Thanks for the discussion, as it helped me refine
my etymology. I kind of suspected that Isaac's
etymology was "idiosyncratic" and I agree that
the arguments and evidence he presented to
support it are not very convincing. So I still
think that my etymology is the best one, notwithstanding Georges objections.
To wit, at 01:20 PM 3/9/2010, George wrote:
>The word for open in Hebrew is tri-consonantal Pe-Tav-Het
However, if one can accept the postulates that
(1) tri-consonantal roots were probably derived
by extending bi-consonantal roots, and (2) Tet is
probably a reflex of Tav, it is very possible, if
not highly probable, that the root Pe-Tav of
Pe-Tav-Het to open, free, loosen was a variant
of the root Pe-Tet of the Heb. verb for opening
Pe-Tet-Resh to open, free, escape. So, it is
equally probable that Pe-Tav-Het was derived
simply by affixing Het to Pe-Tav, while
Pe-Tav-Resh to interpret was derived simply by
affixing Resh to Pe-Tav. Hence these words for
opening and interpreting are as cognate as they clearly reveal they are.
I therefore have to agree here with Isaac, who wrote:
> Pe-Tet-Resh is 'solved', which in English
means 'loosened', and so is Pe-Tav-Resh.
At 01:20 PM 3/9/2010, George also wrote:
> a good case can be made for the word see
being biconsonantal (Resh-Aleph).
However, if one can also accept the postulate
that bi-consonantal roots were probably derived
by extending mono-consonantal roots, it is also
probable that Resh- Aleph was a vowelized form of
Resh, and Resh-Aleph-Heh was an extended form of
Resh-Aleph for reasons I will discuss more
below and in response to the recent question
regarding the names of Egyptian deities.
At 01:20 PM 3/9/2010, George Athas also wrote:
>The kind of verbal compounding youve suggested does not really take place
OTOH, in view of this objection, Im amending my
etymology slightly to read that Pe-Tav-Resh 'to
interpret' was derived from (1) the widespread,
bi-consonsontal Afro-Asiatic (AA) root PT that
came into Heb as the roots Pe-Tav and Pe-Tet of
the aforementioned verbs for opening, and (2) the
equally widespread, mono-consonantal AA root R
that yielded (a) Aleph-Vov-Resh light and (b)
Resh-Aleph-Heh to see as well as (c) the
latters defective form which referred to a prophet or prophetic vision.
Pe-Tet-Resh to interpret is therefore also
transparently cognate with, for instance, Empire
Aramaic PTR to detach, Jewish Aramaic PTR to
dismiss or free, Acadian pataru to loosen,
draw out, and Mandaic PTR to open up,
separate all of which pertain directly or
indirectly to opening up and, thus, exposing
things to light or shedding light on them.
So, there are reasons for believing that
Pe-Tav-Resh to interpret was coined to imply
that interpreting was originally(a) what my
grandmother used to call "Opening the light!,"
when she wanted to see; (b) what some Biblical
passages refer to metaphorically as opening the
eyes, and (c) what other Biblical passages refer to as prophetic visions.
This etymology can be supported, first, by noting
that interpreting is a synonym for enlightening,
and Aleph-Vov-Resh was deducibly a vowelized form
of Resh light that was used to refer to
enlightenment in 1 Sam 14:27 when Johnathan
eats the prohibited honey, and his eyes were
enlightened (Aleph-Vov-Resh) and again in 1
Sam 14:29, when Johnathan exclaims how mine eyes
have been enlightened (Aleph-Vov-Resh) because I
tasted a little of this honey. Accordingly, it
would have been more than reasonable to derive
Pe-Tav- Resh to interpret from Pe-Tav to open
+ Resh light, to imply that interpreting was en-lightening.
The use of Aleph-Vov-Resh light with ayin to
express enlightenment in the preceding passages
is therefore fully equivalent to the use of
Pe-Tav-Het to open with ayin to express
enlightenment in Gen 3:5, wherein the serpent
tells Eve that if she eats the forbidden fruit
your eyes shall be opened (Pe-Tav-Het), and
again in Gen 3:7, which explains that the the eyes of them both were opened.
As I mentioned above, this analysis agrees with
Isaacs suggestion that interpreting is
synonymous with solving, but not because Heb.
Resh referred to grazing. On the contrary, just
as Heb. PTR to interpret reveals it was
derived from Pe-Tet to open + Resh light,
Latin (L.) solvere, to solve clearly reveals
it was derived from L. sol sun + the root
ver- of L. words for truth, evidently to imply
that solving was bringing the truth to light. It
is deducibly for the same reason that Germanic
(Gc.) words for loosening reveal that they are
terminally palatalized derivatives of the
Proto-Indo-European *leuk- that yielded scores of
IE words for light, though a fuller discussion of
these words is well beyond this lists scope.