E 0461          HORROR, GRYRE

English " horror " is of Latin origin, but

Old English " gryre " is of Germanic origin .

H 0386            ר ו ג מ , ר ו ג

Concept of root : horror

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ר ו ג

ר ו ג מ

gor;

magor

to frighten, fear;

horror

Related English words

horror ; Old English : gryre

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ר ו ג

ר ו ג מ

gor;

magor

to frighten, fear;

horror

g . r

Latin

horror;

horreo

-

-

-

-

horror;

horréo

-

-

-

-

horror;

to be frightened, stand up straight (hair, pole)

h . r . r;

h r .

-

-

-

-

Old English

gryre

horror

g r . r

Dutch; Middle Dutch

gruwen;

grouwen

grüwen;

gr(ou)wen

to be horrified, abhor

g r .

 

 

Proto-Semitic *GŎR --- *GHŎR- Indo-European

 

 

This entry is to be read together with the entries E 0460 (Hebrew 0445) and E 0462 (Hebrew 0572). This is a case in which the Latin guttural H corresponds with Semitic and Germanic guttural G. This is confirmed by the Germanic G in Old English and Dutch. Clearly the Old English word is out of use and modern English comes from Latin. Consequently we see the same first consonant in Semitic and Germanic, but not in Latin! This is again one of those cases that complicates the situation. The theory that Indo-European and Semitic are branches of an old tree makes it hard to understand that one of the sub-branches of the Indo-European branch has so much more in common with the Semitic branch than other Indo-European sub- branches have.

 

 

Note:
  • Greek has a related word that we have referred to in entry E 0460 (Hebrew 0445): "ορρωδια, orrodia = fear, fright, terror".

 

Note:
  • Hebrew frequently uses the prefix M + vowel to shape a noun on the basis of a root. Such nouns may specify a.o. the acting person, the place of action or the resulting event. This is seen in the related entry E 0462 (Hebrew 0572).

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. Hebrew also has a related verb, "י ג ר, Y G R, yagar" with the meaning of " to be afraid, to fear". The first consonant, " Y ", like its predecessor "* W ", indicates the concept of "to be".This verb indeed originally had an initial Waw , with a root as was present in Proto-Semitic : " *ו ג ר, W . G . R ". This has a cognate in Arabic "wajira = he feared ", in which the "G" has changed into "J". The root "W G R " has been shaped after the root "G W R" of this entry, and not the other way about. Proto-Semitic must have had that root *"ג ו ר, G W R".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. Hebrew and Latin have their two vowels between the consonants. Germanic languages have a vowel after the group "GR". Whereas the first ones have "O", in most Germanic tongues, old and new, there is "Û" or "U", also becoming "UW, pronounced UW". In Old English this has become a " Y " in "gryre" . An extra consonant "R" after the vowel is also present in Old Saxon "gruri". This extra "R" is an independent development, that probably had not originated in Proto-Germanic. German, adding as often before the " U " an " A ", has "grauen" after Middle High German "gruwen". The hypothesis for Proto-Germanic is then "*GR U-"

     

 

Note:
  • Latin in this noun has repeated the second part of the root, as is seen from the verb. The common opinions about the etymology link the two meanings. One of them explains that an animal or human being with brush-like rough hairgrowth may look frightening, so that the root acquired also the sense of "horror". We think this anyhow turns around the link if it existed. Another one says that fright makes hairs stand up straight and that an Old Indian root "*hars" expresses this.

     

    We tend to think that the double function of Latin "horreo", that is fright or horror as well as "to be rigid, standing up" is fortuitous.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European.

     

    Old Indian, like Latin but unlike Greek, Slavic and Germanic, has for the concepts of "fright, anxiousness" and of "stiffness", similar words, or rather identical words with both meanings. "hártsati, hrrtsyati = to be anxious, excited; to become stiff, rigid, to bristle". One may find some practical link between hair rising up stiff and fright, but that is not sufficient to see a common origin in meaning, in concept.

     

    Slavic for the meaning of this entry, regarding horror and fright, has a hypothesis of "*grozā". As a noun in Russian this means "thunderstorm", but also "threat, terror". And грозный, groznĕy stands for "threatening, terrible, dreadful", besides further , also figurative, meanings. Иоанн грозный, Yoann groznŭy is "Ivan the Terrible".

     

    For Indo-European a hypothesis can be "*GH O R-". The initial "GH" can soften into "H" (Latin, Old Indian), sharpen into "G" (Germanic) or disappear (Greek, perhaps via "H"). A metathesis between "R" and vowel can take place, as is often seen in Germanic.

 

 

 

 
"...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: 06/11/2012 at 10.51.13