Gypsy Camp Blog

Hebrew continues to adapt year after year to provide new words and nuances that are needed by a modern society. Over 10,000 words have been added in the last 35 years. This article shows how some of those words were derived. The examples below are from William Chomsky’s “Hebrew: The Eternal Language”.

Sometimes, words from Indo-European languages are taken and modified to fit Hebrew. A good example is the common word “to telephone”, which in Heberw is “TILPHEN”. This practice is not new in 20th century. Even during Mishnaic times, we can find words borrowed from Greek. An example is “HIT’AKHSEN” (received hospitality) from the Greek word “XENIA” meaning hospitality.

Theodore Herzl published a Zionest novel, Altneuland. He selected this name for the new state since it symbolized both old (German: alt) and new (German: neu). The city Tel Aviv is a rough Hebrew translation, since “TEL” means mound or ruin (thus symbolizing old), and Aviv is the month of Spring, indicating new.

Hebrew often adds prefixes and suffixes to words to slightly modify the meaning. For example, you can often add the suffix “-ut” to a word. SAMKHUT means “authority” from the root verb SEMEKH” meaning “support”. SIFRUT means “literature” from the noun SEFER meaning book.

Another pattern is for professions. RAMMAN menas genadier (someone who throws hand grenades) from “RIMON” (a pomegrante or “grenade”. Similarly, TZALAM is a photographer, from the stem TZELEM meaning “image” or “shadow”.

Sometimes, you can add the letter “MEM” as a prefix to form a noun. The occurs with Biblical words such as MIKDASH (temple) from KADASH (to sanctify/make holy) and MISHKAN (tabernacle) from SHAKAN (dwell). In Modern Hebrew, we can see such words as MABDED (insulator) from BADAD (insulate)

As in English, two words are combined to form a new word. For example, “goodbye” is a shortend version of “God be with you”. KOLNOA (movie theater or sound pictures) is a blend of KOL (sound) and NO’A (motion). Interestingly, TAPUZ is an orange, from the word TAPUACH (apple) and the first letter of ZAHAV (gold).

English, Yiddish, Russian have contributed to new Hebrew words. SHWITZ means sweat in Yiddish, which inspired the Hebrew word MASHWITZ – a pretneious person. From English, Hebrew has borrowed words such as sweater, garage, and tractor. From Russian, the suffix “Nik” is occassionaly used showing that a person belongs to a certain group, such as KIBBUTZNIK (a man belonging to a Kibutz).

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