "burning" verbs.
Another meaning of שרף is "to absorb, sip, suck, quaff". While Klein does not connect the two meanings, Jastrow associates "sip and absorb" with "consume and burn". Interestingly, Jastrow translates the midrash on נחשים שרפים (Bamidbar Rabba 19:22) which states: השרפים ששורפים את הנפש: "they are called burning serpents, because they burn the life out (with thirst)."
As far as this second meaning, Klein writes that "several scholars connect this base with Arab. sharib (= he drank), sharab (= drink, beverage)." From this root we get a number of English words:

• sherbet, sorbet - 1603, zerbet, "drink made from diluted fruit juice and sugar," from Turk. serbet, from Pers. sharbat, from Arabic sharba(t) "a drink," from shariba "he drank."
• syrup - 1392, from O.Fr. sirop (13c.), and perhaps from It. siroppo, both from Arabic sharab "beverage, wine," lit. "something drunk," from verb shariba "he drank"
• shrub - A beverage made from fruit juice, sugar, and a liquor such as rum or brandy. From Arabic surb, a drink, from sariba, to drink

Lastly, is there a connection between saraf and the English "serpent"? In the entry for שרף meaning "drink", Klein writes "cp. also 'serpent' in my CEDEL and words referred to in that entry."
However, in the CEDEL he lists serpent as coming from Latin serpens, which it says is probably the present participle of serpo, serpere, "to creep." No other serious source I could find connects the two words. I wrote to etymology maven Mike Gerver, and asked what he thought. This is his reply:

This is my guess. His remark about seeing the entry for "serpent" in CEDEL doesn't really make sense under שרף-ii, "to absorb," which is where it is printed. It would make more sense two entries down, under שרף-i (with kametz under the ש and the ר), "serpent." Probably his index cards got out of order (I've seen other places where this seems to have happened), and what he meant by that remark is that שרף meaning "serpent" might have been a loan from Latin or another Indo-European language, rather than deriving from שרף meaning "fiery angel." Or possibly he's saying that the "fiery angel" meaning might have derived from the "serpent" meaning (which itself was borrowed from Latin), rather than from שרף meaning "to burn." Or more likely, maybe he's just suggesting that שרף meaning "serpent" was influenced by Latin, even though the word is really the same as the word meaning "fiery angel." That's the only one of these possibilities that strikes me as reasonably likely.

Anyone else out there have any ideas?

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nadir

Yesterday we discussed how the letter dalet alternates with zayin in the words נזר and נדר - both meaning types of vows. Steinberg connects those two verbs with two additional ones meaning "to guard" - נטר and נצר. He says they all have a sense of "placing a boundary".

There is an English word that comes from the same family of verbs, or at least the last two. Nadir means "the lowest point", coming from astronomy, where it means: "point on the celestial sphere directly below the observer, diametrically opposite the zenith."

Klein gives the following etymology:

Fren. nadir, from Arab. nazir in the term nazir assamt (lit.: 'the point opposite to the zenith'), from nazara (=he looked at; he considered, examined), which is related to Hebrew נצר ( = he watched over, guarded.)

The homonym nadir meaning "rare", has a different origin:

From Arab. nadr ( =rare), from nadara (= was rare) from nadara in the sense 'fell away, fell', which is related to Aram.-Syr. נדר ( = it sloped, was declivitous). See מדרון.

By the way, zenith also comes via Arabic, but originally derives from Latin. Klein writes:

Fren. zenith, from Sp. cenith, from VArab semt, corresponding to classical Arab samt (=way, path), abbr. of samt ar-ra's (= way over the head), from Latin semita (=path).

This may be the origin of sentry or sentinel - the semita was the sentry's beat. Somehow we got back to guarding again...

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dalet

The fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is dalet (or daleth). There is some disagreement over the original meaning and shape of the letter. As we can see from here, the shape either represented a door or a fish. The connection to door seems clear - the Hebrew word for door is דלת - delet. But to some the original shape did not seem door-like, and looked more like a fish. Therefore some claim that the original name of the letter was dag דג (or digg in Phoenician) - meaning "fish".

Why did the letter change its name? David Sacks writes in Letter Perfect that this was possibly part of the switching of a number of letter names. He claims that around 1600 BCE, the letter became dalet when the "N" letter switched from nahash (snake) to nun (fish). This was to avoid the confusion of having two letters both with "fish" names. (The "N" letter became "nun", according to Sacks, to bring it in line with the letter mem, meaning water. This would be easier for children learning the alphabet - "water" followed by "fish."

Philologos discusses this issue further here, and has another column here where he explains why the letter was pronounced dalet or daled in Ashkenazic Hebrew/Yiddish, and not "dales" (more on that also here.)

What of the origin of the word delet? Kutscher writes that delet is one of the few words in Hebrew with a two consonant root - the tav is not radical (שורשי in Hebrew, derived from the Latin word radix, which means "root"). His proof of this is the the word for doors in Akkadian is dalati - and ati is a suffix for plurals. We also see in Hebrew that dal דל can mean door - עַל-דַּל שְׂפָתָי (Tehillim 141:3).

Klein, Stahl and Steinberg all connect delet to דל, and particularly to the two verbal roots: דלה and דלל. How are they all related?

At first דלה and דלל would seem to be opposites. The root דלל means "to be low" and also means "to become poor (דל), to decrease, to dwindle, to dilute (unrelated etymology), to thin out".

On the other hand דלה means "to raise up" - as in אֲרוֹמִמְךָ השם, כִּי דִלִּיתָנִי - "I extol (lit. lift up) you, O God, for you have raised me up" (Tehillim 30:2).

The seeming contradiction can be resolved by looking at the original context of the imagery. The verb דלה originally meant to draw up water from a well - the Hebrew word for bucket is dli דלי. In other words - what goes down must come up (or as I once heard someone say: "I'm afraid of low heights, not high heights. If I ever fall off something high, as I approach the bottom, I'll wish I was back up high again."

On this basis, both Steinberg and Jastrow say that the meaning of דל is "to be suspended, swing". This is its meaning in Aramaic: בגדך מדלי - "do you depend (suspend yourself) on good luck?" (Yerushalmi Shabbat 15d). Stahl says that דלה is related to תלה - also meaning "to hang, to suspend."

This is the connection to delet meaning "door". As Jeff A. Benner writes here:

The basic meaning of the letter is “door” but has several other meanings associated with it. It can mean “a back and forth movement” as one goes back and forth through the tent through the door. It can mean “dangle” as the tent door dangled down from a roof pole of the tent. It can also mean weak or poor as one who dangles the head down.

This can help us understand another meaning of the root. According to Klein, dala דלה - can mean "thrum" - warp threads hanging in the loom (See Yeshaya 38:12).

