Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

_'dm_ can denote mankind or humanity. It can, however, also be used to denote 
a single
individual. However, this is more often expressed by the word _'yš_. I don't 
think _'yš_
ever denotes mankind as a whole - someone else may be able to confirm or deny 
that. The
word _'yš_ denotes a single male person translated as "a man". The fact that 
it signifies
an individual is attested by the fact that it sometimes needs to be 
translated as "each
(man)". The word _'nš_ I think has the same semantic range as _'dm_.

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GEORGE ATHAS
 Dept of Semitic Studies,
 University of Sydney
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