GD 1065          MATE

H 0568            ט ע מ

Concept of root : littleness

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ט ע מ

ma‛ath;

 me‛ath

to reduce, be reduced;

little, small

Related English words

none

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ט ע מ

ma‛ath;

 -

 me‛ath

to reduce, be reduced;

little, small

m (.) th

Middle Dutch

mate

mate

little, small

m . t

Dutch

mate ;

matig

little,small;

reduced, limited

m . t

 

 

Proto-Semitic *MA‛ATH --- *MĀT- Proto-Germanic

 

 

All these words have "little" or "small" in quantity or size, but also in figurative sense, such as "insignificant". The similarity is surprising. This Dutch word "mate" in modern language is practically only used in some fixed expressions and its origin is mostly misunderstood through confusion with two other words "maat" that stand for "measure" and " companion ".

 

There are in fact in Middle Dutch several similar words "mate" with different meanings and origin. One of them has been lent into English as "mate", on board of a ship.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This root is found in Aramaic "מ ע ט , me‛ath = to be small, be few, diminish". Akkadian has "mātū = to become few, diminish". Arabic shows "ma‛ita = became few". Probably this root was used in Proto-Semitic : "*מ ע ט , M Ayin TH".
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Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. Usually this Dutch word is considered as having the same root as the identical "maat = measure". This would mean a so called pregnant use of the root, with "to measure" becoming "to measure as small" and from there "to be small, insignificant". But that hypothesis is not right. There are just two identical roots with different meanings .

     

    Old English helps us with "mæte = small, moderate, poor, inferior" and from there then also a derived "mean, bad". It is important to note that the meaning "measure" is expressed by a different word in Old English: "mæð".

     

    A comparable confusion in which the two identical roots are not seen of different origin, we find in German . Here we find two adjectives "mässig" that serve two messages. The first one is "with measure, keeping measure". The other one, related to the words of this entry, says : "small, trifly, insignificant", without supposing any action of measuring.

     

    Proto-Germanic probably had for the concept of "small, little, insignificant" a form "M Ā T -".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. Information about possible cognates in other groups of Indo-European languages does not seem to be available. Therefore the comparison stays between Semitic and Germanic, as so often is the case.

 

 

 
"...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: 05/11/2012 at 17.55.01