Kutscher writes that delet can also mean a page, as in Yirmiyahu 36:23. According to a theory here, delet originally meant a "doorboard" and then developed the meanings of a "board, plaque, plate, or tablet." This sense of the word entered into Greek as deltos, and is still preserved in the word deltiology - the study of postcards, where deltos means "writing tablet, letter." (The word delta, coming from Greek and meaning "a triangular alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river" doesn't derive from a Semitic meaning of the word, but from the triangular shape of the letter.)

The letter dalet alternates with zayin - (נדר and נזר) as well as tet and tav (בדל בטל בתל).

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bul

The Hebrew word בול bul has four meanings:

a) a stamp
b) a lump, a block
c) produce (noun)
d) absolutely correct

Almagor-Ramon in Rega Shel Ivrit writes that there's no relation between them. Klein lists them all as separate terms. But is there any connection?

Where does the term for "stamp" come from? According to Almagor-Ramon, it comes from the same word in Arabic, who borrowed it from Turkish. The Turks borrowed it from Italian, where bolla means "seal". The Italian in turn comes from the Latin bulla, which is still used as the term for a papal edict - originally a "sealed document". This meaning gave rise to the English words bulletin and bill. The original meaning in Latin meant "round thing, knob, bubble" - which referred to the seal itself. From this earlier meaning we get in English bullet, bowling and boil.

The Latin term derived from the Greek bolos (or bulos) - a lump of earth, a rounded mass. This meaning of bul is found in Mishnaic Hebrew (Shabbat 67b) and perhaps even in the Tanach - Yeshayahu 44:19 (although there are those that say it comes from the meaning of "produce".)

While there are those that claim that the Mishnaic bul was borrowed from the Greek, the origin of the Greek word is less certain.

From the discussion here, we see that the American Heritage Dictionary states that the etymology of the Greek bolos is "of obscure origin". (The same discussion explains why the Greek verb for throwing - ballein- is unrelated to bolos.) Klein and Almagor-Ramon both say that the Akkadian bulu - a "block of dry wood" is related. So perhaps this is the source of the Greek bolos?

The meaning of "produce" derives from the Hebrew word yevul יבול meaning "produce, yield, fruit". This is the source of the Biblical name of the month of Cheshvan - ירח בול - yareach bul.

And what of bul meaning "absolutely right" or "straight on"? This one's from English - "bull's eye". How did this expression come about in English? The Word Detective gives the following explanation:

A "bull's-eye" is, of course, the center spot of a target, producing the highest score a shooter (whether in firearms, archery or another competition) can score. "Bull's-eye" is also used to mean a direct hit on such a spot, or, figuratively, the accomplishment of a goal with precision and finality ("Bob scored a bull's-eye on our quarterly sales quotas."). "Bull's-eye" first appeared in this "center of the target" sense around 1833.

The question is, however, why a "bull's-eye"? For the answer, we have to go a bit further back in time. Since the 17th century, "bull's-eye" has been used as a term for almost anything small and circular, especially if it protrudes slightly, forming a hemispherical bump resembling the protruding eye of a bull or cow. Thus, at various times, "bull's-eye" has been used to designate a thick piece of glass set into the deck of a ship to illuminate the lower decks, a one-crown coin of British currency, a globular piece of candy, and a small circular window, among other things. So although the spot in the center of a target doesn't protrude like a real "bull's eye," it is small and circular and thus fit the popular definition of "bull's-eye."

So how did this explanation of bul do? Was I קולע בול - right on target? Or did I come off as a בול עץ - a blockhead?

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bible

We know the Bible was composed of Hebrew words. But is the word Bible itself of Hebrew (or related) origin?

In his Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, Klein writes:

The Bible [L. biblia, from Gk. biblia (= collection of writings), pl. of biblion (= paper, scroll, book), which is the dimin. of biblos, byblos ( = the inner bark of papyrus; book), from Byblos, Gr. name of the famous Phoen. transit port, whence the Greeks received the Egyptian papyrus. Gk. Byblos has been assimilated from גבל, the Heb.-Phoen. name of the city (=lit.: 'frontier-town') cp. Heb. גבול (= frontier, boundary), Arab. jabal (=mountain). cp. jubayl, the actual Arab. name of ancient Gebhal (jubayl properly is a dimin. formed from the original name of the city).

And the Online Etymology Dictionary (which often borrows from Klein's Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language), writes in the entry for Bible:

early 14c., from Anglo-L. biblia, from M.L./L.L. biblia (neuter plural interpreted as fem. sing.), in phrase biblia sacra "holy books," from Gk. ta biblia to hagia "the holy books," from biblion "paper, scroll," the ordinary word for "book," originally a dim. of byblos "Egyptian papyrus," possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician port from which Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The port's name is a Gk. corruption of Phoenician Gebhal, lit. "frontier town" (cf. Heb. gebhul "frontier, boundary," Ar. jabal "mountain").

So I'm a little confused. There doesn't seem to be much disagreement that "bible" comes from Byblos. But did Byblos come from papyrus, or was it a corruption/assimilation of Gevul? As this site writes:

Byblos was the port for papyrus export to the Aegean countries, and their name for papyrus was byblos. Yet, it is not certain whether 'byblos' is derived from the town or if the town was named after the product exported.

Klein writes that papyrus (the source of the English "paper") is "of unknown etymology; said to be of Egyptian origin". Stahl provides two theories as to the source of papyrus - either from the Caananite/Hebrew pif-yeor פיפ-יאור - meaning "fringe of the Yeor (the Nile)", or the more likely Egyptian pa-p-yeor "this is of the Yeor" (or pa means "a plant".) Interestingly, the Hebrew word for paper, niyar נייר, according to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, has a similar etymology: it is an abbreviation of ni-yeor ני-יאור - a sheet from the Yeor.

So while Byblos may come from papyrus (which might have a Semitic origin), let's look at the other possibility - the town of Gevul. This is a very ancient port town, between Beirut and Tripoli. It is mentioned in Yechezkel 27:9, and its inhabitants may be referred to in Malachim I 5:32.

The Hebrew word gvul גבול can mean either territory or boundary, and has cognates in Phoenician, Punic and Arabic. It originally meant "mound" - often used to mark borders, and this is related to the Arabic jubal or jabal, meaning mountain. Horowitz points out that the two letters גב provide many words that mean prominent, high, upper. Here are a number of them:

• גבוה - high
• גבעה - hill
• גבור - strong man
• גבב - heap up, pile up, the source of גב - back
• גבן - hunchback - the back rises high
• גבוש - pile of stones, גיבוש - crystallization
• גבח - high, tall, as well as גבחת - high forehead, baldness in front
• גבל - knead, give the shape of a mound

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chitui

This week's parasha (Chukat) opens with a description of the procedure of purification from contamination by a corpse, most notably with the ashes of a red cow. It is interesting that one of the verbs mentioned in the process (Bamidbar 19:12) is yit'chata יתחטא - "he shall cleanse himself". There would seem to be a connection between yit'chata and chata חטא - "he sinned". But aren't those terms opposites?

