Hi, I've also been looking for years for a good Hebrew etymology book, but have yet to find one. There are plenty of books with stories about the origin of a few dozen words, but this is not the same as a book with the origin of every word in the language. I've looked at many dictionaries, and found none of them to have satisfactory etymology... I'd be glad if someone in the list can find one.
Case in point - I've been curious for years about the word "Chatul". Is it a coincidence that this word in Hebrew is so similar to the name of this animal in other languages - e.g., French "chat", English "Cat", Spanish "Gato"? Did Hebrew get this word from some foreign language (which? when?), or did some foreign language get it from Hebrew (how?) or perhaps all languages get it from a common language? I haven't found anything conclusive about this question, but as far as I understand all these European languages get their word for cat from the Latin "cattus", a synonym from the more usual word for cat "feles", and Latin supposedly got this word from a similar Egyptian word, and supposedly the Egyptians, who domesticated this word are the origin of this word. So, when did Hebrew get this word, and from which Language? Did Hebrew also get it from the Egyptians? Or from the Romans? Or even later? On Sat, Feb 26, 2011, Dotan Cohen wrote about "Re: Completely OT: Where can I find Hebrew etymology?": > There are some Hebrew words that I'd like to know where they come > from. Such as Petria - is this related to the Petri dish and the > biologist for whom it was named? Is this just a coincidence that the > words sound so similar? There are tens of other examples of curious > words. I don't know anything specific about the word pitria, but I found it implausable that it was named after a German biologist that lived in the 20th century... If I had to guess (and this is just a guess!) pitria is after the Hebrew word "peter", a biblical word meaning first-born, and mushrooms are the first to sprout after a rain? Again, just a guess :-) > I should in fact probably head into the university. Thanks. Let us know what you find! -- Nadav Har'El | Saturday, Feb 26 2011, 23 Adar I 5771 [email protected] |----------------------------------------- Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Ways to Relieve Stress #10: Make up a http://nadav.harel.org.il |language and ask people for directions. _______________________________________________ Linux-il mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
