David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Oct 29, 2011, 6:23 pm
Both before and after Gilad Shalit's release, we've seen many signs related to the campaign. His surname Shalit שליט means "ruler, leader" in Hebrew. Is there any connection to the word shelet שלט - meaning "sign"? Let's first look at the word shalit. It derives ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Oct 16, 2011, 5:58 am
One of the strange sounding words from Sukkot is koshiklach קוישיקלך (or sometimes spelled koishelach קוישלך). It refers to the woven holders used to bind the lulav to the hadasim and aravot. But what is the etymology? Let's start by taking off the suffixes and then we'll see wha...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Oct 5, 2011, 5:30 pm
On Yom Kippur we read about the service in the Temple that was performed on that holy day. Part of the service involved sending away a goat, marked "to Azazel"  לעזאזל (Vayikra 16:8). The meaning and origin of the word Azazel עזאזל is subject to much debate. Levine, in the JPS commentary...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Sep 27, 2011, 12:57 am
In the previous post on teruah, we mentioned that while teruah refers to the short blasts (of the trumpet or shofar) and tekiah תקיעה refers to the long blasts, the verb taka תקע simply means "blowing on an instrument" (regardless of the length of the blasts). Klein writes that the verb full...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Sep 24, 2011, 6:28 pm
Rosh Hashana is coming up this week, and I thought I'd look at some of the words associated with the shofar sounds heard on that day. Since the biblical name for Rosh Hashana is Yom Teruah יום תרועה (Bamidbar 29:1) or Zichron Teruah זכרון תרועה (Vayikra 23:24), lets start by lookin...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Sep 23, 2011, 3:46 am
In my previous post on the word "bar" בר, I mentioned that there was one more meaning I hadn't discussed. That, of course, is the identical meaning in English - "tavern", which is borrowed from English for use in Modern Israeli Hebrew. The "bar" in that bar refers to the counter on which the food ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Sep 18, 2011, 6:18 am
In my post about bar mitzva, I wrote bar בר means "son" (primarily in Aramaic, but also in Hebrew, see Mishlei 31:2)The question is what is the connection between bar and the Hebrew word for son - בן ben? And does bar as "son" have a connection to any of the other meanings of the word bar, such...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Aug 25, 2011, 4:21 pm
As you may have noticed, I have not written a post in several weeks (actually a few months). While life always has other distractions (like work), this time my biggest reason for not writing was my son's Bar Mitzva - both the preparation for it and recovery from it took up a lot of time. It was a wo...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Apr 27, 2011, 4:25 pm
When I was in eighth grade, I asked a rabbi a question. If we believe in only one God, why is God’s name in Hebrew a plural? I know I was thinking of the name Elohim אלו-הים, but I might have also been thinking of Adonai אדנ-י (which would seem to mean "my Lords"). I don’t believe the ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Apr 13, 2011, 1:42 pm
The Shabbat before Pesach is known as Shabbat Hagadol שבת הגדול - "The Great Sabbath". While the phrase "shabbat hagadol" appears in other contexts earlier in Rabbinic literature (such as in the Retze section of Birkat Hamazon), it is first mentioned as the shabbat before Pesach in the works...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Mar 29, 2011, 4:09 pm
In the post on simcha, we saw that there is a connection in Hebrew and other Semitic languages between words meaning light and sprouting, between “glow” and “grow” (these two aren’t related in English). I gave a few more examples in that post. However, recently I found a collection of YouT...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Mar 16, 2011, 2:58 am
We're all familiar with the word simcha שמחה - "joy" (and hopefully with the concept as well!). This noun is based on the verb שמח - in the kal form samach - "was happy" and in the piel form simeach - "made happy" (the hifil השמיח appears once, in Tehilim 89:43, but isn't used in Modern ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Mar 5, 2011, 4:35 pm
We previously discussed blo בלו, a tax first mentioned in the book of Ezra. Blo is mentioned together with two other taxes that are not used in modern Hebrew: minda מנדה and halach הלך. The three terms are discussed in Bava Batra 8a, and halach is identified as arnona ארנונא. Arnona ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Feb 26, 2011, 5:26 pm
Lately there has been a lot of news about the proposed increase (and subsequent decrease) in Israel's excise tax on gasoline. Until I looked into it, I did not know what an excise tax was. According to Wikipedia, it differs from custom duties: An excise tax is one levied on specific goods or ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Feb 6, 2011, 3:38 pm
We previously discussed the Hebrew word for fruit - p'ri פרי. Now lets look at a particular fruit - eshkolit אשכולית - "grapefruit". At first glance this seemed strange to me. Both grapefruit and eshkolit were connected to "grapes"; eshkol אשכול means "cluster", as in a cluster ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 20, 2011, 3:04 am
In honor of Tu B'Shvat, the Academy of the Hebrew Language posted a page about the Hebrew word for fruit: פרי - p'ri ( I prefer this spelling over pri, since it emphasizes the vocalized shva.  We also find a few instances of peri - with a segol - in Biblical Hebrew.) They point out that i...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 13, 2011, 5:25 pm
