Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Paul and Pere:

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 4:51 AM, Paul Zellmer <pzellmer AT sc.rr.com> wrote:

> Pere,
>
> Look at the various usages of the two words, and see if this might be a
> possible differentiation: treat M(+ as a description of quantity and Q+N as
> a description of significance.  Some (TWOT, for one) have M(+ mean
> something
> like "few in number" and Q+N as "insignificant."  That being said, there
> are
> still cases where the two concepts appear to be true synonyms.
>
> In English “small” and “few” have an overlap in meaning, e.g. a small army,
its soldiers are few.

As for M(+ and Q+N, both words are used roughly the same number of times.
M(+ refers to a quantity of time, food, numbers, etc. while Q+N to physical
size and/or importance or rank. A quick survey did not show up any cases
where they are true synonyms, but a quick survey may have missed two or
three.

>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Paul Zellmer
>

Karl W. Randolph.