# Meanings of Het, Tet, Sade, Qoff



## frankerlich

I just can't manage to find out the meanings of these 4 letters in hebrew. I looked in aramaic, arabic and hebrew dictionaries but i don't find the meanings as alsways presented in the internet.
Please tell me the roots and the nearest meanings.


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## rushalaim

There aren't any _"meaning"_ for any letter of Alphabet. If someone is saying you that a letter means something, that meaning is just a kind of _"nickname"_ or just invention for kids. Because any letter cannot represent any root. The main letter's function is just to represent the basic and primitive syllable.


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## Drink

rushalaim said:


> There aren't any _"meaning"_ for any letter of Alphabet. If someone is saying you that a letter means something, that meaning is just a kind of _"nickname"_ or just invention for kids. Because any letter cannot represent any root. The main letter's function is just to represent the basic and primitive syllable.



Don't listen to Rushlaim, he doesn't know what he's talking about.

I will answer this question later when I have more time.


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## origumi

If you're asking about the archaic word that was selected for the letter name (like yod = hand, kaf = palm of the hand), then... I guess this is what Drink is planning to answer, let's wait for him.

If you're thinking about some other kind of meaning - please elaborate.


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## Drink

Here's what I could find:

ח (ḥ)
Originally may have been named חצר (courtyard), but later the name of the letter for ḫ was applied to it, which was ḫayt (thread); for the word, compare Aramaic root חיט (to sew) and Arabic خَيْط (thread); for the glyph itself, compare the Egyptian hieroglyph twisted flax (V28), which stood for ḥ, and the Ugaritic letter for ḫ.

ט (ṭ)
Supposedly in Phoenician, ṭēṯ supposedly meant "wheel", but I cannot find a good source for that.

צ (ṣ)
Unknown, but might be connected to the root ציד (to hunt).

ק (q)
There are a few theories. One is that it is the eye of a needle, קוּף or קוֹף (I can't find which one is correct) supposedly means "eye of a needle", even in Morfix and Milog. Another is that it was a monkey and its tail, since קוֹף means "monkey". Another theory is that it is the back of the head and neck, since supposedly قَاف means "nape" in Arabic, but I could not find this word in the dictionaries I checked, but I _could_ find that قُوف means "upper part of the ear".


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## rushalaim

*Drink*, don't you think, that if you don't know the meanings of those letters proves there aren't any "roots" of letters?


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## Drink

rushalaim said:


> *Drink*, don't you think, that if you don't know the meanings of those letters proves there aren't any "roots" of letters?



No. Every letter name has an origin, whether we know what it is or not.


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## rushalaim

We may speak about previous *pictographs* successors of _Egyptian_-hieroglyphs and _Phoenician_-letters deriving from Egypt, _Hebrew _later. But that isn't the meaning of any "roots" of letters.
_Hhet_ (_Hetz_ sometimes) means _"braided, intertwined branches as a wall; dead hedge; to sew a hedge with branches"_. *Drink*, thanks for the hint of חצר .
_Teth_ means _"busket"_ (or something containing and surrounding and protecting).
_Tzadei_ (_Tzad_ sometimes) means _"fishing-rod; fishing-hook"_, that's why _Hebrew "hunting"_, derived from _Egyptian_-hieroglyph _"lotos"_.
_Quph_ means _"passage between something"_ like sun in sunrise or sunset.

_Egyptian-_hieroglyphs bore hieratic (priests' cursive writing) and demotic (trade writing).
_Egyptian-_hieratic bore _Phoenician_/Moses' _Hebrew_-letters.
_Egyptian-_demotic bore _Arabic_-letters.
Egyptian hieroglyphs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## origumi

rushalaim, you posted disputed info with no reference. The reference you did link to is not helpful.


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## Drink

Letters don't have "roots" exactly, but the _names_ of letters do have roots.

Arabic letters most certainly did not come from Demotic. They have virtually nothing in common. And some Phoenician letters are similar to Hieroglyphs, but certainly not the whole alphabet.


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## rushalaim

Drink said:


> Letters don't have "roots" exactly, but the _names_ of letters do have roots.


Letters don't have any "names", but shape or picture. Like _Egyptian_-hieroglyphs have pictures. And those pictures are tied with primitive syllable like _Arabic _Alphabeth has, for example: _Ba, Ta, Ra_ and so on. To make a word you need at least two letters and a vowel, for example: *אב* or *אם* and later those two can bear *בן* . ))
I think, _Arabic_ is more honest than _Hebrew_. Those _Hebrew_ "names" for letters is just late invention for kids to study in schools by Melamed. By the way, Jewish-Yemenites name not _Mem_ but _Mi_ and not _Zayin_ but _Zan_ and so on.


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## Drink

rushalaim said:


> Those _Hebrew_ "names" for letters is just late invention for kids to study in schools by Melamed.



These Hebrew names for the letters are actually very ancient.


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## origumi

rushalaim said:


> Those _Hebrew_ "names" for letters is just late invention for kids to study in schools by Melamed.


I wish we could stick with facts or at least with widely accepted hypotheses.


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