In addition to the hitpael form found here, we find the piel form חיטא in other places in the Tanach. This too means to cleanse, and chitui חיטוי in modern Hebrew means a disinfectant. Again, what is the connection between chitui and chet חטא - sin?

We are familiar with such contradicting terms in English as well. They are called autoantonyms, or contronyms, meaning a homonym which is also an antonym. Some of them are just coincidences with unrelated etymologies such as cleave, meaning both "adhere" and "separate". But there are a number of words in English where the verb means to remove the noun. "To peel" means to remove the peel, "to pit" means to remove the pit, "to dust" means to remove dust, "to shell" - remove the shell, "to seed" - to remove the seeds.

According to Ruth Almagor-Ramon in the book Rega Shel Ivrit, Hebrew has the same phenomenon as well, in the piel form of some verbs, where it can mean "to remove". Shoresh שורש is a "root", להשתרש is "to take root" but לשרש is "to remove from the roots". The verb סקל means "he stoned, executed by stoning", but סיקל means "he freed from stones". Zanav זנב means "tail", but according to Klein, לזנב means "he routed the rear of an army, lit. "he cut off the tail."

And therefore we can understand the connection between chitui and chet, as an example of a contronym. The verb חיטא means "to free from sin, to cleanse from sin". Yit'chata - "he shall free himself (from sin, impurity)."

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kamatz

According to Klein, the root קמץ means "to enclose with the hand, grasp, take a handful, close, shut". By a switch of the labial consonants, we find two other related verbs with similar meanings: קפץ and קבץ, to which Klein adds כוץ as well. He also connects it with the Aramaic קמעא, meaning a little, a handful. It also might be connected to קמיע kamia - an amulet, related to the Arabic "qama'a (= he tamed, curbed, bridled.)" Steinberg goes further and connects קמץ and the other verbs above to a series of words beginning with the same two letters and having related meanings: קמט - "to grasp" or "to wrinkle", and kemach קמח - flour ground fine and small.

From קמץ we get a number of interesting words. A kamtzan קמצן is a miser, who holds his hand tight. Jastrow provides us with three small animals named kamtza קמצא - a locust (the related קפץ means "to hop"), an ant ("scraper, collector") and a snail (which Jastrow feels might be an error for לימצא, and Steinsaltz on Shabbat 77b says that comes from the Old French limace, meaning slug or snail.)

There are some drashot that connect the name Kamtza, from the famous story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, with kamtza meaning locusts. However, Steinsaltz (Gittin 55b) says the name Kamtza derives from the Greek kompsos, meaning elegant and refined, but also with a more negative meaning - crafty.

According to some, Medieval Latin camisia is a borrowing through Late Classical Greek kamision from the Central Semitic root קמץ represented by Ugaritic qms ('garment') and Arabic qamis ('shirt'). From camisia we get such English words as camisole and chemise.

[Others, however claim the development worked in the opposite direction: that Arabic qamis is derived from the Latin camisia (shirt), which in its turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European kem ('cloak').]

Another derivative of קמץ is the vowel kamatz (or qamatz). According to Horowitz (pg. 56):

The verb קמץ means to draw together. The Ashkenazim pronounce the קמץ with lips drawn together. That's how the vowel got its name. If the men who wrote our present niqud pronounced the קמץ as do the Sephardim, "ah", they would certainly have never called it קמץ.

While he doesn't mention it, I assume that explains the vowel פתח patach (open) as well.

As a final note, to return to the subject of shirts, Stahl writes that there were those who suggested calling a T-shirt in Hebrew a hultzat kamatz חולצת קמץ (based on the T shape of the kamatz), but it never caught on...

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canyon

In 1986, when developer David Azrieli built Israel's first mall, he also coined the catchy name: קניון - kanyon (or kanion or canion.) It is a combination of kniya קניה (shopping) and chanyon חניון (parking place) - both two major draws for a mall. I'm sure it also had the allure of a foreign word, sounding like the English word "canyon". (In fact, today one of Israel's largest malls is the Grand Kanyon in Haifa). I wonder, however, if he realized the Semitic roots of "canyon" when he came up with the term.

The English word canyon was borrowed from the Spanish cañon, which meant "a pipe, tube, gorge". The Spanish word derived from the Latin canna, and earlier the Greek kanna, meaning "reed". Many English words derive from either the Greek or Latin, including canister, cannon, canon, caramel, can, canal, cane, channel, canasta and canneloni.

The Greek kanna derived from the Semitic word (maybe Hebrew?) for reed - קנה kaneh. According to Klein, kaneh has many meanings: stalk, reed, cane, beam of scales, shaft of lampstand, arm of lampstand, length of a reed, and in later Hebrew - windpipe.

One of the interesting meanings is "beam of scales". In Yechezkel 40:3 we read of וּקְנֵה הַמִּדָּה - a "measuring rod" -- knei mida has the meaning in modern Hebrew of "criterion" or "scale". In the continuation of the chapter we see Yechezkel use kaneh as a measurement for building.

Kaneh was used for another type of measurement in Yeshayahu 46:6 - וְכֶסֶף בַּקָּנֶה יִשְׁקֹלוּ -- "and weigh out silver on the beam [of the balance]". From here Klein writes that some scholars say that the meaning of קנה - "to buy" comes from kaneh as well. He points out that there is a similar sense development in Aramaic, where זבן - "he bought" is probably borrowed from the Akkadian zibanitu - "balance, pair of scales". Yeshayahu makes a play on words using the double (and perhaps connected meanings) in 43:24 - לֹא-קָנִיתָ לִּי בַכֶּסֶף קָנֶה -- "You have not bought me fragrant reed with money".

So we can see that David Azrieli certainly had historical basis to make a play on words with canyon and kanah...

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gematria

After discussing gimmel, here's an interesting word that might have a connection. Gematria גמטריה - refers to a system where each Hebrew letter has a numerical value, and therefore words are represented by numbers as well.

The most obvious origin of the word would be the Greek geometria (later English geometry) meaning "measurement of earth". Alan Cooper wrote in Mail-Jewish that:

Shaul Lieberman derived gematria from geometria, and this interpretation was supported in the article in Tarbiz ... by S. Sambursky, Tarbiz 45 (1975/6) 268-71; also in English, in Journal of Jewish Studies 29 (1978) 35-38.

However, Horowitz writes that the "word sounds like 'geometry' but has absolutely nothing to do at all with that word". He claims that gematria "really means the way of reckoning where gamma גימל equals tria, three".

Klein rejects both of these approaches, and says it is probably "a metathesis of Gk. grammateia (=play upon letters), from gramma (= letter; lit. 'that which is written')." This would seem to be connected to another theory that Alan Cooper mentioned:

Bacher derived it from grammateus, which is simply the Greek equivalent of Latin notarius ("stenographer"), the basis for the term notariqon.

