# משׁיח



## seitt

Greetings

Re the word for Messiah, משׁיח, I understand it as meaning ‘anointed’. Is that correct, please?

But wouldn't ‘anointed’ be משׁוח? Could משׁיח be a kind of intensive form of משׁוח?

Best wishes, and many thanks,

Simon


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## arielipi

The messiah is needed to be anointed, leading to the word משיח


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## seitt

Please read my question again.


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## David S

arielipi said:


> The messiah is needed to be anointed, leading to the word משיח



The OP's question is more like whether mashiach means "anointer" rather than "anointed", which should be mashuach.


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## tFighterPilot

It's an Aramaic form, from what I understand.


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## origumi

tFighterPilot said:


> It's an Aramaic form, from what I understand.


I suspected the same, but משיח appears too many times in the Bible, mainly in the book of Samuel. So borrowing from Aramaic is doubtful.


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## seitt

Thank you all very much - is there a possibility that this participle could be intensive as well as passive i.e. "anointed to the nth degree, splendidly anointed etc."? I say this because the binyan of משׁיח is very close to an Arabic binyan frequently used in an intensive meaning. (Please let me know if I am using the word 'binyan' correctly here - I mean the pattern of first root consonant - qamatz - second root consonant - khiriq - third root consonant.)


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## origumi

seitt said:


> Thank I say this because the binyan of משׁיח is very close to an Arabic binyan frequently used in an intensive meaning.


Examining other languages, we can follow the Pilot's remark about Aramaic. Binyan qatil exists there comparable to Hebrew qatol. For example קדיש vs. קדוש. So  משיח could be active, "one for whom anointment applies".


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## arielipi

origumi said:


> Examining other languages, we can follow the Pilot's remark about Aramaic. Binyan qatil exists there comparable to Hebrew qatol. For example קדיש vs. קדוש. So  משיח could be active, "one for whom appointment applies".



קדיש is not comparable in that way to קדוש;
קדיש is something which you say on someone, like תזכיר, טמיר etc.


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## origumi

arielipi said:


> קדיש is not comparable in that way to קדוש;
> קדיש is something which you say on someone, like תזכיר, טמיר etc.


You're describing a relatively late development in the way Hebrew borrowed the term from Aramaic. In Aramaic קדיש is very similar or even identical to Hebrew קדוש.

You can see it in the Onqelos translation of the Pentateuch (תורה), for example:
קְדֹשִׁים יִהְיוּ לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם  ->  קַדִּישִׁין יְהוֹן קֳדָם אֱלָהֲהוֹן
כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי -> אֲרֵי קַדִּישׁ אֲנָא


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