ishinan, first, please note that my conjectured etymology (and i believe, also david's) distinguishes between three different semitic roots: BZZ (loot), BZH/BZW (despise), and the bisyllabic BZ/BD (set aside).
secondly, i am afraid you are missing here a very natural cognitive association: BZ=set aside --> take away --> take by force --> loot=BZZ [along with a second association BZ=set aside --> discriminate/look down upon --> despise=BZH.] based on these, the natural conjecture is indeed that BZ/BD led to both BZZ and BZH/BZW by a natural process of etymological shift, where a NEUTRAL/GENERIC term specifies into a more concrete term. as david hinted in his last email, similar processes within semitics (or NWS) may have led to BDL, BDH, BDD, BZR, PDH, among others. nir cohen >>>De: "Ishnian" <[email protected]> >>>nir: david, ishinan, BZH is also used in hebrew as "loot, spoils (n)" which seems to agree with david's arabic "to set aside (v)". ------------------------------- >>> ishinan: Since the Arabic verb is from the trilateral root "bzz", it never means: "to set aside". Rather it means: he took it away or seized it or carried away by force, he took it away unjustly and forcibly. Hence, it is said in a well known proverb: He who overcomes, takes the spoils (Arabic: man `azza bazza). This is in agreement with the Hebrew 'bazaz' (962); plunder:--booty, prey, spoil(-ed). Even then, I fail to see how David's proposed Arabic definitions of "set aside" (which BTW are wrong) could lead to the sense of "spoil" (see the definitions of "set aside" * below and judge for yourself ) -------------------------------- *set aside 1 reserve something: to keep something, especially time or money, for a specific purpose 2 put something to one side: to put something to one side 3 reject previous decision: to discard, reject, or annul a previous decision or judgment -------------------------------- Note we are discussing in this exchange *TWO* different Hebrew roots. 1) bzz : to spoil, plunder (see Brown Driver Briggs # 962 p. 102) 2) bza: raise the head loftily and disdainfully, hence despise, regard with contempt (see Brown Driver Briggs # 959 p. 102) Best regards, Ishinan Ishibashi _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