I'll end off with a quote from Pirkei Avot:

רבי אלעזר בן חסמא אומר, קנין ופתחי נדה הן הן גופי הלכות. תקופות וגמטריאות פרפראות לחכמה.

"Rabbi Eliezer Hisma said: the laws of bird offerings and the the laws regarding the beginning of menstrual periods are essentials of the Halakha. The calculation of the equinoxes and gematria are the desserts of wisdom."

So while this might not be the most essential subject, it's still nice to have dessert now and then...

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gimmel

The third letter of the Hebrew alphabet is gimmel - גימל. The sound of gimmel - "G" is strongly related to the "K" sound. David Sacks writes in Letter Perfect, that:

No two letters of the alphabet are closer than C and G, fraternal twins in shape and sound. Settle your tongue and make the sound "k", which shoves air along the rear roof of your mouth (the velum, or soft palate). Leave your tongue in place, but this time start from your vocal cords: "g". Thus C (or K) is the unvoiced velar stop; G is the voiced velar stop. The kinship can be heard in the word "scorn," which would be pronounced much the same if spelled "sgorn." (Another example: On your next memo to your boss, try writing across the top "As we disgust.")

In Hebrew we see the same connection. Gimmel alternates with kaf and kuf (qof) -

• קובע, כובע, מגבעה (all kinds of hats)
• רגל and רכל
• סכר and סגר
• זגוגית and זכוכית
• and the pattern that we saw with קצ meaning cut, continues with גז as well: גזה, גזז, גזר, גזל, גזם, גזע

This also helps to explain why C became the third letter in English, instead of G. The Greeks converted gimmel into gamma, but the Etruscans who borrowed the writing from the Greeks, had no G sound. The nearest sound was "k" and so they turned gamma into "C". Later, the Romans needed a letter for the G sound, and created the letter "G".

We see another G/C connection in the origin of the letter gimmel as well. Gimmel is related to Hebrew gamal גמל - which became kamelos in Greek and later camel in English. There are scholars who believe that the shape of gimmel is not the "camel's neck", but refers to a hunter's "throwing stick". However, unlike some of the other letter changes (dag to delet, nahash to nun), I'm not familiar with a Hebrew word that relates to gaml as "throwing stick". But maybe a reader will be able to help us out.

The root גמל has three meanings. As mentioned it can refer to a camel - gamal. It can mean "to wean" or "to ripen" - גמילה in modern Hebrew refers to recovering from an addiction, and in this weeks parasha (Korach) we have the phrase (BaMidbar 17:23): וַיִּגְמֹל שְׁקֵדִים - "almonds were ripening". And the third meaning is "to pay, reward, recompense". From here we get the blessing "HaGomel" - הגומל לחייבים טובות - God rewards the guilty with favors. Also from this meaning comes the term gemilut chasadim גמילות חסדים - often translated as "acts of loving-kindness". (This reminds me of a joke I heard as a kid: "Q: What did the robbers say to the group of Habadniks? A: Gimme loot, chasidim!")

Klein does not find a connection between the meanings. The meanings for camel and payment have parallel words in other Semitic languages and do not derive from any earlier word. The meaning of "to ripen, to wean", according to Klein, is related to the root גמר - "to be complete".
Kaddari connects both verbs to the concept "to be complete". In Hebrew it makes more sense, and he writes that the root means: היה שלם, השלים, שילם - "was complete, completed, paid". Steinberg also connects גמל to שלם (and maybe influenced Kaddari, although I don't see any references to Steinberg in Kaddari's new dictionary), and connects the verb to "camel" as well. He says that one of the meanings of the verb גמל is "to put into actions one's plans (Yeshaya 3:9, Tehilim 137:8)." And therefore it is connected to the nature of the camel, who is always ready to serve.

Jastrow has a different theory. He says all the meanings of גמל are related "to tie, couple, load". So to pay is "to load (good or evil) on". And the camel is a "carrier of loads".

One last explanation comes from Rav Hirsch - he says a gamal is so called because it is as if it is weaned from water.

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pareve

After yesterday's post about lishkah, I thought I'd try to tackle a big etymological mystery that may have a connection.

The word is pareve (or parev or parve or parevine) פרווה and it means food that is neither meat nor dairy. Stahl quotes a journal that came up with no less than 15 different answers to the question: what is the origin of the word pareve? He doesn't give their answers, so I'll list here what I can pull up.

Menachem Mendel wrote about this a few months ago. After quoting some theories (which we'll review) he writes:

Thanks to some of what I found on the web I arrived at an article by David L. Gold, an authority on Yiddish. The article's title is "Towards a Study of the Origins of Two Synonymous Yiddish Adjectives: Pareve and Minikh" in Jewish Language Review 5 (1985). Gold's conclusion is that the origins of pareve are probably Latin by way of Czech and Polish. The Latin word par means pair. In Czech we find parovy and in Polish parowy. Pareve foods can be "paired" with either milk or meat. Since Latin did not influence either Czech or Polish until the Christinization of their countries, Gold dates these words to no earlier than the ninth or tenth centuries and that "there would be no problem of chronology if we posited that pareve is of immediate Czech or Polish origin." In Gold's opinion "the Polish-Czech hypothesis is the only one tenable one in light of currently available data."

A commenter that post, Joe in Australia had another suggestion:

I always assumed that it meant "little" or inferior (Latin parvus). That is, it referred to things like bread that had not been improved with dairy or animal fats.

A good source for etymologies of Yiddish words is the Mendele discussion list, where Les Train wrote:

I understood that pareve came from Old Czech or Old Polish, and ultimately from the Latin parus - meaning equal, neither more to one side than to another (latin par- and slavic ov-/ev- suffix). Thus, pareve means neither here nor there; just as much milekhdik as fleyshik.

Also on Mendele, Alan Astro wrote:

Professor Herbert H. Paper once suggested that etymologically pareve may be related to French pareil ("same, similar"; the final L is not pronounced as an L but as a y glide). Other Romance words in Yiddish also occur in the religious sphere: bentshn, tsholnt, orn ("to pray" in Western Yiddish), leyenen (which would include reading from the Torah). In modern French, c'est pareil is commonly used to mean "it doesn't matter which one."

Another good list is Mail-Jewish. Perets Mett wrote in 2005:

The Yiddish word for steam is 'pa-re' - surely from a Slavic root. Now steam has no taste smell or colour, it is truly neutral. So anything which is neutral is 'steam-like' or 'pare-v' using the 'v' adjective marker.

(On Mendele, Reuven Frankenstein expanded on this idea by saying that pareve meant "cooked in steam, neither with butter, nor with lard".)

In 1994 Stuart Einbinder wrote:

I was told many years ago that the etymology of the word pareve was from the Spanish verse "PARa todo los VEces" ("for all times"), meaning that the food could be eaten at all times.