Reader Zvi writes: With the impending partition of Sudan in the news lately, it would be interesting if you could address the multiple uses of the Hebrew word חרטום In Exodus 7:11 and 7:22, it's the word used for the Egyptian magicians. In modern Hebrew, it's used for the prow...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 10, 2011, 3:37 pm
In our post discussing sochen סוכן - "agent" - I wrote that it "is connected to segan סגן - in Biblical Hebrew a government prefect, and later in Rabbinic Hebrew a deputy." While segan as "deputy" (or "vice", as in "Vice President" - סגן נשיא) is still used in Modern Hebrew, it was ada...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 1, 2011, 5:02 pm
We previously discussed a number of words with the root סכן. One word that might seem missing in that discussion is sakin סכין - "knife". However, while this is how it is spelled in Rabbinic Hebrew, and the Aramaic cognate is סכינא, in Biblical Hebrew the word is spelled with a sin, not ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Dec 23, 2010, 6:54 pm
In the beginning of Shemot, the Israelites were forced to build arei miskenot ערי מסכנות - "storage cities" (Shemot 1:11). The root סכן is found in a number of Hebrew words going back to Biblical times - some still in use today, some less so. Let's first look at the different meani...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Dec 7, 2010, 2:44 pm
I hadn't really noticed before, but the Hebrew word for Greece, יוון yavan, is related to the name of one of the ancient Greek tribes, the Ionians. As Klein writes: A blend of יון, name of a son of Shem son of Noah (see Genesis 10:2) and orig. Greek Iaon, gen. Iaonos contracted into Ion, gen....
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Nov 25, 2010, 5:42 pm
This week, in Bereshit 37:3, we read about Yosef and his ketonet passim כתונת פסים. We've already discussed how ketonet means "coat" (and is related to tunic). But what does the additional word passim mean? It appears only here, and in Shmuel II 13:18 in the phrase ketonet passim, so we can...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Nov 10, 2010, 4:03 pm
Last week, when leaving work in Jerusalem, a friend and I spotted an animal that looked like this (I wish we had a chance to take a picture of it): He asked me what it was, and I said it was a kipod קיפוד, thinking that was the Hebrew word for "porcupine", but when I got home and looked ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Sep 24, 2010, 4:40 am
A word that in some ways is equivalent to olam עולם - "world" is teva טבע - "nature". The word is very common in Hebrew today, and is known to people worldwide via the companies Teva Pharmaceuticals and Teva Naot (the sandal manufacturer). Therefore, many assume that the word is ancient - but...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Sep 2, 2010, 4:22 pm
In the prayers of Rosh HaShana, we say hayom harat olam היום הרת עולם. Artscroll translates this phrase as "today is the birth(day) of the world", and offers the following comment: The phrase is in the present tense, for on Rosh Hashanah of each year the Creation is renewed in its entiret...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jul 29, 2010, 5:20 pm
In the previous post, we mentioned se'ora שעורה - "barley", so this is a good opportunity to finish the discussion of the five grains of the Land of Israel. There's not much to say about the etymology of se'ora other than to quote Klein who says that it's related to se'ar שער - "hair", and l...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jul 14, 2010, 4:41 pm
In the previous post, I mentioned how achuz אחוז means "percent", while shiur שיעור means "percentage". However, you might be more familiar with another meaning of shiyur (also pronounced in Yiddish, via reduction, as shi'er or shir) - "lesson, class". This leads to a cute joke my son told ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jul 7, 2010, 3:11 pm
While discussing machoz, we mentioned Klein's theory that it is a derivative of the root אחז. This is a common root in Biblical Hebrew, generally with the meaning of "to seize", "to hold" or "to grasp". (Steinberg goes further and connects a number of other roots beginning with אח meaning "conn...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jun 15, 2010, 2:32 pm
Previously we discussed two words for ships - sefina and oniya. However, unlike that pair, where both words have biblical origin, and in modern Hebrew they define different size boats, the pair we'll look at now - matos מטוס and aviron אוירון - are both modern and refer to the same item: a...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jun 3, 2010, 3:53 pm
Sailing vessels have been in the news quite a bit recently. There are at least three different words used in Hebrew for ships and boats - oniya אניה, sefina ספינה, and sira סירה (as well as the general term klei shayit כלי שיט, literally "sailing vessels".) What are the difference...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - May 21, 2010, 9:19 am
The word tichon תיכון is of biblical origin, but the precise biblical usage isn't found much today. It means "middle", from toch תוך (midst, interior), in the same way that chitzon חיצון - "external" derives from chutz חוץ (outside). In the Bible, it is mostly used in describing cons...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - May 17, 2010, 1:47 am
For anyone who is looking for a linguistic connection to Parashat Hashavua, I've indexed and labeled all the posts by parasha. Look for the parshiot in the sidebar!
