Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Before you start to wonder what the etymology of a Hebrew word is you  
must first make it clear to yourself what the etymology of a root  
(ROOT!) actually means. It is easy to classify a word as  being of  
onomatopoeic origin and be done with it, but in my humble opinion  
there is not one single word in the entire TANAKH that is  
onomatopoeic. A bird is never a CIF-CIF and a cow is never a MU-MU.
Isaac Fried

On Dec 7, 2006, at 1:45 AM, Yigal Levin wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> The word "hed" appears only in Ezekiel 7:7 - the "hed" of the  
> mountains. Most English translations have "joyful shouting" or such  
> like, probably assuming a connection to "hedad" (which appears only  
> in Isaiah).
>
> In modern Hebrew, this word is used for "echo" - which makes sense:  
> the "sound" of the mountains". However, is this just a modern  
> Hebrew adaptation? Or is it based on ANE cognates or ancient  
> translation traditions? If the latter, that is, the word did  
> originally mean "echo", what is its etymology? Is it onomatapoeic,  
> based on the sound of echoing?.
>
> Thanks
>
> Yigal Levin
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