Also that year, Rabbi Shalom Carmy wrote:

I suspect that Parve means "poor" from the Latin. The Masora Gedola is called, in Latin, Masora Magna; Masora Ketanna=Mesora Parva.

And in response to a query of mine in 1999, Joseph Geretz wrote:

There was a chamber in the Bais Hamikdash (Holy Temple) called the Bais HaPareve (the Pareve chamber). This chamber was half in the Ezras Kohanim and half in the Ezras Yisrael, 'neither here nor there' so to speak. Therefore, the term Pareve has come to mean neither meat nor dairy.

This connects back to lishkah, for it was also known as Lishkat HaParva. According to Jastrow under פרווה:

Parva, name of a Persian builder and magian, from whom a compartment in the Temple was supposed to have been named.

Another Temple related explanation is from Macy Nulman in The Encyclopedia of the Sayings of the Jewish People, as quoted in The New Joys of Yiddish:

Pareve is derived from parbar, a Talmudic word pertaining to a small passageway in the Temple that "helped to make the whole Temple court fit for the consumption of most holy sacrifices and the slaughter of minor sacrifices."

The Hebrew word here is פרבר, also spelled פרור. Klein defines it as "a structure attached to the Western side of Solomon's temple", and from here we get the modern Hebrew word for suburb - parvar - (I assume due to the way the suburb is "attached" to the city).

Aish HaTorah also has a couple of suggestions:

The Yiddish word "Pareve" may have its roots in the Hebrew word "Pri" - meaning fruit. Fruit is, of course, neither dairy nor meat. In Yiddish, "ve" is frequently added when turning a noun into an adjective.

Alternatively, in old French, "parevis" is the term used for a vacant lot in front of a Temple. This vacant lot stands between the mundane street and the sanctified house of worship. Similarly, Pareve food lies between the two extremes of dairy and meat.

How many do we have so far?

Of course it is clear that the more suggestions we find, the less likely it is that we can say with certainty that one is correct. But the "correct" answer isn't really what interests me this time. What this really shows is just how interesting etymology can be - to the point that everyone wants to come up with a possible answer. If there weren't words like pareve, it wouldn't be nearly as fun...

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lishkah

We've discussed Biblical Hebrew words that entered Greek (and later English): arbiter from erev, cider from shekhar and more.

And of course there are many Greek words that entered into post-biblical Hebrew: afikoman, kalpi, etc.

But what about a Greek word that entered into Biblical Hebrew?

Chaim Rabin, in his essay "A Short History of the Hebrew Language", writes (page 32):

[in] the days of Solomon, when we find the undoubtedly Greek lishkah "hall", from Greek leshke "public hall," lit. "place for chatting".

He is talking about a sort of office found in the Temple. (The word means "bureau" in modern Hebrew). Both Klein and Kaddari say lishkah לשכה derives from the word נשכה nishka - another type of work room. But Rabin wrote with great certainty, and his credentials are as solid as Klein's and Kaddari's.

The most famous Lesche was the Lesche of the Knidians at Delphi. Most translations for lesche go along with Rabin's idea - "club room", "place to talk". But I was unable to find anything explaining the etymology of lesche using that definition.

After doing some research, I found that the scholar of Greek religion Walter Burkert wrote about the connection between lishkah (or lishka) and lescha (or lesche or leschai). He wrote an essay in German in 1993 entitled:

"Lescha-liskah: Sakrale Gastlichkeit zwischen Palastina und Griechenland." In Religionsgeschichtliche Beziehungen zwischen Kleinasien, Nordsyrien und dem Alten Testament: Internationale Symposion Hamburg, 17-21 Marz 1990. Edited by B. Janowski, et al., 19-38. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 129. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht.

I wrote to Prof. Burkert, who sent me the essay, but unfortunately, I don't speak German, so it is hard for me to fully understand it. However, I asked Prof. Burkert to explain to me in English about the etymology of lescha, and he provided a different interpretation than I had seen previously:

The etymology of lescha (Attic lesche), usually accepted, is from the Indoeuropean-Greek root lech- = English lie/lay, German legen/liegen, + a suffix -ska, lech-ska > lescha. The primary meaning then would be a room or or cabin to stay overnight; it is used for an additional building at sanctuary or a graveyard, where people assemble and stay together. Here the meaning of Hebrew lishkah seems identical: additional building at a sanctuary; no Hebrew etymology. My (not demonstrable)idea is that the word came to Palestine with the Philistines, who definitely had an Aegean background.

If I have any readers who understand German and would be interested in reading the essay and explaining its findings here, I'm sure many of us would be grateful.

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sherutim

Probably the most common term for restrooms/bathrooms/toilets these days in Israel is שירותים sherutim. (This is not to be confused with the same word for service taxis, minibuses that follow the same routes as city buses. I do remember being embarrassed, standing at the old Jerusalem Central Bus Station asking where are the sherutim, when I was looking for those taxis...)

Stahl asks what is the connection between sherutim and bathrooms? Sherutim comes from sherut, service, but he could find no one that calls bathrooms "services" in either English or French. (I've heard people call them in English "the facilities", but I don't think that influenced the Hebrew). He then goes on to present a theory of how the term came to be.

According to Stahl the earliest term for bathrooms in Hebrew is the Biblical מחראה machara'ah. It appears in Kings II 10:27, describing the fate of the temple of Baal:

וַיִּתְּצוּ אֶת-בֵּית הַבַּעַל, וַיְשִׂמֻהוּ למחראות (לְמוֹצָאוֹת) עַד-הַיּוֹם. "They tore down the temple of Baal and turned it into latrines as is still the case".

But we see here the beginning of a significant trend. The ktiv (the written form) of the word is macha'rah, but the kri (the read form) is מוצאות motzaot. The Radak comments that both terms refer to the same thing, but the latter, the one read out loud, uses cleaner language. However since both terms refer to excretory functions, another euphemism was needed. Rashi on the verse identifies מחראות with בית כסא beit kise. This sense, of a chair housing a chamber pot, gave rise to the French term - chaise percee .

However, this term too wasn't delicate enough, since it still referred to the nature of the room. So we find in the first mishna of Masechet Tamid a new term for the bathrooms found in the Temple- בית כיסא של כבוד - beit kise shel kavod. And what was its kavod (honor)? The mishna continues: וזה הוא כבודו--מצאו נעול, יודע שיש שם אדם; פתוח, יודע שאין שם אדם. "And this was its honor, if they found it locked, they'd know that someone was inside, and if it was open, they'd know no one was inside." In time, the new euphemism became בית הכבוד beit hakavod.

But in time, even beit hakavod needed a euphemism, and people began saying בית שימוש - the room for "using", to serve their needs. And from here, according to Stahl, it was only a small step to sherutim.

