Miscellaneous Words of Interest

From RRW
Guest Blogger: Mitchell First 

                                  Miscellaneous Words of Interest

     Many times I come across interesting words that do not deserve an entire column. Here are a few:

בל,  בלי: We know these words as meaning “not” and “without.” But where do they come from? Most believe that they derive from the root בלה, “wear out.”

לוה: This word means both “borrow” and “join.”  At first glance, these meanings do not seem to be related. After all, the borrower is taking something away from the lender.

But when one borrows something, one is connecting himself on some level with the lender. So the scholarly world is split on the issue of whether these meanings might have had a common origin.  Brown-Driver-Briggs and many others list “borrow” and “join” as two separate roots and do not even mention the possibility of a common origin. On the other hand, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament does raise the possibility. See vol. 7, pp. 475 and 477.

Some others who advocate for a common origin are S. Mandelkern and Rav S. R. Hirsch (comm. to Ex. 22:24). Mandelkern points out that in Latin, a debt is called an “obligation.” This word comes from a root “leig” that means “to bind.” (So does the word “ligament”=connective tissue in one’s body.)

There is an interesting phrase at Proverbs 22:7: “The borrower is the servant to the lender.” This supports the idea that there is a connection between the two.

לכאורה: This means  "at first view." It is based on the word אורה= its light.

מורה:  This is a word for “razor.” It only appears three times: once in the first chapter of Samuel and twice in Judges. There is another word for “razor” that appears many times in Tanach: תער. It comes from the root ערה which means “to make bare.” That is what a razor does to the face.

Most think that מורה is an evolution from an original מערה, coming from the same “bare” meaning. But it is interesting to see other approaches. Rashi on Judges 13:5 connects  מורה to the root ירה with the meaning “throw,” since the razor throws away the hair. Another view connects it with the root מרח which means “rub,” since a razor rubs against the hair. Another view connects it with an Aramaic word מרא, a  hoe. Most interesting, however, is Rav S.R Hirsch. He writes: (comm. to Gen. 26:35):  “מרה has the basic meaning ‘to counter, to act in opposition,’ hence  מורה, a razor which has to run against the hair…”

מחמת: This word originated as “from the heat of.” It then developed into “as a consequence of.” It was originally vocalized as “mei-chamat.” See Jastrow, pp. 480 and 762.

עטש: This root appears only one time in Tanach, at Job 41:10. It means “sneeze.” It is surely an  onomatopoeia, as it sounds like our “hatchoo”! As Alan Schwartz pointed out to me several years ago, there is another word for “sneeze” that appears only one time in Tanach, at 2 Kings 4:35 (in a story about Elisha):  ויזרר, from a presumed root זרר.

נפש  פקוח : This phrase does not literally mean “saving a life.” It means “opening [to save] a life.” The meaning expanded to the idiomatic meaning because a much discussed case in early rabbinic times was the issue of opening up a heap of debris on Shabbat to attempt to save a life.

 We all know the root פקח from the phrase in the morning blessings: “pokeach ivrim” =God opens [the eyes of] the blind. (An interesting issue is whether there any difference between the roots פקח and  פתח. Both mean “open.” Note similarly that both שקה and שתה  are roots that mean “drink.”)

קפץ: This root appears seven times in Tanach. Six times it means “draw together, shut.” One time (Song of Songs 2:8) it means “leaps” (mekapetz al ha-gevaot). (In the latter, it is in the piel form.) One might think these are two separate roots. But the widespread view connects them. When one leaps, one makes a contraction of the body first.

 A phrase with this word appears in the High Holiday liturgy in the ובכן prayer: “ve-olatah tikpatz piha” (=and iniquity will shut its mouth). This phrase is adapted from Job 5:16.  

 תו: “again, furthermore.”  For this insight, I have to credit my daughter Rachel. When she was in her teens, she came across this word and I told her what it meant. Then she said: “It does not have enough root letters.” So I looked in Jastrow and saw that she was correct! It is a shortened form of תוב. I.e., it is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew: שוב (“return,” “come again”).

תרגם: A form of this word appears at Ezra 4:7 (an Aramaic section of Tanach). A widespread view relates this word to an Akkadian verb “ragamu” = “to shout” (related to the Biblical root רעם.) See, e.g., E. Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, p. 716, and Jastrow, p. 1695. But more recently, H. Tawil points to similar words with the meaning “interpreter” found in Ugaritic and Hittite. He rejects an Akkadian origin for the word and rejects the connection to “ragamu.” See his An Akkadian Lexical Companion For Biblical Hebrew, p. 435.

The official student newspaper at Rutgers is called The Daily Targum. It was founded in the 19^th century.

Levant: This word originated in Europe to mean "the Mediterranean lands to the east.” It is borrowed from the French “levant” =rising. It refers to the rising of the sun in the east. It began to be used in France in the 12^th century. “Levant” is ultimately from the Latin word “levare”= lift, raise.

Naples: This is a form of “Neapolis.” This name means “new city,” from neo  + polis. There were many cities with the name “Neapolis” in the ancient world. It has been remarked that, in the ancient world, “creating colonies was all the fad but coming up with snazzy new names apparently wasn’t.” (In the U.S. today, there are many towns named “Newton,” from new + town.)

In Israel, the city of Shechem is called “Nablus” by the Arabs. Nablus also comes from neo + polis, but Arabic lacks a letter for “p.” (Their letter that is parallel to פ is pronounced “F.”)

The new area was founded in the year 72 by Vespasian, just west of the original Shechem. The new area was originally called Flavia Neapolis= “Vespasian’s New City.” (Vespasian’s full name was Titus Flavius Vespasianus.)  

Sanction:  This word has opposite meanings. Sometimes it means “approve” and other times it means “penalize.”

Table: In British usage, “to table” a motion means to present it for formal deliberation. (Originally this was done by putting the motion documents on a table.) But for Americans, “to table” means to postpone the consideration of something, based on the image of a document lying on a table awaiting further action.

Thomas:  This name comes from the Hebrew/Aramaic word תאום= twin.

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Mitchell First can be reached at MFirstAtty@aol.com. Please excuse him now as he leaps to a new city to save the life of Thomas, a twin. At first view, it seems that he was injured from the heat of a razor. Furthermore, while there, he will borrow a book and table, join them together, and engage in some translation activity.