E 0130        BURN, BRAND, FIRE

The words " burn ", " brand " and " fire " are of Germanic origin .

H 0231            ר ע ב

Concept of root : to burn

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

 ר ע ב

ba‛ar

to burn

Related English words

burn , fire, brand

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ר ע ב

ba‛ar

to burn

b .(‛). r

Greek

πυρ

pϋr

fire

p (u) r

English

to burn; brand ;

fire

to burn;

brand ;

fire

b(u) r n;

b r.n.d ;

f (i) r

Old English

beornan ,

bærnan ;

byrnan ;

fyr

to burn (intr) ;

-

to burn (trans) ;

fire

b (o) r n,

b . r n;

b(y) r n;

f (y) r

German

brennen; Feuer, Brand

brennen; foyer, brant

to burn;

fire

-

br . n

f (u) r

br . nd

Middle Dutch

bornen

bornen

to burn

b (o) r n

Dutch

branden ;

vuur, brand

-

branden;

vǖr, brand

-

to burn

fire

-

br . nd ,

v (u) r

 

 

Proto-Semitic *BA ‛AR --- *BRAN- Proto-Germanic < *BREU- Indo-European

 

 

There is a wide-spread opinion that the words "to burn" and words for "well" as Old English "brunna" and German "Brunnen" have a common origin, possibly in an Indo-European "*breu". Also in Hebrew there are words for the two concepts that are very similar. Therefore comments on this entry have been combined with those under Entry E 0124 (Hebrew 0228 ) and in par also E 0125 (Hebrew 0292) . It is useful to read the comments in those entries. They deal with the concepts of "well, spring" ( moving water) and "burn" ( moving flames).

 

This similarity, this common origin for words that indicate water that wells or bubbles up and flames, is also seen in a particular and quite different example. Middle High German had for "well" a word "sōt", that is based on the same root as English "to seethe", seen in entry E 0786 (Hebrew1083) that deals with boiling water.

 

In the field of "to burn" is further important the protagonist, the "fire". This word is probably also a very far cognate of "to burn". See the Notes below.

 

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. Aramaic and Ugaritic use this same root with the meaning of "to burn". Interesting is the comparison with the most probably related Arabic word "waghara = it glowed". Here instead of a "B" we find a "W" at the beginning of the word and root. A development frequently seen in Russian and Greek. And as rather often, Arabic uses "GH" instead of the Hebrew "Ayin". Proto-Semitic is seen as having used the same root still present In Hebrew : ב ע ר, B Ayin R".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic The Germanic languages have not done a very clear job of diversification between the concepts of those two elements in motion, that are "water" and "fire". It has added a third consonant, the N, to all words in both meanings. The R, having become the middle consonant of three , shifts to and fro. It stands either before or after the single vowel the Germanic tongues practice here as so often. Thus we find English "to burn" and German "brennen". And in the realm of water we find Middle Dutch "born" and modern "bron".

     

    For the meaning well, as moving water, in nearly all languages we find the initial BR, and a vowel "U" , followed by a single or double "N". Dutch as an exception has a short vowel "O" in "bron" and the older "born", that was present in Middle Low German and is also found in German as a second choice after "Brunnen". One can say that Proto-Germanic probably was "*B R U N-".

     

    The vowels O and U, akin to the Hebrew Waw, in Germanic are found in words for both concepts, moving water and moving flames. But sometimes they are absent, like in German "brennen" for "to burn" and "Brand" for "fire". Proto-Germanic probably had "*B R U N-", but also already "*B R A N-" for the meaning to burn, as moving flames.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. Fire. The initial consonant in all old and new Germanic languages is an "F", with the usual exception of the quartet Middle High German "viur", Middle Low German "vür". Middle Dutch "vuur, vier" and Dutch "vuur". The final consonant is "R", with the exception of Gothic "fon, fun- ". The vowel is frequently a long "U", that has lengthened into "IU" in Old Saxon Old High German and Middle High German and a longer "IU" in Old Frisian (also fior), with "UI" in Old Frankish and Old High German "fuir". Middle High German then developed further into "viwer" and viuwer" that led to German "Feuer". The conclusion must be a probable Proto-Germanic "*F Ü R -", with a long vowel "U".

     

    The final "N" in Gothic , with "F O N = fire", is simply based on a different root. This other root is also found in Icelandic "funi" = "fire". It has led to an important group of Germanic words that carry the meaning of "spark", to which belong Middle English "fonke", Old High German "funche" and Middle Dutch "vonke". The consonant " K " is often used to shape a diminutive and that may have been the case here as well.

 

Note:
  • Greek.Some Greek scholars, referring to German "Feuer", suppose for "pür" an original "*peϜor", but "Feuer" derives from older "fuir", that corresponds with the Greek word.

 

Note:
  • The Indo-European origin of the European words for "to burn" and ""well/brunna" is supposed to have been " *B R E U-" (related to English "to brew"), used to indicate the kinds of movement one often sees of water and flames . Thus it must have meant "boil, effervesce, burn, bubble". This may be right, but people soon would have wanted to distinguish between moving water and moving flames by diversifying into different roots. And further the movements of water in a well would have required a word quite different from that for "boiling water" in cooking activities.

     

    For the boiling of water exists indeed another word, both in Semitic and in Germanic. See entry E 0786 (Hebrew1083).

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. Fire. A first particularly important example is found in Hittite, that comes more than other groups near Hebrew:

     

    Hittite splits the word in two syllables , uses a vowel "A" for this construction and features a double "HH" as counterpart of the Hebrew "Ayin": "pahhur" .This is used as nominative and accusative case. Then the genitive case "paahhuenaes" and the dativus "paahhueni" do not have the consonant "R" and the "(e)N" they show can belong to another root that is also seen in Gothic "fon", but this is not at all certain.

     

    Tokharian used the basic element that we usually call "WAW" as in Hebrew and Greek, both as consonant and as vowel in respectively "pūwar" and "por".

     

    Slavic has a hypothesis of "*pīrj, *pīrīnā". This has lost ground in modern languages.

     

    Latin seems to offer no contribution, but in Umbrian there were indeed the words "pir; purome = fire; into the fire" and Oskan also used the basic "pur-" for "fire" in a composed word purasiaì .

     

     

    Indo-European probably had a form "*P Ū R-" as well as a "*P Ū N-".

 

 

 
"...the town, to which was given the name Babel, because it was there that the Lord confused the language of all the world on the face of which He dispersed them. GENESIS 11,9"
 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 23/12/2012 at 14.29.55