Of course this leads to the question: will sherutim need a euphemism in the future as well?

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bet

The name of the second Hebrew letter, bet ב, derives from bayit בית - house. Again, I recommend looking at this site for a "visual history" of the letter. Kutscher (p. 34) points out that in some parts of Ancient Israel and Canaan it was common to pronounce words that we say with "ai" as "e", even not in the construct state (smichut) . They would say (and write) ין yen instead of יין yayin, זת zet instead of זית zayit, בת bet instead of בית bayit, קץ ketz instead of קיץ kayitz (see Amos 8:1-2 for an example of a play on words that would be understood to those with this pronunciation).

Stahl gives three theories as to the origin of the word bayit. Some say it is connected to בנה - build, since a house is built. A second opinion is that it derives from בוא - enter, for people enter a house. His last idea is that it comes from the Aramaic בות, meaning to lodge, pass the night. Jastrow says that בות derives from בוא, and Kil and HaCohen in Daat Mikra on Daniel 6:19 say that בות might come from bayit (instead of the reverse as Stahl mentions.)

Steinberg has another theory - he claims that bayit - along with בוא and בין bein (between) all derive from the basic meaning of the letter bet as a prefix: "in" - as well as "on", "with" and "for". (Is this a case where I can end a sentence with a preposition?)

Bet alternates with its unvoiced counterpart peh (בזר פזר). You can hear how similar they are if you listen to the difference between the word "spin" and "pin" in English. It can also alternate with mem, particularly in place names (say mem words with a pinched nose and you'll see why.) The Romans called Yavne Iamnia (or Iamneia). The river Abana was also pronounced Amana. The connection between both alternates can be found in the following three words which all mean to breathe, to blow - נשב נשף נשם.

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tiyul

What does a tourist do in Israel? Go on a טיול tiyul, of course. Tiyul can be translated as "hike, journey, trip". Stahl points out that the original sense of לטייל l'tayel was a short stroll, walking around. This can be seen in the description of the righteous in Gan Eden (Sanhedrin 102b, Sifrei 357), and in Sukkah 28b where one is commanded to "אוכל שותה ומטייל בסוכה" - eat, drink and m'tayel in the sukkah. From tiyul we get the word טיילת tayelet, meaning promenade, as in the famous Haas Promenade in Jerusalem.

Tiyul is related to the root טול, meaning "to cast, to throw". From here we find that a hen "מטילה ביצים" - lays eggs, and casting doubt is "הטלת ספק". And the Hebrew word for missile - טיל til - also derives from טול. (Does anyone remember the Gulf war bumper sticker "Tehilim Neged Tilim" תהילים נגד טילים?)

Another connected root is טלטל, which also means "to throw", but also can mean "to move, to cause to move". Something movable or portable is considered metaltalin מטלטלין.

And lastly, טול is related to the root נטל, which means "to take, to lift".

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tor

In this weeks parsha (Shlach) we see that God gives the command:

שְׁלַח-לְךָ אֲנָשִׁים, וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת-אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן

What is the meaning of the verb תור? Milgrom translates it as "to scout":

Hebrew root t-w-r, "scout, seek out" (10:33, 15:39, Ezek 20:6); compare Akkadian taru, "turn around", that is, gather information but not necessarily of a military nature ... This verb contrasts with r-g-l, "spy out" (cf. Num 21:32; Josh 7:2, Judg 18:2). The Deuteronomic account (Deut 1:24) uses the verb "spy out" (cf. Josh 14:7)

As Milgrom points out, this non-military meaning also connects it to one of the last verses in the parsha:

וְלֹא-תָתוּרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם, וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם, אֲשֶׁר-אַתֶּם זֹנִים, אַחֲרֵיהֶם

meaning "You should not seek out, follow, after your heart and your eyes".

As an aside, I had always thought that there was a connection between תור - "to scout" and tor תור - dove. The role of the dove in the story of Noach was essentially to scout out, and to return. But Klein writes that the origin of tor (dove) is:

Of imitative origin. cp. L. turtur (=turtledove), which is also imitative. Eng. turte (in the sense of 'turtledove') derives from the Old Eng. turtle, which is formed from the L. turtur with dissimilation of the second r into l.)

I still think there may be an associative connection, if not an etymological one.

The related, earlier meaning of תור as "turn about" (and there doesn't seem to be a connection between "turn" and tor) gives rise to more modern senses of tor as appointment and queue. (See here for the difference between תור and טור in this regard). It is also the root of the difficult to translate, but very familiar toranut תורנות - meaning duty by rotation.

The Hebrew word for tourist, תייר tayar, also derives from תור. However, this meaning is much more modern, and influenced by the English word "tourist". Kutscher writes that in Lashon Chachamim (Mishnaic Hebrew) tayar meant guide, as in Bava Kama 116b:
ואם שכרו (אנשי השיירה) תייר ההולך לפניהם
"If the caravan hired a guide to go before it"

Kutscher brings a story of a student who was unfamiliar with the original meaning of tayar, and was therefore very confused to hear Rashi called התייר הגדול hatayar hagadol...

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tapuach

Here's something that even new speakers of Hebrew should know. Tapuach תפוח = apple. Simple, right? Well, if you're a regular reader of Balashon, you should know that nothing's simple. (Or at least what I choose to write about.)

The fruit known as tapuach appears a few times in the Tanach, mostly in Shir HaShirim. Klein writes of the word's origin:

According to most lexicographers a derivative of base נפח (= to blow; to scent), and properly meaning 'the scenting fruit'. However, it is more probable that תפוח derives from תפח ( = to swell, to become or be round).

Amos Chacham in Daat Mikra on Shir HaShirim (2:3) identifies tapuach as Pirus malus - what we consider an apple today. However, there are other opinions. Harold N. and Alma L. Moldenke wrote in their book "Plants of the Bible":

The identity of the apple has perplexed scholars for years. According to the authors, the Hebrew word used is tapuach. "The apple tree of the Scriptures was a tree which afforded a pleasant shade. Its fruit was enticing to the sight, sweet to the taste, imparting fragrance, with restorative properties, and of a golden color, borne amid silvery leaves," they say.

Many scholars, they continue, have argued in favor of the common apple, Malus pumila. But most botanists agree that it is not native to the Holy Land. It was only comparatively recently that the "poor wild fruits of the common apple have been so improved by selection and cultivation as to bring them to a form which would fit the description in the Biblical quotations," the Moldenkes write.

Other writers have supposed the "apples of gold" were oranges, Citrus sinensis. But the fruit is native to China. The Seville orange, Citrus vulgaris, also suggested by some, is a native of eastern India, not introduced into the Holy Land until 1000 C.E., the authors add.

Other plants that don't meet the criteria include the citron, Citrus medica and the quince, Cydonia oblonga. Neither is "sweet to the taste."

