Tuesday, October 17, 2006

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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