E 0803          (TO)  SHEAR

The verb " to shear " is of Germanic origin .

H 0773         ח ר ק

Concept of root : to shave

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ח ר ק

qaragh

to shave

Related English words

to shear

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

      ח ר ק

qaragh

to shave

q . r . gh

Greek

κειρω;

-

κουρα

-

keiro;

-

kura

-

to shave, shear;

shave, haircut

k . r

Old English

scieran

to shave

sc . r

English

to shear

to shear

sh . r

Old Norse

skera

skera

to shave

sk . r

Old High German

sceran

shéran

to shave

sh . r

Dutch

scheren

sgheren

to shave

sgh . r

 

 

Proto-Semitic *QARAGH --- *KĒR- Indo-European

 

 

Not always the people who began to write according to the principles of the phonetic alphabet, in Israel or Kanaan in the days of the Patriarchs, succeeded in distinguishing between for example K and Q. At the beginning of a pronounced word their sound is practically identical. If one succeeds in seeing the link with flexions where the sound of K changed into KH, things were clear to them. But in other cases one might choose a K (Kaph) instead of a Q (Qoph) as with hindsight it should have been. Consequently we find some roots that, uniting the sound-combination "K R" with the concept of cutting, use a K while others use the Q. We refer to entry GR 1196 (Hebrew 0512).

 

The same notions are useful to judge the similarity in this entry, where we see that these Greek words for "to shave" do not have the final GH, though they use some significant sound with the couple "K R". As we noted, the principle of "to cut" is present in "Q R", and the specific kind of cutting that is in "shaving" is expressed by a third consonant GH in Hebrew, but differently in Greek.

 

This entry can be seen in relation with number E 0802 (Hebrew 0371)

 

Note:
  • Greek. Upon visiting modern Greece we see the barber shops with the name "κουρειον , kureion" with the same old root of this entry. This word with a final N is written in the so-called "katharevusa" or pure language, carefully elaborated during the liberation in stages of Greece from Turkish domination, that took a full century, from 1821 till 1921. Little known is that not all of Greece was liberated, especially some pure Greek towns like Smyrna, from which the whole population was exiled violently . Today the language is the popular Greek called "dimotiki", with the same root of "dimokratia" = "democracy". And then a barber-shop is a "kureyo".

 

Note:
  • English no more uses this root to express the concept of " to shave ", as Old English still did . It must be remarked that English "SH" as in " to shear " or " to shave " has developed out of a sound " SK ".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic Germanic once more puts a prefix S in front of an old root . That influences a root in different ways. In Nordic we will see "SK", in German "SCH" pronounced "SH", in English "SH" and in Dutch "SCH" pronounced "SGH".

     

    Various words were and are not exclusively used for "to shave", but also for other kinds of cutting. In Dutch the "strong" verb "scheren" is used only for "to shave".

     

    In older languages we further find Old Saxon "skeran", Old High German "sceran", Old Frisian and Old Norse "skera". All have among their meanings "to shave". Proto-Germanic probably had "*SK Ē R-".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. Some Semitic languages , such as Tigrai, have a vowel stop (Aleph) after the initial consonant "Q". This has led some scholars to suppose a root "*Q Aleph . R . GH". But the meaning here is "to sign an animal in the forehead" and this is found back in the sisterwords as Arabic "khurghat = spot on horses forehead".

     

    We believe the Proto-Semitic root did not have this Aleph, as it represents a typical later development and, more important, it is not present in the vast majority of languages, among which Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac "ק ר ח , qeragh = he became bald" (intransitive). Ethiopian "qargha = he shaved". Arabic "qaragh = a shorn field". Akkadian "kharruhu = baldheaded". Proto-Semitic probably had the same root as Hebrew "*ק ר ח , Q R GH".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European Words for "to shave" or "to cut one's beard", easily have developed from words meaning "to cut". The Greek word "keiro" has a number of meanings around actions of cutting, among which cutting hair of head or beard. The noun "κουρα, kūra = haircut, shaving , tonsure, sheep-shearing". This noun is a cognate of "keiro".

     

     

    Indo-European. It is difficult to establish to what extent words like Hittite "iskar", Tokharian "kärst",and Armenian "khorem", Baltic "*skir-" and Albanian kor", that all deal with "to cut off" comprehended in daily use the cutting of hair or beards. But anyway they are cognates of Greek "keiro" and Proto-Germanic "skēr-".

     

    The original form may have been "*K Ē R-", later accompanied by a more specialized version "*SK Ē R-".

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 22/11/2012 at 18.15.14