In Hebrew 'to blow' is נשב NA$AB, which is a variant of נצב
NACAB, 'rise, come out, stand up', as in Gen. 37:7, and also of נתב
NATAB, 'sally forth', as in Ps. 78:50.
Also, נשף NA$AP as in ex. 15:10, which is a variant of נטף
NATAP, 'flow, pour', as in Judges 5:4.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Jul 18, 2013, at 3:24 PM, Jonathan Mohler wrote:
Give me some space, I can't breathe.
Everyone needs some breathing room.
George, I do agree with you that one needs to guard against the
etymological fallacy. However, in this case the connection between
breathing and space/room/wide is both natural and persistent. Even
from a physical standpoint, a modern balloon is expanded by
breath. It might even be a universal connection as well: BReath
and BReadth in English are both Bilabial-Liquid words (B-R or B-L
in words like blow or flute); in Swahili Pua, nose and uPaNa,
breadth/width, PuMua, breathe/take a rest.
Anyway, since there's no more room for comment, I won't breathe
another word.
Jonathan Mohler
Baptist Bible Graduate School
Springfield, MO
On Jul 18, 2013, at 11:00 AM, [email protected]
wrote:
Re: [b-hebrew] What exactly is the semantic overlap between רוח
as (1) 'breathe, blow' and (2) 'to be wide, spacious'?
With etymological and semantic questions, Stewart, I recommend you
consult a good lexicon like Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the OT
(HALOT).
Here's a summary of what it says:
Some early scholars proposed two different homonymous roots, one
meaning to breathe, the other meaning to expand or be wide.
However, this seems unlikely. Hebrew and cognate languages (eg.
Phoenician) seem to associate these two meanings so that we
probably only have one single root. The meaning of 'expand' only
comes in causative stems. Also, Akkadian has a conceptually
similar root, napašu (cf. Hebrew נפשׁ), which also means both
to breathe and to expand.
The thing to bear in mind with semantics is that while etymology
can tell us how words develop their meaning over time, their
actual function in particular contexts is the final determiner of
meaning.
Also, beware of the etymological fallacy: that a word now must
convey what its etymology back then was. So I don't think we need
to find any sense of expansion or width in the sense of breathing.
GEORGE ATHAS
Dean of Research,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia
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