Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 3/23/07, Yohanan bin-Dawidh wrote:

> My interest in this study, and your opinios truly lies with "yayin", for
> traditionally this word has been understood to be wine; however, in Sefer
> Bamidbar 6:3 we see the use of "khomets yayin", which some translate as
> "vinegar of wine", but could easily be seen as "soured yayin", i.e. "wine",
> especially if we look at other Semitic variants of the Hebrew word
> "yayin" such as "yin" (in Ugaritic); "wayin" (in Arabic); and "inu" (in
> Akkadian).The Arabic variant holds the meaning of "black grape, which could
> suggest that "yayin" is merely a type of grape. But then there is the
> argument that "yayin" stems from the Hebrew verb "yayan" which means  "to
> boil up" or "to ferment"

Ugaritic probably has "yen", where *ay > e, so *yayn > yen.  This is probably
the situation in Israelite too which has "yn rxc" in the Samaritan ostraca.
The root would appear to be Semitic *wayn.  Joshua Fox does not list Akkadian
amongst the cognates for this root, listing only Arab wayn, Geez wayn,
Heb yayin, Sab wyn, yyn "vineyard", Ug yn.  He also identifies gapn
"grape vine"
(here with an Akkadian cognate), karm "vineyard, vine" (no Akkadian here too).
Probably also of interest is xamr, which my guess would also be attested in
Semitic, but Joshua Fox does not list it because it has a related verb ("to
ferment").  See Ps 75:9.  Incidentally, the words wine, vine,
vineyard, and vinegar
are also probably all related to this word:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=wine
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=vine
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=vineyard
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=vinegar

Perhaps it is more directly related to grapes (ie, vine, vineyard in English).
However, it appears that in many languages it has taken on the meaning
"wine," even if so.  Remember, that it could also go the other way around
and have come to mean "grape" from an original "wine".

Yitzhak Sapir