The Moldenkes conclude the only fruit that meets all the requirements is the apricot, Prunus armeniaca. With the exception of the fig, it is the most abundant in the Holy Land, referring to Canon Tristam's "Natural History of the Bible." Tristam maintains the plant, originally from Armenia, was introduced to the Holy Land around the time of Noah (about 2950 BCE)."The apricot is a round-headed, reddish-barked tree growing to 30 feet tall," write the Moldenkes.

And what of all the discussion of the identity of the "Forbidden Fruit" in the Garden of Eden? In English it is generally translated as an apple, but while Jewish tradition gives a number of possible names for the fruit, tapuach isn't one of them. There are those that try to reconcile this by pointing out that one of the Rabbinic traditions claims that the forbidden fruit was an etrog, and that Tosfot (Shabbat 88a) quotes the Targum on Shir HaShirim as translating tapuach as etrog. But as Moldenke points out, the etrog isn't sweet.

But all this effort is unnecessary. The original meaning of the English word apple was "a generic term for all fruit, other than berries but including nuts, as late as 17c., hence its use for the unnamed 'fruit of the forbidden tree' in Genesis". So the translation as an apple was correct - it just didn't mean tapuach.

In French, there was a similar development, where pomme once meant general fruit and now means apple. From here arose the French term for potato - pomme de terre, meaning "earth apple". German has a similar word for potato - erdapfel. From the French and German terms arose the Hebrew word for potato - תפוח אדמה tapuach adama.

In the 1940's Yitzchak Avi-Neri coined the modern Hebrew word for orange - tapuz תפוז, an acronym of "tapuach zahav" תפוח זהב - "golden apple". (Tapuchei zahav actually appears in Mishlei 25:11, but is referring to a kind of jewelry.)

Kutscher describes the development of the various "tapuach" terms here:

A similar method of word formation is the fusion of two words in one. Tapuakh-zhav (lit. "golden apple" - "orange") has become tapuz. There is also tapuakh-adama (lit. "ground-apple" a loan-translation of the German Erdapfel). These two have given rise to another compound tapuakh-etz (lit. "tree-apple") - a tautologous form, as in the Bible tapuakh plain and simple, means "apple." But in Israel a generation ago tapukhim were rare and expensive, while the other two varities were plentiful. So Hebrew speakers influenced by the tapukhei-zhav and tapukhei-adama coined tapukhei-etz to specify what they were referring to.

Which leads me to a funny story. On a kibbutz I was on a number of years ago, they had the foreign volunteers work in the dining hall. One of their tasks was to write a note describing the main course on the food cart. This day the main course was potato burekas. The volunteer, who had come to the kibbutz to learn Hebrew, mistakenly wrote בורקס תפוח - burekas tapuach - "apple burekas". A kibbutz member corrected her and told her that she should write tapuach adama - potato. So she corrected the sign to read בורקס אדמה - burekas adama -earth/soil burkeas...

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yesh

The Hebrew word יש yesh has a number of meanings. According to Milon Morfix it can mean:

there is, there are ; one must, it is necessary to ; one may, it may; some, sometimes, it may be that

However, it can also mean "got it! did it!". This meaning is used as an exclamation following a success. From where did this expression originate? Rosenthal says it was influenced by the English phrase, of similar meaning - "Yes!" (And, no, the English word yes did not derive from the Hebrew yesh.)

Since the meaning of the two are so similar, it makes you wonder why the Israeli satellite television provider couldn't use a Hebrew name and call themselves Yesh!

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admiral

After discussing how the Hebrew word aluf came to mean general (of the army), let's look at the Hebrew word for admiral (of the navy). This one's easy - אדמירל. The transliteration is the official definition, since the Israeli navy is part of the IDF, and there does not seem to be an Israeli position equivalent to the US admiral (see this site: Rank Insignia of the Israeli Navy with comparison to the US Navy and the Royal Navy for more detail.)

However, our search for Semitic roots does not end here. The English word admiral derives from Arabic. The Online Etymological Dictionary writes:

from Arabic title amir-ar-rahl "chief of the transport," officer in the Mediterranean fleet, from amir "leader," influenced by L. ad-mirabilis (see admire).

The 1911 Encyclopedia gives a slightly different origin:

ADMIRAL, the title of the general officer who commands a fleet, or subdivision of a fleet. The origin of the word is undoubtedly Arabic. In the 12th century the Mediterranean states which had close relations with the Moslem powers on the shores or in the islands of that sea, found the title amir or emir in combination with other words used to describe men in authority; the amir-al-mumenin prince of the faithful or amir-al-bahr commander of the sea. They took the substantive " amir " and the article " al " to form one word, " amiral " or " ammiral" or "almirante." The Spaniards made mirama-molin, out of amiral-mumenin, in the same way. "Amiral," as the name of an eastern ruler, became familiar to the northern nations during the crusades. Layamon, writing in the early years of the 13th century, speaks of the "ammiral of Babilon," and the word was for long employed in this sense. As a naval title it was first taken by the French from the Genoese during the crusade of 1249. By the end of the 13th century it had come to be used in England as the name of the officer who commanded the Cinque Port ships. The English form "admiral " arose from popular confusion with the Latin admirabilis.

I'm not sure if either rahl (transport) or bahr (sea) have Hebrew cognates. (Bahr is however the source of the name of the country Bahrain - "two seas". ) However the words emir or amir certainly have a Hebrew connection: they are related to the Hebrew אמר "he said", via the Arabic amara "he commanded".

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alef

I'm going to start a new feature on Balashon - an occasional (approximately weekly, but don't hold me to it) post about a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Naturally, we'll start with alef (or aleph).

Alef is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and is the predecessor of the Greek alpha and the English letter "A". The Hebrew word elef אלף means ox, and the original shape of the letter resembles the head of an ox. See this site for a wonderful graphic demonstration of the development of the shape of the letter from the "ox head" to the letters used in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Latin.

Klein writes that elef originally meant tamed animals, and the verb אלף meant "to train, to teach". From this meaning we get the word ulpan אולפן - which originally meant teaching, and now often refers to a school for the intensive learning of Hebrew. Ulpan can also mean studio - as in a room where radio and television shows are produced. Klein does not mention that definition, but perhaps it is related to the original meaning of the word "studio" - "a room for study".

Going back even further, we find that Klein says that that אלף meaning "teaching" derives from a "base probably meaning originally 'to be linked together, be connected' [cp. Akkadian ulapu (=band), elippu (=ship), whence arose the meanings 'to join, to be familiar with'."

From this early meaning we get the word elef אלף - thousand, which Klein claims originally denoted "group, crowd". Another related meaning of elef is "part of a tribe" which originally referred to "part of a tribe consisting of a thousand people". The head of the tribe was known as an aluf אלוף - and from this we get the modern Hebrew words for "general (in the army)" and champion.

