# בתוך, לתוך, מתוך



## theunderachiever

betoch, letoch, mi(me?)toch:  Is toch just intensifying the prefixes?

Thank you much.


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## ranpinch

ל/ב/מ -תוך
תוך  come from the same route of  תוכן  (Contents)


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## bazq

Yes, תוך intensifies the prefix. I can't think of an occurence where there is a difference between prefix+toch and just the prefix.

Hope this helps, good luck.


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## hadronic

תוך is "inside". Betokh : inside / within something, letokh: into something, mitokh: from within something.
The root is from ת-וו-ך, "middle", like מתווך a broker, an intermediate.
They also have figurative meanings with action nouns: למידה מתוך עשייה, learning by doing.


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## Drink

ranpinch said:


> תוך  come from the same route of  תוכן  (Contents)



No, תוכן is from ת-כ-ן, while תוך is from ת-ו-ך.


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## origumi

Drink said:


> No, תוכן is from ת-כ-ן, while תוך is from ת-ו-ך.


Indeed, a beautiful example of semantic shift, as elaborated here.


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## ranpinch

Indeed, my mistake


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## Drink

origumi said:


> Indeed, a beautiful example of semantic shift, as elaborated here.



Cool. The funny thing is I always thought that מתכון was from the root כ-ו-ן (like הכין), but then recently I learned that it was from ת-כ-ן. Do you think there is some slight semantic shift going on there too?


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## origumi

Ruvik Rosentahl says מתכון is first attested in 1938 and is of root ת-כ-נ. Personally I believe that whoever coined it made an intentional effort to target both roots, ת-כ-נ and כ-ו-נ, and therefore both of them are relevant for this word. This pun (or whatever is the term) is similar to מכונה of root כ-ו-נ which is derived also from European _machina_.


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## Ali Smith

Drink said:


> No, תוכן is from ת-כ-ן, while תוך is from ת-ו-ך.


But isn't תֹכֶן 'fixed measure, quantity; measurement' a segholate noun?

וְעַתָּה֙ לְכ֣וּ עִבְד֔וּ וְתֶ֖בֶן לֹא־יִנָּתֵ֣ן לָכֶ֑ם וְתֹ֥כֶן לְבֵנִ֖ים תִּתֵּֽנוּ׃
(שמות ה יח)


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## Abaye

Ali Smith said:


> But isn't תֹכֶן 'fixed measure, quantity; measurement' a segholate noun?
> 
> וְעַתָּה֙ לְכ֣וּ עִבְד֔וּ וְתֶ֖בֶן לֹא־יִנָּתֵ֣ן לָכֶ֑ם וְתֹ֥כֶן לְבֵנִ֖ים תִּתֵּֽנוּ׃
> (שמות ה יח)


Yes it is. Why the "but" in your comment, is there anything in the posts above that hints differently?


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## Ali Smith

Abaye said:


> Yes it is. Why the "but" in your comment, is there anything in the posts above that hints differently?


Thanks!

Yes, it was spelled with a mater lectionis, which I don’t usually see in segholate nouns.


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## Drink

In the Bible it is spelled תכן, in other places תוכן.


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