E 0667          PASS

The words " pass " and " pace " are, via Old French, of Latin origin .

H 0728         ע ס פ

H 0728         ע ש פ

Concept of root : to march

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ע ס פ

ע ש פ

pas‛à;

pes‛à

towalk, march;

pace, step

Related English words

pass, pace

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ע ס פ

ע ש פ

pas‛à;

pes‛à

to march, walk;

pace, step

p . s (‛).

Greek

πατεω

pateo

to march, step on

p . t .

p . s .

Latin

passus

passus

step

p . s

English

pass ;

pace

pass ;

pace

p . s;

p . c

 

 

Proto-Semitic *PAS‛À" --- PĂSS-US Latin < PĂS- Indo-European

 

 

This similarity is less simple than it may seem. Germanic does not participate directly, but only from a distance, with a number of related words like "foot" in English, "Fuss" in German, "fot" in Swedish and "voet" in Dutch.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew It is important to see that we find here two different spellings, one with the letter Samekh and one with the letter Sin, both pronounced "S". " פ ס ע, P . S Ayin . " and " פ ש ע, P . S Ayin . "

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This root is also present in Aramaic and Syriac "פ ס ע , pes‛à = he stepped, marched" and may well have been used in Proto-Semitic : "*פ ס ע , P S Ayin".

 

Note:
  • Greek "pateo" is seen as of uncertain etymology. It has a number of forms that have an S instead of T. Therefore we may suppose that there are two roots, one with "P S" and a more emphasized one with "T".

 

Note:
  • Latin "passus" has no clear etymology. Some scholars think the word comes from the verb "pando" , that says "to spread". The reasoning is that "passus" is the measure of five Roman feet, nearly five English feet, 1,48 meter. This was ( also ? ) measured as the distance between the fingertips of wide outstretched arms. This does not explain any connection with marching, but in walking also the legs spread, though this would lead to a somewhat different measure.

     

     

    Others think of the medio-passive verb "patior" , that has the composed participle "passus sum", meaning "to undergo, suffer". There should have been an active form "*patio" and we must ask if that could have had as its meaning "to go, walk, step on" as Greek "pateo". The passive from would than originally have said : "*to be walked over, stepped on". This is not totally impossible and would confirm the relationship with Greek. But we can not give this but as improbable.

     

     

    Perhaps one may consider more obvious that "passus" as "pace, step", a typical action of the human feet, is related to "pĒs" that in Latin is a foot. And then the other, or rather first meaning of Latin "passus" comes in. It is that of a normal double step, left + right; that measures somewhat near five feet or, if people are taller, a bit more. Yet the word for foot in Latin, related to English "foot", has a dental in the root, as seen in the other cases, as genitive "pedis".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. Germanic has words like English "foot" that are probably related to the other words of this entry. "Pace" and "pass" are not considered of Germanic origin.

     

    With regard to the word "foot" and its sisters: Proto-Germanic may well have had the same word seen in modern English: "foot". The first consonant "F" is common to most old and new languages, with the usual quartet having instead a "V": Middle High German "vuozz", Middle Low German "vōt", Middle Dutch and Dutch "voet". The final consonant is mostly "T". One exception in seen in Danish "fod". The other is present in German "Fuss", but as we know German easily and often changes a final T into a double S. The vowel is a long "Ō" , often pronounced as a long "U" and consequently spelled "OE" in Dutch. The "O" had become "UO" in Old Frankish and Old and Middle High German, where it became a normal "U" in "Fuss", in fact pronounced like the "OO" in English "foot". Proto-Germanic most probably had "*F U T".

     

    There is another word in Germanic languages, related and rather similar, with the meaning of "animal leg, foot" and used also in a non complimentary way for "human hand, arm, foot, leg". This word, in Middle Dutch "pote" and then "poot" as in modern Dutch, is also Low German and has been loaned into High German with the usual change of the P : "Pfote". Interestingly there is in Provenç:al "pauta", in which as often a vowel " A " has been added to the existing sound " O", resulting in " AU ". Also the Catalans have maintained the Germanic word in "pota", as a memory of their predecessors the Visi-Goths.

     

    The important thing is that the change from " P " into "F (PH)" as seen in "foot" has not conquered all linguistic territory of Germanic, with also a practical diversification in meaning. Proto-Germanic probably had a form "*P Ō T-. There seems to be agreement that English "paw" and French "patte" have been developed on the same basis.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European has for "foot" a hypothesis of "P Ō D-", with variants "P Ŏ D-", and "P Ē D-". This is clear, but for Latin "passus" and English "pace" things are less simple. The " S " as seen in Latin "passus" and in Semitic, seems not to be found in other Indo-European groups. The " D " of "pes, pedis" may be absent, as in Hittite "hetoy = foot track" or in Tocharian ""peyu = feet". We find no basic unit "P A S" for " to walk, step" in other Indo-European groups of languages.

     

    Old Indian uses the form "PAD-" in words for "foot, step, stride". A foot is a "pad, padî", with "padá = step, stride".

     

    Consequently for the meaning s "pace, pass" a vowel " A " is probable, and distinct from the concept of foot with its final " D ", with a final sibilant: "*P Ă S-".

 

 

 

 
"...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: 20/11/2012 at 16.26.22