Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Hello Isaac:

Thanks for your comments.

Let's try another root letter; and perhaps I can understand better.

What about "mem," מ ? What does it mean?

In מעל (ma-al), strong's 4603, we have an apparent meaning of unfaithful or
treacherous.

In עמל (ah-mal), strong's 5998, we have an apparent meaning of labor or toil
or trouble.

I can see somewhat of a faint relation in usage between the two words.

The root letter lamed ל as i understand from you, means to ascend or lofty.

If we discount the ayin ע as a filler, how do we arrive at the definitions
above?

And what does the root mem מ mean?

regards,

fred burlingame

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:

> How can a Hebrew root express in itself such a mysteriously complicated
>  idea as 'die'? Yet, QAVA קבע, 'fix, put down' is fine. Also, KVAH כבה, 'put
> out'. Also GAVA גבע, 'mount'. Also GAVAH גבה, 'go up', (then also QPA קפא,
> freeze', etc.). They all sound the same (at least nowadays). Why? because
> they are all the same on the root level. But they are all written
> differently. why? Because they  are all different in the act level.
> I also recall now GEV גו, 'body', versus GEB and GAB גב, 'back'.
>
>