E 0425         HATE

The word " hate " is of Germanic origin .

H 0412            ת ת ה , ת ו ה

Concept of root : persecution

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ת ת ה , ת ו ה

hot, hatat

to terrorize, persecute

Related English words

to hate

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ת ת ה ,ת ו ה

hot, hatat

to terrorize, persecute

h . t . t < h . t

English

to hate

to hate

h . t

Dutch

haten

haten

to hate, persecute,

h . t

 

 

Proto-Semitic *HOT, *HAT- --- *HĀT- Indo-European

 

 

 

Hatred is a wide-spread feeling, in our times a real scourge for humanity, so often guided by hatred. And where it settles in human minds, it produces anger. Combined with power, persecution frequently ensues. This persecution creates terror and fear in the targeted people. Therefore words that mean "hatred", often may express as well those other three concepts: anger, persecution, fear.

 

Hebrew in this entry and in the related E 0426 (Hebrew 0459), to which we refer, shows such words. They are "hot, hatat" and "ghat, ghatat". One sees the use of the vowels "O" and "A". In Indo-European we also find "O" and "A", in respectively Latin "odium = hatred" and English "to hate". Many scholars see a common origin "*od-" for these two words.

 

The original meaning of the Germanic words, English "to hate" and its sisters, seems to have been that of persecution. The Hebrew root of this entry gives some characteristic results of persecution, on the side of the haunted person. Another quite different Hebrew root links "hatred" to "enemy", in the words ש נ א , sané = to hate" and ש ו נ א, soné = enemy". In Middle Dutch we can still find both sides of the, ugly, medal. There need not be much doubt about the common origin of the Germanic and Hebrew roots.

 

So in this entry we find the two verbs " hot" and " hatat ". The second word has been developed out of the first in a process that is frequently seen in Hebrew, the doubling of the second consonant. The link with the Germanic root lies in the meaning of "persecution", an action that terrorizes and creates hatred.

 

Sometimes this verb "hatat" is given a more "soft" translation, like "to rush upon, fall upon", but in the context of Ps. 62:4 the concept of continuity is evident, so that the most appropriate translation remains "to persecute".

 


We again refer to entry E 0426 (Hebrew 0459) , "ghat, ghatat" . Very probably both roots, one beginning with "H" and one with the stronger consonant "GH" have a common origin. Or rather "ghatat" comes after "hatat". Both move along the path of terror, but the messages of "ghatat" are perhaps a step further on that road.

 

 

 

Note:
  • English. Many times the message of an English word has travelled a bit further off from its origin than its Dutch or Middle Dutch sisterword . So are things here as well . That is the reason why it is so often useful to add Dutch words to our entries .

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. The older verb "hot" had this O-sound that lacks in the Germanic root. "Hatat" is a lengthened version, created in order to have three consonants, important for the shaping of further grammatical forms. In this verb the second T is just a doubling, not part of the original root .

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. There is not much evidence for a hypothesis. Arabic "hawwata, he shouted at, threatened" has the same root , but its meaning " to threaten" is a bit far off . But the presence in Hebrew of the two versions "HOT" and "HATAT" indicates that the words are old and that "HOT" and also "HAT" may have been used in Proto-Semitic: " *ה ו ת , H . W . T" and " *ה ת , H . T ".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. For the words related to English "to hate" there is for Proto-Germanic a hypothesis "*GH A T-". This looks attractive if we see also in Hebrew an initial "GH", as in entry E 0426 (Hebrew 0459) , "ghat, ghatat". But here we find a sister word in Hebrew that has an initial "H". This indicates a possible diversification, through which the words with "H" remain with an active meaning and the words with "GH" a passive meaning, that of undergoing the action and the resulting feelings.

     

    Anyhow all Germanic words, from Gothic "hatis, hatjan" and Old Norse "hatr" have an initial "H", that in the basic verb is followed by a vowel "Ā". In complex verbs as Old Saxon "hettian" and nominal forms as Old English "hete" besides "hatian" a vowel "E" may appear. The second consonant is nearly always "T". The exception lies in German "hassen" and its predecessors "hazzen". Therefore Proto-Germanic probably had "*H Ā T-"

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. There are just a few interesting further indications.

     

    Armenian has "ateam = I hate" and this seems to have abolished the "H" of an older "*hateam". "To hate" is then linked to "enemy" in "ateli = full of hate, hostile".

     

    Hittite with the "hatuka = terrible, fearful" seems to be related.

     

    Greek has a word "οδωδυσται, ododustai = to get irritated, to be galled, to hate". This verb has the initial "OD-" doubled in a rather common Greek praxis. It is to be seen as related to Latin "odium = hatred, (strong) dislike".

     

     

    Indo European. It has been tried to link together English "to hate" and Latin "odium" and to consider in "*OD-" a common origin. This is not impossible, as the ways of languages can be complicated, but it remains improbable. Indo-European more probably had two independent forms: "*H Ā T-" for a concept of "to hate" linked with "terror, violence" and "*O D-" for a concept of "hate" linked with "rage, dislike".

 

 

 

 
"...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: 24/10/2012 at 17.48.32