# Hebrew roots



## Terrible123

I'm leafing through the book _How the Hebrew Language Grew_ by Edward Horowitz, and I'm on a chapter which is filled with many questions (easy, intermediate and difficult) on _why_ words mean what they mean. You're meant to know or find the primitive root to a word, and try to make the connection between it and the modern meaning. Here are the first three questions so you can see what I'm talking about.



> 1. Why does the word shavua mean a week?
> 2. Why does the word mizrach mean east?
> 3. Why does the word ma'arav mean west?



For number 1 I answered "because the root of shavua is sheva, which means seven." I checked the answer and I was right. This is the only one I actually knew. For 2 I and 3 I just googled to get the roots. The answers are:



> 2. The word comes from the root "zarach" (zayin-resh-chet) which meant originally "rise". The east was the place where the sun rose first. The word zarach now means "shine".
> 
> 3. The word comes from the root "arav" which means "setting of the sun". The west was the place where the sun set and then the evening would come.



Making the connection between the root and the modern word is meant to be an intellectual exercise (the chapter's called "How bright are you?"), but I only knew the root of the first word (shavua). I can't guess the root, and what the meaning of it is.

So basically: I need to download a list of all the hebrew roots. I've seen some awkward Christian websites where you can paste the English transliteration of the word and get the root, but I'd rather just have a big PDF list of the roots in front of me that I can search more quickly. Can anyone help me out? Thanks.


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## origumi

I guess you can find root tables as an appendix of comprehensive dictionaries. Not sure about web resource. However, this will not be of any help in many cases. Roots out of context are merely arbitrary combinations of 3 letters. To be able to tell verb's or noun's verbal root one needs to possess adequate knowledge of the language.

Regarding question #3: the meaning of root `rb (= `rv) as "setting (down)" in modern Hebrew was lost. Therefore an Israeli is not likely to provide the answer you mentioned, but another one: ma`arav is where the sun goes at the `erev, evening. Linguistic education or Arabic knowledge is needed in order to trace ma`arav back to `rv = "setting of the sun".


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## Terrible123

I see that I won't be able to get any meaning from the root, but if I have the full word, e.g. computer (machshev) I could make a guess that the root is (ch-sh-v), then I'd put that into Google Translate and get the meaning of it, which is thought/thinking, and see the obvious connection between that and a computer.


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## ks20495

This is a list of roots that are organized alphabetically. It is by no means exhaustive, but it does contain a good number.

http://he.wiktionary.org/wiki/קטגוריה:שורשים


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## daninzurich

try hebrew.ch - activate english version - click on verb roots - you'll find what you're looking for.


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## Abu Rashid

Shalom origumi,



			
				origumi said:
			
		

> Regarding question #3: the meaning of root `rb (= `rv) as "setting  (down)" in modern Hebrew was lost. Therefore an Israeli is not likely to  provide the answer you mentioned, but another one: ma`arav is where the  sun goes at the `erev, evening. Linguistic education or Arabic  knowledge is needed in order to trace ma`arav back to `rv = "setting of  the sun".



Are you saying the meaning of "setting down" is traced back through Arabic? Because this root (gh-r-b) actually means to go away or to become estranged. Hence the "going away" of the sun, which we then use for the setting of the sun.

Or was "setting down" a meaning found from ancient Hebrew?


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## origumi

Abu Rashid said:


> Are you saying the meaning of "setting down" is traced back through Arabic?


What I tried to say is that in Hebrew root `rb means only "west" or "evening". A meaning like "setting down" is lost or very weak. Reading השמש מעריבה the Hebrew speaker will understand "the sun is going west" or "the sun is going to its evening destination" and only metaphorically "the sun is setting down".

There are idioms like בערוב ימיו "at the setting (= late days) of his life" which are based, I guess, on an original meaning of the root as "setting" or "going away", but this is not enough to establish this meaning in the mind of the (modern and I think also Biblical) Hebrew speaker.

To be able to tell that there was originally a more basic meaning to `rb, "to go away" or "to become estranged", the Hebrew speaker needs to get help of a sister language like Arabic, or have linguistic knowledge.

(There are some other meaning to root `rb which are irrelevant to this discussion - most likely they are not the same `rb, only look like it).


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## ks20495

Just to clarify...The Arabic letters _ghayn_ and _`ayin_ are collapsed into one letter in Hebrew - _`ayin_.

Therefore, the root that was originally _gh-r-b_ meaning "west"/"setting of the sun" looks identical to the root _`-r-b_ meaning Arab.


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## origumi

There are several other appearances of this root and I didn't bother to investigate the origin of each:

* ערבון, ערבוּת, להתערב (guarantee, deposit, bet?)
* לערב, לערבב, להתערב (mix, mingle)
* עורב (crow)
* ערבה (willow)
* ערבה (wilderness)
* עֵרֶב (woof)
* עָרֵב (pleasant)
* ערוב (wild animals)


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## Abu Rashid

origumi said:
			
		

> What I tried to say is that in Hebrew root `rb means only "west" or  "evening". A meaning like "setting down" is lost or very weak.



Ahh so you mean setting down is a derived meaning, not the original meaning? In Arabic also it is a derived meaning, the base meaning being that of going away, departing, becoming estranged.



			
				origumi said:
			
		

> ערבון, ערבוּת, להתערב (guarantee, deposit, bet?)



This meaning exists in OSA, but I don't think it exists in Arabic, but this is ayin, not ghayin, so is actually a different root.



			
				origumi said:
			
		

> עורב (crow)



This also exists in Arabic, and with ghayin (indicating it may be derived from the root in question).



			
				ks20945 said:
			
		

> Just to clarify...The Arabic letters _ghayn_ and _`ayin_ are collapsed into one letter in Hebrew - _`ayin_.
> 
> Therefore, the root that was originally _gh-r-b_ meaning "west"/"setting of the sun" looks identical to the root _`-r-b_ meaning Arab.



Yes, as they did in most of the Semitic languages, excluding Arabic, Ugaritic & the Old South Arabian languages.


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## origumi

Abu Rashid said:


> Ahh so you mean setting down is a derived meaning, not the original meaning? In Arabic also it is a derived meaning, the base meaning being that of going away, departing, becoming estranged.


In Hebrew the meaning of "going away, departing, becoming estranged" does not exist (or maybe it is in ancient literature such as the poetical parts of the Bible? I don't remember such case).


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