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - May 11, 2010, 1:13 am
The volcano is in the news again, and its cloud may even be getting close to Israel. But are we close to an etymological connection between the word "volcano" and a Hebrew root? Let's start by looking at the word "volcano". It gets its name from the Roman god Vulcan(us): 1610s, from It. vulcan...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Apr 22, 2010, 7:59 pm
The relationship between the United States and Israel is in the news often lately, so I thought I'd take a look at the Hebrew term for the United States - artzot habrit ארצות הברית, frequently abbreviated as ארה"ב. Where does the term come from? Rubik Rosenthal writes here that at the ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Apr 16, 2010, 5:15 am
Tomatoes are so ubiquitous in Israeli cuisine that you might think that the Hebrew word for them, agvania עגבניה, is as old as the language itself. But the word is much more recent, and the story is actually so interesting that the linguist Reuven Sivan wrote a booklet about it in 1971 for the...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Apr 8, 2010, 4:14 pm
The Hebrew word for "spice" is tavlin תבלין, with the plural tavlinim תבלינים. This usage goes back to Talmudic times (e.g. Shabbat 119a, Nedarim 51a). However, this appears to be the result of a mistake, for originally the singular form for spice was tevel תבל, and the Aramaic form t...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Mar 23, 2010, 5:24 pm
I was in Eilat last week, and while there I got to thinking about Yam Suf ים סוף. What's a better translation - Red Sea or Sea of Reeds? Somehow I had always thought that "Red Sea" was a corruption of "Reed Sea", because suf is generally translated as "reed". However, during the trip, I couldn'...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Mar 7, 2010, 4:12 am
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Mar 7, 2010, 4:12 am
I didn't mention it in the previous post, but pereg פרג (poppy / millet) isn't related to pargit פרגית (young chicken). Another unrelated word is the verb פרגן - "to take pleasure in someone else's achievement / success" - with the associated noun פירגון firgun. It's an unusual wor...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Feb 23, 2010, 3:22 pm
We just dealt with some words for crops of debated identity - here's another one, but with a Purim connection. Early in this site, we discussed the Purim food hamentaschen, which literally mean "poppy pockets". The Hebrew word for poppy is pereg (sometimes parag) פרג. It is found in the plural - ...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Feb 23, 2010, 3:22 pm
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Feb 6, 2010, 6:24 pm
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Feb 6, 2010, 6:24 pm
One of my favorite topics to write about is the change of meaning in words relating to food. We've already seen that a melafefon originally meant melon, now cucumber, and that botnim, while in modern Hebrew mean peanuts, meant pistachios in the Bible. However, these discussions, while interesting, d...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 27, 2010, 3:39 am
Yesterday I was discussing the word parnasa פרנסה on the new Balashon Page on Facebook (please join!). I quoted my post on "pras and prize", where I wrote: The Hebrew root פרס means "to split, divide, break", and a pras therefore originally meant "a half of something", "a portion". Kl...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 27, 2010, 3:39 am
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 21, 2010, 5:23 pm
In the post about pashtida, we mentioned how in the Talmud, the verb טפל meant "to paste, to plaster" (dough in the example we brought). But today that root is found in what appears to be unrelated words - for example tipul טיפול - "care, treatment" and tafel טפל - "of secondary importanc...
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 21, 2010, 5:23 pm
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Jan 8, 2010, 8:34 am
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Dec 31, 2009, 5:25 pm
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David C. posted an article on Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective - Dec 18, 2009, 7:23 am
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