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E 1012 WOOD
The old fashioned word "wood"
for "anger" is of Germanic origin .
H 0223 ט י
ע
Concept of root : aggressive
anger
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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ט י ע
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‛aith
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to
attack, inveigh, shriek in rage or attack
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Related English words
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English wood
(obsolete)
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Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
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Languages
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Words
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Pronunciation
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English meanings
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Similarity in roots
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Hebrew
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ט י ע
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‛aith
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to attack, inveigh, shriek in rage or attack
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‛a i th <
* . w th
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Greek
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ιτης
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itès
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bold, impetuous, pityless
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i t .
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Old Norse
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odr
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odr
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hasty, wild furious, rabid, raging
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o dr
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Old English
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wod
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mad, raging, senseless
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wo d
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Middle High German
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wuot
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wuot
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rage, madness, vehement determination
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wu t
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German
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Wut
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wut
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fury, rage
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wu t
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English (obs)
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wood
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wud
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violently insane
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wu d
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Dutch
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woede
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wude
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fury, rage
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wu d
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Proto-Semitic *‛UTH --- *WUD- Proto-Germanic
This similarity is very clear, when we take into consideration the probable development of the Hebrew root . The messages of the European word are all shades of aggressiveness. There is no reason to shift the original meaning to "mentally ill, insane, crazy, mad". Even less convincing is the supposition that the name for the Germanic supreme god, Wodan, means "The crazy one". Nor would it mean "The angry one", which is not in line with the image of "Wodan".
Note:
- Hebrew. This word describes agressiveness and anger. It is considered to have as original meaning that of shrieking or shouting in anger. Perhaps more exact would be a message of being angry and expressing this, be it by shrieking or by aggressive action. It has come to mean also "bird, birds of prey", obviously on the basis of observation of the behaviour of those, which to humans seems to express angry attack. And the typical shrieking of these birds confirms that impression. But the basis remains that of anger and aggressive behaviour.
This root has an older version with a "WAW", like in principle is the case with roots beginning with "yod". That means a root "*Ayin W TH", filled with at least one vowel, possibly an "O" or "U", obvious for a Waw. The use at the beginning of the word of the "Ayin" expresses the emphasized pronunciation of the word itself.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. There is not much evidence to allow a solid hypothesis . Arabic uses the same root for saying "'ayyatha 'ala = to rush upon with screams". This would be in harmony with a supposition of a Proto-Semitic root : "* ע
ו
ט, Ayin Waw TH ", and possibly already changing into "*ע
י
ט, Ayin Yod TH ".
Note:
- German seems to have here the word that is nearest to Hebrew. Dutch , like English, has a "D" as dental.
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. The Hebrew letter "waw" is used to express both consonants, like "W" and (final) "F", as well as vowels, such as "O" and "U". This can be explained by the fact that in language these sounds often develop one out of the other. Furthermore the "W"-sound often develops into a "Y". In Germanic languages we find at the beginning of words that in Hebrew originally had a "W (waw) ", but today a "Y (yod)" , often a "W" or "V" , possibly followed by a vowel "O" or "U" And sometimes just a vowel , as is the case in this entry with the Scandinavian words "od", here represented by Old Norse "odr". This Scandinavian "od" corresponds thus with English "wood" and German "Wut".
An opening consonant lacks in the Nordic tongues, but elsewhere it is a "W", also in Gothic "wods". The disappearing of an initial "W" from "WO-" or "WU" in Scandinavian is a frequent phenomenon. Examples are word like "ord = word", "orm = worm", "ull = wool" and "ulv = wolf". The following vowel in words related to this entry often is a long O, that in German via Old and Middle High German "wuot" has changed into a long U, parallel with the change in pronunciation in English (wood sounds like wud) and Dutch where "woede" is pronounced "wude". Originally there may have been either a long " Ū " or a long " Ō ". The following consonant is mostly a "D", and the German "T" is a typical specific development for that language.
It is useful to refer also to the related verbs, like Middle Dutch "woeden", Old Saxon "wodian, Old High German "wuoten" Old Norse "oœda" So Probably Proto-Germanic was "*W U D-".
Note:
- Indo-European. It has been tried to link the Germanic words of this entry to Latin "vates" = "seer, visionary, divinely inspired poet", but a valid semantic link is simply absent. We have to limit ourselves to the comparison between Germanic and Semitic.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 23/12/2012 at 11.11.55 |
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