Alef is a guttural letter and therefore occasionally switches with other guttural letters - heh (אמון המון), ayin (מתאב מתעב) as well as yod (דואג דויג).

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kuter

In my post about words that begin with קט and had the meaning "to cut", I didn't mention the root קטר. It doesn't seem to be associated with the other words. It originally meant smoke, and is the root of the word ketoret קטורת - meaning incense. In modern Hebrew it gave rise to the word kitor קיטור - steam.

Therefore, when I would hear people use the root קטר as a verb - l'kater - and referring to someone who was whining or complaining, I always assumed it meant someone "blowing off steam." However, the origin is something else entirely.

The slang term derives from the Yiddish word for male cat - kuter. The sounds a male cat makes are similar to those of a whiner and grumbler. So you can call someone like that a kuter קוטר in Hebrew, and ask them to stop complaining already - תפסיק לקטר כבר tafsik l'kater kvar!

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kaytana

As school lets out in Israel, we begin to see the kids planning on going to קייטנה kaytana. It is usually translated as "camp", but what is the origin of the word?

It derives from the Aramaic word for summer - קיט kayit. Kayit is closely related to the Hebrew קיץ kayitz. The letter tzade occasionally becomes a tet - see the roots טלל/ צלל, נצר/נטר. Therefore, the popular kaytanat chanuka is a bit of a contradiction in terms (except in the Southern Hemisphere).

What is the origin of kayitz? This is not fully clear to me, but there are a number of words - seemingly related - with the root קיץ/ קוץ (or קיט/ קוט):

• קץ ketz - end
• קוץ (and קוט) - to loathe (Klein says in the Shaph'el form it becomes שקץ sheketz, detested, and the root of the Yiddish shiksa and sheygetz)
• קוץ kotz - thorn
• הקיץ - to wake
• קיץ - summer, also summer fruit (perhaps specifically figs)
• קצצ, קצה - to cut off
• קט kat - small

Now I have not found one theory that connects all the terms. But most etymological sources will connect a few to each other. For example, Amos Chacham in Daat Mikra on Yeshayahu 7:6 says that that kayitz is the season when the figs are cut down (קצץ). Arel Segal here says that קוץ (to loathe) means to get to the end - ketz - of your ability to suffer. Steinberg claims that kayitz gets its name from the uncomfortable, loathful heat. And while I haven't seen it explicitly, a kotz (thorn) certainly is loathful, and waking up (הקיץ) is the end (קץ) of sleep.
So there does seem to be a common sense of many of the words - to cut or to end. (And before you ask - I have not found a connection between קט and the English word "cut".)
In the comments a few posts ago, Lonnie asked about roots that begin the same two letters and have similar meanings. I wrote that there is not conclusive evidence one way or another. Horowitz writes (page 299):

It is hardly possible that the Hebrew language began with this enormously regular tri-consonantal system, that all Hebrew words were born with three bright and shining letters. Scholars are fairly convinced that back of these three lettered roots lie old primitive two-lettered syllables. These two-lettered syllables represent some simple primitive action or thing. It does seem quite clear that there existed a bi-literal or two-letter base for many, if not most, of our three lettered roots. However, this can never be proven absolutely in all finality because the original Semitic language is lost beyond all recovery.

In that chapter, Horowitz goes on to list some of those primitive two letter roots and the words that derive from them. Interestingly, he gives examples of our קץ / קט meaning "cut" as well:

• קצץ - cut, from it we have קץ end.
• קצה - cut, from it we have קצין, captain, judge. The word cut is figuratively used for deciding.
• הקצה - scrape off; מקצה (muktzeh) - set apart - forbidden for handling on Sabbath
• קצב - butcher; תקציב is a budget
• קצע - cut into; מקצוע - a profession - is what one is cut out for. מקצועה is a carpenter's plane
• קצר - harvest - from it קצר short; i.e. cut off.
• קטע - cut, from it קיטע person with limb missing
• קטף - pluck off or pluck out - from it we have קטיף orange harvest
• קטן - short, small, really means cut off
• קטל - kill, i.e. cut down

To Horowitz's list, we can add:

• קטב - destruction, from "to cut off"
• קטם - to cut off

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tzimmer

As the summer begins, we see a lot of Israelis looking for a צימר tzimmer - usually in the North. What does the word mean?

In Modern Hebrew, it refers to a country guest house - a "Bed and Breakfast". The word comes from the German zimmer - meaning "room". (By "room" I mean "an area separated by walls or partitions from other similar parts of the structure or building in which it is located" - in Hebrew חדר - cheder; I don't refer to "a space that is or may be occupied" - in Hebrew מקום makom. There is a story of an American man driving in Israel, who when stopped by a female hitchhiker, mistakenly said "yesh li cheder" יש לי חדר when he meant "yesh li makom" יש לי מקום...)

Zimmer has the same source as the English word timber, since most rooms in Germany were made of wood.

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dibrot

On Shavuot we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Sinai, and read the Ten Commandments. Or do we?

First of all, the "Ten Commandments" is not a good translation. As Philologos wrote:

Let's start with No. 1. What is called "The Ten Commandments" in English and other European languages, a phrase translated from the Latin Decem Mandati, is known in Hebrew as Aseret Ha-dibrot, "the ten dibrot." A diber (singular of dibrot) is not a mandatus or commandment; rather - a noun deriving from the verb daber, to speak - it means an act of speech or an utterance, as in the verse in Jeremiah, "And the prophets shall become wind and the utterance [diber] is not in them." The Aseret Ha-dibrot in Jewish tradition are thus "The Ten Utterances," not "The Ten Commandments."

Why is the singular of dibrot דברות diber דיבר? Dr. Eliyahu Netanel explained in his column, Lashon Limudim, in Shabbat B'Shabbato, Bamidbar 5766. He writes that diber is masculine, and the plural is dibrot (which appears feminine) and this is similar to kise כסא and kisaot כסאות - chairs. Here's a list of many more, and an explanation to the phenomenon.

Netanel also writes that where the term diber was used in Eretz Yisrael, in Bavel they would say dibur דיבור. This helps to explain a midrashic saying (Shvuot 20b; it also appears in the song Lecha Dodi) - שמור וזכור בדיבור אחד - shamor v'zachor b'dibur echad. This refers to the fact that the fourth diber - the mitzva of shabbat - appears with the word shamor in Sefer Shmot and zachor in Sefer Devarim. Generally, it is assumed that this means that they were spoken - dibbur - at the same time. But if dibur is the Bavli term for diber, than it means they were in the same fourth diber- also miraculous, according to the midrash, but a slightly different understanding.

However, if we go back even further, we see that in the Torah itself (Shmot 34:28, Devarim 4:13, Devarim 10:4), they weren't called aseret hadibrot, but עשרת הדברים aseret hadvarim. This leads some to think that the Greek term decalogue - "ten statements" or "ten words" - is the most accurate option for use in English.

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