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E 0525 LAVA
The word " lava " is Italian, but of unknown further origin .
H 0537 ה ב
ל
Concept of root : flaming
heat
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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ה ב ל
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lavà;
labbà
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to inflame;
flame
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Related English words
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lava
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Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
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Languages
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Words
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Pronunciation
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English meanings
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Similarity in roots
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Hebrew
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ה ב ל
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lavà
labbà
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to inflame;
flame
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l . b
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Middle Dutch
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lay, laye, laeye
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lay,
laye
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flame, glow, blaze
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l . y
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Italian
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lava
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lava
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lava
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l . v
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English
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lava
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lava
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lava
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l . v
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Hebrew *LABBÀ --- *LĀW- Indo-European
A relationship between Hebrew and Dutch once more is possible. It is even possible that the Dutch Y has been a later development, in which a consonant between two vowels may become Y in popular pronunciation. But that is uncertain. Otherwise the relationship would possibly have existed before the Hebrew B and the Dutch Y were added to the original briefer root "Lamed+Aleph", in Germanic "L + accentuated/strong vowel" .
Obviously we do not believe that the European word "lava" has to do with Latin (and Italian) "lavare", and French "laver" that mean "to wash". The Latin word also indicates "to wet" like tears on a face or "to bathe". When one sees lava coming out of a vulcano, it flows, certainly. But this flowing has little similarity with the flowing of water, and it certainly does not invite to bathing or washing, however hot tears may be: the foremost characteristic of lava is its exceptional heat. And in fact, Latin did not use the word "lava" other than as a verbal form of "lavare". An explanation for the Italian word "lava", that other European languages have loaned, is not available. Here we see the link with Hebrew "flame" and "to light".
Hebrew has its old word "labbà" for "flame, blaze". Then it has loaned the foreign, Italian word "lava", spelling it though with the central B (Bet), Oddly it now uses two versions for "lava". One is "lava", the loanword from Italian, with the single B pronounced as V. The other one is "labbà" the old Hebrew word with the double B, pronounced as such !
Note:
- Hebrew has a root "L BB " that in its intensive form "libbèv" means "to enflame" or "to light" and the word "labbà" indicates the result of that action. The first obvious meaning is that of "flame". The meaning "lava" is not found in the Bible, perhaps because it simply was not used as it was not necessary in the text?
Important is that the intense verb "libbev" must have been based on an old root "*L B" that gave words like "*lava", be it not with the intensity of the meaning of English "lava". It would be more like "to glow" and "glow". This is hypothetical but probable. Such a root "L V" would in European languages follow a different development that may have led to "lava".
Note:
- Italian, from which the word "lava" comes, does not give an indication for its etymology. And the odd thing is that there seems to be no clarity about any eventual single noun with which the Romans would have defined this matter. We find "saxa liquefacta" or "liquified rocks" for "lavastream".
Meanwhile we mention some theories about the origin of "lava" . One is that of a loan from French "lave". Number two refers to the verb "lavare = to wash" that would have given a word "lava" in Naples dialect for the flow of water created by fresh heavy rains . This seems rather fantasy-rich. Number three speaks about Latin "labe = fall, collapse, destruction" from the verb "labēre = to slide", of which the further etymology is uncertain. The real Latin word is "labes" with the ablative "labi" . The basic message of the Latin root of the verb "labare ( not labēre ) is that of "to reel, stagger" , specifically with the risk of falling, collapsing . It has given the word "labina" that has become Italian "lavina= avalanche". As such not too near to the phenomenon of lava .
"To erupt" is quite different from "to collapse". Then there are figurative meanings of "labare" that are still further off. Finally there is the opinion that "lava" and "lave", both words used in the "Suisse Romande" or the French-speaking part of Switzerland to define "layer of flat stones or rocks". In the French Department of Doubs, quite near Switzerland, "lave" is a "flat stone plate or big slab. These words supposedly have brought the word "lava" but would have their origin in a "pre-Indo European" language. They would find themselves as such then related to Greek "λαας , la'as = stone, stone mass ".Greek scholars give a Greek origin, with a root "L (A) W" quite near to "lava".
Note:
- Proto-Semitic.
We have no information from other Semitic languages that can help to make a hypothesis.
Note:
- Proto-Germanic.
Old English has a word "læg = flame, fire, lightning", for which also an uncertain version "*leye" is given, besides "līeg" that sounds somewhat nearer to "light". Middle Dutch has a number of versions: "lay, laey, laye, laeye" that are basically identical, and "lage, loge, looch, lochen" that form a second group. Old Norse has "leygr, logi". German "lohe" has been preceded by Old High German "loug".
It is possible that, as in fact is the usual view, all those words with "G","CH" or "H" are related to English "light". The words with "A" and "Y", found in Dutch and its predecessors, are independent from this group and should descend from a separate Proto-Germanic "*L Ā Y-". It is unclear if this may have been used to say "lava". One takes into account that we do not know when Germanic people have lived in the nearness of vulcanoes. And if they heard of them, the solution of a loanword for "lava" might have been obvious. This does not change the fact that Proto-Germanic "*L Ā Y-" may have a common origin with the words for "lava".
Note:
- Indo-European. Leaving aside the important group of words regarding the concept of "light", seen in entry E 0539 (Hebrew 0542), there may have been a form "*L Ā W-" out of which the Proto-Germanic form with " Y " has developed.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 25/01/2013 at 16.51.35 |
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