Biblical Hebrew Forum

[dwashbur AT nyx.net]

While it's good to look for cognates and try to find connections between 
words with 
apparently-similar roots and such, it doesn't always work.  An example I like 
to use is "nice," 
which comes from a Latin root meaning "ignorant."  The word "strike" can mean 
"to hit" in 
bowling but "to miss" in baseball.  And so it goes.  Words mean what they 
mean because a 
society chooses to use them that way.  There may or may not be any connection 
to a root.  I 
say this, not to squelch the question of connection between these two 
versions of $KM, but 
to illustrate that there may come a point where we simply have to throw up 
our hands and 
say "there isn't any."

On 15 Oct 2008 at 14:55, Stephen and Rebecca Shead wrote:

> Gabe,
> 
> HALOT (following others) suggests that it may be the other way around: the
> noun "shoulder" gave rise to a verb "to do something early" (e.g. get up
> early, set out early), as a development from "to load up the animals in the
> morning" (i.e. put things on their shoulders before setting out). They list
> a couple of cognate verbs (Ugaritic *tkm* and Ethiopian *sakama*) which mean
> "to place on the shoulders".
> 
> Also, a word for getting up early isn't necessarily so "special" or strange.
> Spanish has one: *madrugar* (presumably from *madrugada*, "early morning").
> 
> Stephen Shead
> Centro de Estudios Pastorales
> Santiago, Chile
> 
> From: Gabe Eisenstein <gabe AT cascadeaccess.com>
> > To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:31:39 -0700
> > Subject: [b-hebrew] shacham
> > I've been annoyingly pushing my agenda regarding Shechem as a theme in
> > northern Israelite texts. But here's a strictly linguistic question: why
> > does my Strong's say that shechem in the sense of "shoulder" derives from
> > shacham, "to rise up early"?
> > And further: what is the origin of this word? Why is there a special word
> > for getting up early?
> >
> > A nonlinguistic question is: why is this verb used so often in the Bible?
> > Why do people always have to do things early in the morning?
> >
> >
> > Gabe Eisenstein
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> 


Dave Washburn
"I'll hold the nail.  And when I nod my head, you hit it with the hammer."