GR 1211          MAKHAIRA

H 0565            ת ל כ א מ

Concept of root : knife

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ת ל כ א מ

ma’akhelet

knife

Related English words

none

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ת ל כ א מ

ma’akhelet

knife

m (a) kh l

Greek

μαχαιρα

makhairα

knife

m (a) kh r

 

 

Hebrew MA'AKHELET --- MAKHAIRA Greek

 

 

"Ma’akhelet" was the knife that the Patriarch Abraham never used on his son Isaac. The similarity with Greek "makhaira", also "makhairis" and in Modern Greek "makhéri" is very interesting. The difference between R and L is not significant enough to exclude a common origin. The adventures and exchanges of the sounds R and L are well-known. A knife in Italian is a "coltello", but in Rome they say "cortello" and in Milan "curtèl" . In Southern Italy one may also hear "curteddu". Clearly these neo-Latin words are of different origin from those of this entry.

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. It is difficult to define the origin or build-up of the word "ma’akhelet". It might be a composition of a prefix "Ma-" with a verb, " what cuts". But there is no verb "akhal" that means to cut. There is a very common verb akhal that carries the concept of eating and feeding, and though some people eat with their knives, the two ideas remain etymologically wide apart.

 

Note:
  • Greek "makhaira" is of unknown etymology, though some suppose it might have to do with "mageiros" that means a "cook".
    There exists though the verb "keirein" that says "to cut, shave, shear". Its root is believed to have been "sker". But a prefix "Ma-" to form a noun from a verb is not considered very Greek. And yet…:

 

Note:
  • Greek and Hebrew. In Greek we find the words "thema" and "mathèma". Both have found their way into many modern languages. The fact is that a "thema" in Classic Greek is a.o. a subject people talk and reason about, an argument (topic, not fight), a basic assumption. And a "mathèma" is a subject of study and knowledge. The two are very near and one feels the temptation to believe that "mathèma" has been shaped from "thema" with a prefix "ma" just as is common in Hebrew. You reason about some point and that leads to knowledge.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. We have no evidence for a hypothesis. But if we are wrong and "ma'akhelet" is " the thing with which one eats", it has the root "Aleph K L", that was certainly present in Proto-Semitic. The similarity with Greek would be unreal.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 05/11/2012 at 17.19.33