Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 22/05/2006 20:25, JP vd Giessen (FOL) wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> On Perseus
> (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2353110)
> I found the following:
>
> Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
>
> ... borrowed perh. fr. Ugro-Finnish, cf. Čeremissian ke[ndot
> ]e, ki[ndot ]e 'hemp' and Syrianian pïš 'hemp'.)
>
>   
What is "Syrianian"? Only 47 Google hits for this word, including 
another discussion of this etymology at 
http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing_lists/CLA-L/2001/03/0413.php. 
And many of the hits are in 19th century works. It looks to me like 
Syrianian is an alternative name for Syriac, which is the language of 
the Suryani people e./g. of Turkey and so could easily have become 
called Syrianian. If so, this word "pïš" is in fact a NW Semitic one. If 
this word indeed exists in Semitic, the etymology would probably then be 
from QNH P$, a respectable Semitic construct chain "cane of hemp". The 
Čeremissian kene, kine "hemp" would then be either derived from QNH or 
KANH/KANNA, or an abbreviation of KANNABIS.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/