# Tzipporah



## Tzipphorah3

_I was wondering if anyone knew the correct spelling of tzipporah? and the meaning of the name i've only seen it in the bible._


----------



## Whodunit

I think the more common spelling is "Zipporah." It simply means _bird_ and is written as צִפּוֹרָה) צפורה with vowel diacritics?).


----------



## bat777

Whodunit said:


> I think the more common spelling is "Zipporah." It simply means _bird_ and is written as צִפּוֹרָה) צפורה with vowel diacritics?).


 
I just have another small and picky comment to add to Whodunit's answer. The Hebrew word for "bird" is _tsipor_ - צפור, which is a feminine noun in Hebrew (This is a syntactic gender and has nothing to do with the biological gender of any particular bird we are talking about).
 In the name צפורה, however, a morphological feminime ending (the vowel _a_) is added, such that, in fact, the word becomes "double feminine"...

Have a wonderful day.
Bat7


----------



## Whodunit

bat777 said:


> I just have another small and picky comment to add to Whodunit's answer. The Hebrew word for "bird" is _tsipor_ - צפור, which is a feminine noun in Hebrew (This is a syntactic gender and has nothing to do with the biological gender of any particular bird we are talking about).
> In the name צפורה, however, a morphological feminime ending (the vowel _a_) is added, such that, in fact, the word becomes "double feminine"...
> 
> Have a wonderful day.
> Bat7


 
That's interesting. Could it be possible that צפור is a collective noun, and that צפורה is used to indicate an individual bird? I'm taking this from the Arabic ظير (Tayr = bird), which is a collective noun. You can always add a taa2 marbuuta (ـة), as far as I know, to make it an individual noun. Is the same possible in Hebrew?


----------



## scriptum

bat777 said:


> In the name צפורה, however, a morphological feminime ending (the vowel _a_) is added, such that, in fact, the word becomes "double feminine"...


 
I don't want to spoil the party, but we should remember that "Tzippora" is not a Hebrew word. The biblical Tzippora was a Midianite girl (see Exodus, 2)...


----------



## bat777

Whodunit said:


> That's interesting. Could it be possible that צפור is a collective noun, and that צפורה is used to indicate an individual bird? I'm taking this from the Arabic ظير (Tayr = bird), which is a collective noun. You can always add a taa2 marbuuta (ـة), as far as I know, to make it an individual noun. Is the same possible in Hebrew?


 
No, it's not possible in Hebrew. צפור is not a collective noun (If I understand the term correctly, as something that refers to a species rather than an individual). In order to refere to the the species "Birds" in Hebrew, one must use the plural צפורים, while there is no way צפור can be understood this way (except for when it is used in generic sentences such as: "A bird has wings", but that's a completely different story). 
צפורה , with the feminine ending is only used as a name. 

(I will save a following post of someone who will mention Bialik's poem in which he does use צפורה for "bird":
"שלום רב שובך צפורה נחמדת מארצות החום אל חלוני "
This text does't contradict the point I made earlier, because the only reason there's an _a_ vowel in the end of צפור is considerations of rythm. In fact, in another verse in this poem Bialik does use צפור)


----------



## elroy

Whodunit said:


> That's interesting. Could it be possible that צפור is a collective noun, and that צפורה is used to indicate an individual bird? I'm taking this from the Arabic طير (Tayr = bird), which is a collective noun. You can always add a taa2 marbuuta (ـة), as far as I know, to make it an individual noun. Is the same possible in Hebrew?


 No, צפור is a single bird.  As far as I know, Hebrew does not have collective nouns in the way that Arabic does. A sign at the supermarket would say بندورة (collective) in Arabic, but it would say עגבניות (plural) in Hebrew.

By the way, طير is not a collective. It refers to one individual bird.


----------



## bat777

scriptum said:


> I don't want to spoil the party, but we should remember that "Tzippora" is not a Hebrew word. The biblical Tzippora was a Midianite girl (see Exodus, 2)...


 
You are right Scriptum, I didn''t think of that  .

But then again, Moses- משה was named by an Egyptian woman who was using the Hebrew root מ,ש,ה - 
"כי מן המים משיתיהו"​ 
So maybe we can also say that צפורה comes from Hebrew.


----------



## Whodunit

elroy said:


> No, צפור is a single bird. As far as I know, Hebrew does not have collective nouns in the way that Arabic does. A sign at the supermarket would say بندورة (collective) in Arabic, but it would say עגבניות (plural) in Hebrew.


 
Do you mean بنادورة?

I understand now how it works in Hebrew. It was just a coincidence that you could add ה- to the word צפור, and it still means the same. 



> By the way, طير is not a collective. It refers to one individual bird.


 
According to my dictionary, طير is a collective, and the two possible plurals are طيور and أطيار. However, we should better discuss this issue in the Arabic forum.


----------



## elroy

Whodunit said:


> Do you mean بنادورة?


 No, I meant بندورة.


> According to my dictionary, طير is a collective, and the two possible plurals are طيور and أطيار. However, we should better discuss this issue in the Arabic forum.


 This reminds me of an old discussion in the Arabic forum about the word فأر, which multiple dictionaries claimed was a collective, contrary to actual usage.  طير is not used as a collective, as far as I know.  طير is one bird, and طيور are many birds -- but you're right; this discussion should be continued in the Arabic forum if at all.


----------



## scriptum

bat777 said:


> But then again, Moses- משה was named by an Egyptian woman who was using the Hebrew root מ,ש,ה -
> "כי מן המים משיתיהו"​So maybe we can also say that צפורה comes from Hebrew.


 
Let's sum up. Both Tzippora and Moshe are foreign personal names (given by non-Hebrew speakers to non-Hebrew-speaking children) and both have a resemblance to Hebrew words. Whether they really have a Hebrew etymology remains a mystery.

BTW, according to a widespread opinion, "Moshe" represents an Egyptian word meaning "son" (cf. Ramses - "Son of Ra").


----------

