|
E 0463 HOUSE
The word " house " is of
Germanic origin .
H 0456 ה ס
ת ,
ח ו
ס
ח
Concept of root : shelter
|
Hebrew word
|
pronunciation
|
English meanings
|
|
ה ; ס ח
ח ו ס ח
|
ghasą;
ghasut
|
to seek shelter ;
shelter
|
|
|
|
Related English words
|
house
|
|
|
Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
|
Languages
|
Words
|
Pronunciation
|
English meanings
|
Similarity in roots
|
|
Hebrew
|
ה ס ח ;
ת ו ס ח
|
ghasą
;
ghasut
|
to seek shelter ;
shelter
|
gh . s .
|
|
Greek
|
κασα
|
kasa
|
cabin, hut
|
k . s
|
|
Latin
|
casa
|
casa
|
cabin, small house
|
c . s
|
|
Neo-Latin
|
casa
|
casa
|
house
|
c . s
|
|
Tuscan
|
casa
|
ghasa
|
house
|
gh . s
|
|
English
|
house
|
|
house
|
h . s
|
|
German
|
Haus
|
h(au)s
|
house
|
h . s
|
|
Dutch
|
huis
|
h(ui)s
|
house
|
h . s
|
|
Flemish
|
huis
|
ghaas
|
house
|
gh . s
|
Proto-Semitic *GHASÀ --- *GHĀS- Indo-European
This important case of similarity is also interesting. It designs a triangle of related roots that is not unfrequent : Greek and Latin K, Hebrew GH/KH and Germanic H. As we point out in our chapter "The Myth of Hundred" (Hebrew 0001_aa11) this is far from a general rule, but something significant that now and then occurs.
Some light is given by another Hebrew root, "
כ
ס
ה , kasą" saying principally "to cover ", like the cloud covering the Tabernacle. This root " K S " is possibly a cousin of "shelter" , and has the same K as Greek and Latin in the shown words for "cabin".
The second aspect is the nearness through history of the words and pronunciations of this entry. We see that two localEuropean tongues, or dialects as some prefer to define them, have the same pronunciation that is found in Hebrew. We refer to Tuscan and Flemish for house :
Tuscan ghasa
Flemish ghaas
The third and not less important factor lies in a message that has developed gradually from that of a simple shelter, via a cabin, to a small house and then just a normal modern house. In Neo-Latin languages it has taken the place of "domus", that has flown to higher atmosphere as the House of God. In Greek it has lost the match with a word "spiti" , that looks a bit like a cousin of Hebrew "bait", and that in its own playground has conquered the position of "house". In reality Greek "spiti" is considered a loanword from Latin "hospitium", though that word has an about completely different meaning : "hospitality, hospitable reception" and then a derived meaning of "lodging, night's lodging".
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. Many older Germanic languages have "hūs", such as Gothic, Old Saxon, Old High German, Old English and Old Norse. Modern German "Haus" with the inserting of a vowel A to shape a diphthong "AU" and modern Dutch with the creation of a characteristic vowel "UI" in "huis" via Middle Dutch "huus", are normal developments. The same goes for English "house". Proto-Germanic probably had a form "*H Ū S-". As remarked often, one should not just presume that all initial " H " 's were " GH "'s or even " KH " 's.
Note:
- Indo European. A common theory about the etymology of "house" is that it has at its origin an Indo-European root "*(s)keu), saying "to cover". As so many times, the comparison with the Hebrew reality teaches a new road for the answer to etymological problems. We will perhaps never be able to really define if at the origin there was a H, GH or K.
That is impossible if we meet them together today in one modern language, like HUIS and GHAAS in Dutch and CASA and GHASA in Italian. The writer happens to know this from his personal experience in these two languages. But how did these things work out in Nostratic ?
We must be careful not to try to establish fixed rules of development that the Nostratics , the Indo-Europeans and the Semites long before Abraham will not have respected.
Indo-European may have used just the form "*GH Ā S-". for a shelter or protecting structure.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. This root is seen in Akkadian "ghisū", and there is a be it limited basis for a hypothesis that it was found as such in Proto-Semitic: "*ח ס ה , GH S H".
|