Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

dear jim,

 >>> jim steinhart:
 Although )DM is usually a verb or adjective meaning “to
 be red” or “red”, it occasionally seems to be a masculine noun, perhaps
 meaning “something that is red”.... 

i always wondered whether the derivation ADOM --> DAM,ADAM,ADAMAH
makes sense. in parallel there exists also the identification 
ADAM <--> ADAN,ADON which is reflected also in godly names from 
ugaritic and ... hebrew. [see also the words DON, DOM, ODIN/WEDIN
in other languages, the slavic ODON/EDIN="one", although unclearly
related]. see DYN in semitic, also related with chiefs.

i dont think semitics were considered red-skinned or red-haired; 
moreover, it is not clear to me, from the fact that blood is red, 
whether the historical order was red --> blood or maybe blood gave 
its name to the color (see also blue vs blood). actually, XMR was 
rather used for red in other semitic semitic languages, in association
with wine and clay rather than blood, see e.g. arabic and BH.

just for the argument, if indeed )DM (possibly +suffix) derives, 
somehow, from ADON, namely, agricultural land as property owned by a
particular chief, the toponym problem might have a slightly
different interpretation, and plural might indicate several chiefs, or several
properties owned by one chief, as might be the case of XWWT 
Y)YR. continuing this logic, NQB or HNQB might have been a chief 
or ethnic group, originally.

this may be, actually, not too far from your reading: 
two villages/towns with the same name.

observe that, for example, "soil" is usually called AFAR in BH, not
ADAMAH. i wonder if ADAMAH was used as "property". the following data
from strong is not too conclusive:

-------------------------------
´adamah:

>>>> Definition
   1. ground, land
         1. ground (as general, tilled, yielding sustenance)
         2. piece of ground, a specific plot of land
         3. earth substance (for building or constructing)
         4. ground as earth's visible surface
         5. land, territory, country
         6. whole inhabited earth
         7. city in Naphtali 

>>>> NAS Word Usage - Total: 224
country 1, dirt 1, dust 3, earth 32, farming* 1, fields 1, ground 64, land
112, lands 2, soil 7

nir cohen