E 0275          DUMB

The word " dumb " is of Germanic origin .

H 0317            ה י מ ד ו; ; ד מ ה; ד מ מ

Concept of root : being dumb or silent

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

מ מ ד ;

ה מ ד ;

ה י מ ו ד

damam;

damā ;

dumiā

to be dumb or silent;

to be silent;

silence

Related English words

dumb

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

מ מ ד ;

-

ה מ ד ;

ה י מ ו ד

damam ;

-

damā ;

dumiā

to be dumb or silent;

to be silent;

silence

d . m . m ;

< d . m

d . m

English

dumb

non-speaking, stupid

d . mb

Dutch

dom

dom

stupid

d . m

German

dumm

dum

stupid

d . m

 

 

Proto-Semitic *DAM, *DOM --- *DŪM-B Proto-Germanic

 

 

This entry is to be seen also in relation with number E 0276 (Hebrew 0571) . It is one of those many cases in which similarity is found between Semitic and Germanic without cognates in other Indo-European groups of languages. Words defining physical defects of not being able te speak or hear often have, by error of the observers, acquired the negative meaning of stupidity. Thus with the Germanic ones of this entry. A newer version has been added by placing an S as prefix, a frequent phenomenon. So we get the following pattern :

 

                                                         UNABLE TO SPEAK           STUPID

                               English                           dumb                            dumb

                               German                         stumm                           dumm

                               Dutch                               stom                             stom

                                                                                                              dom

 

To this may be added the English word for non-hearing, "deaf", that has a German sister "„doof", which also has taken a second meaning of "„stupid". This and other likesome meanings have existed in Middle Dutch but are out of use in modern Dutch. We refer briefly to English "stupid", that is of Latin origin. It is sometimes seen as related to "deaf", but that seems odd. "Stupidus" means "motionless, stiff, perplexed, dazed". The English meaning, like Neo Latin ones, has become quite different . And it has nothing to do with "deaf".

 

Note:
  • Hebrew "damā" in Modern Hebrew is used differently, saying "to stop".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. The root " "ד מ ם, D M M, is found in Ugaritic "to keep silent". Another form " "ד מ ד ם, D M D M ", with related meanings is seen in Aramaic "damedem = to be in a daze". Ethiopian "tadamama = to be stunned" is related and so is perhaps Arabic "damdama = to murmur". A root " "*ד ם , D M", was probably used in Proto-Semitic. It can have had pronunciations "*DAM" as well as "*DOM".

 

Note:
  • English. The final B , which we also find in "lamb" is an old addition to this root, generalized or nearly so in old Germanic languages, that perhaps can be seen as a more emphasized speaking, though today it is no more pronounced. The similarity with the old Hebrew root as well as the existing other Germanic words demonstrate that there is no question of nasalization in English "dumb".

 

Note:
  • Germanic. Often the words "dumb" and "deaf", together with their Germanic sisters, are seen as related to English "dust" and German "Dunst", that stands for a.o. "mist". The reasoning behind this is that deaf or speechless people are seen as stupid, as having a "misty" mind. One must wonder how such a confusion could arise. People that cannot hear or speak, and more especially those who have both physical defects, find problems in communicating. So they easily become perceived as stupid, and the words that designed their defects became words for "stupid" or worse. But the origin of these same words has nothing to do with that later development, nor with fine dust or with vapour in the air.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. In older languages we see further: Gothic "dumbs", Old Saxon "dumb", Old English "dumb", Old High German "tumb" ,with the common change of " D " into " T "and Old Norse "dumbr", with the usual suffix R. But then there is Old Frisian "dumb, dumm" and Middle Dutch "domb, domp, dom" , with Old Danish already or rather still, "dum", before the modern languages, with the exception of English ( in spelling alone) abolished the final "B". Proto-Germanic probably had "*D U MB.

     

    It seems useful to point out that the English word "deaf" and its sisters like German "doof" probably do not have a common ancestor with final " BH ". They have fully different meanings, one being "unable to speak" and the other "unable to hear". People distinguished correctly between such characteristics. A person who cannot hear does not make the impression of being stupid, but someone who cannot speak more easily has that disadvantage. Indeed "dumb" etcetera easily acquired the sense of "stupid", but "deaf" not so easily, though oddly in modern German "doof" fully shifted to the meaning of "stupid". In Dutch there is the specific word "doofstom" = "deaf and dumb". So "dumb" and "deaf", may be related somewhere very far back with a basic "*D O +", but are independent developments with separate messages.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. We have no information about possible cognates in other Indo-European languages. Some see the Greek word "τυφλος, tüphlos as related, but that can not be right. It means just "blind". This is also used in the sense of "blind alley", but in no way it stands for "dumb", "deaf" or "stupid". Our comparison rests between Semitic and Proto-Germanic.

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 24/12/2012 at 14.34.42