E 0720          REGAL

The words " regal ",  " realm " and " regime "

are , via Old French, of Latin origin .

H 0798         ש א ר

Concept of root : head, first one

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ש א ר

rosh

head

Related English words

regal, realm, regime

Old English rice, gerec

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

     ש א ר

rosh

head

(all senses)

r '. sh

Aramaic

     א כ ר

r'akk'à

king

r . k '.

Greek

αρχω

arkho

to rule, be first, begin

( a) . r kh

Latin

rex, gen. regis;

-

-

regere

rex, regis

régere

king, ruler; leader, principal;

to rule

r . g

Old Indian

rajan;

rāsti

rayan;

rashtì

king;

rules

r . y

r . sh

Old Irish

rī, gen rig

rī, rig

king

r . g

Gothic

reiks

reiks

comman-der, ruler

r . k s

Old Norse

reki

reki

ruler, principal

r . k .

Old English

rice;

gerec

realm;

govern-ment

r . c

English

regal ;

realm ;

regime

regal  ;

realm ;

regime

r . g ;

r . ( l m) ;

r . g (.m)

German

Reich;

(reich)

reikh

realm;

(rich)

r . kh

 

 

Proto-Semitic *RASH, *ROSH --- *RÈG-, (<?) *RĂSH-, Indo-European

 

 

There is an old cultural concept that links the ideas of the human head, of the "alpha" person "who commands" and that of "first". Thus in many languages the idea "head" has developed into that of the first social position in a community or group. We see in German a "Fuerst" that is a ruler, or a "First". A Prince is a Latin "princeps" from "primus = first".

 

In Hebrew we read the first word of the Bible "Bereshit", that means "In the beginning… ". In modern language that is "firstly…." or "in the first place He created". The word "rishon" says "first", and so "Yom Rishon " is Sunday. Naturally Saturday is the seventh day : Shabbat, when He rested. And "Rashi" is the Principal, like the famous Harun al Rashid. But a "roshan" remains a headstrong person. Today "rashut" is management, in older times it was just the boss.

 

We mentioned the Old Indian words in the table because they, while certainly related to Latin rex , are nearer than this word to the Hebrew one.

 

 

Note:
  • Greek has placed a vowel A before the root "R KH". This Greeks liked to do. And the result is that "arkho" bears the three messages of "to rule" and "to be first" and "to begin". The peculiar and interesting thing is that Greek scholars say they are uncertain about the etymology of "arkho".

 

Note:
  • English has not maintained the Old English participations in this root, except in "bishopric" for the office (rule) of a bishop. The word "rich", together with many Germanic sisters, may have originated as a characteristic of those who rule. Usually they were the richest. This has decidedly changed in modern democracies, but in modern dictatorships it still is as it was with the kings. The dictators and tyrants are the richest, especially in hard currency and Swiss bank accounts.

 

Note:
  • Germanic shows this same combination of meanings, in fact that of a realm and of richness, in German as shown above, but also in the Nordic languages and Dutch. Yet in Entry E 0726 (Hebrew 0819) we see that the second meaning, that of richness, may be of different origin. Therefore we placed it here between brackets.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. See entry RU 1272 (Hebrew 0829) about the fact that the Aleph, א , is of only relative importance in this root.

     

    Some scholars suppose that English "race" in the sense of kind of people, can be traced to Semitic "rosh" or "rash". "Race" is a relatively young word, from around 1500, and has certainly, via French "race" , been derived from Italian "razza". But words are borrowed on account of a meaning they express better (or in culturally more attractive way or circumstances) than the loaning language itself has available.
    Thus it is highly improbable that "razza = race" has been loaned from a Semitic word saying "head, ruler". There is no reasonable semantic link for it.

     

    Another hypothesis sees "razza" coming from Latin "radice (ablative case of radix)= origin". There would then have been a Germanic derivation from "radice" in between, like Lombardi "raiza" , which sounds quite probable . Many Italian words come from Lombardic account of the long lasting medieval Longobard reign in large parts of Italy .
    In this regard it is important to note that Latin "radix" , like Greek "riza > wr(e)dza", besides for "root" are used in the figurative senses of "origin" and "provenance", relatively near to "race".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic is supposed to have had the root " *ר א ש , R Aleph SH", that is still present in Hebrew and most other Semitic languages . Aramaic has "ר א ש , resh" and Syriac "ר י ש א, rish'à". Ugaritic shows "rish" and Akkadian "rāshu;, rīshu" , all meaning "head". On the basis of Ethiopian "re's", Amharic "ras" and Arabic "ra's" then a second version with "S" instead of "SH" , "R Aleph S" is hypothesized . Old Indian ( in Indo European ) "rashti" may tempt us to presume the "SH" was original. But there may easily be shifts between SH and S in languages. And we must also note that the central Aleph is not always consequently present in the Semitic languages where it is found. For example Phoenician had both "ר ש , R SH" and "ר א ש , R Aleph SH". This means that Proto-Semitic probably had originally, without Aleph, a root : "*ר ש , R SH". The used vowel may have been " A " as well as " O ".

 

Note:
  • English has not maintained the Old English participations in this root, except in "bishopric" for the office (rule) of a bishop. The word "rich", together with many Germanic sisters, may have originated as a characteristic of those who rule. Usually they were the richest. This has decidedly changed in modern democracies, but in modern dictatorships it still is as it was with the kings. The bosses are the richest, especially in hard currency.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. Germanic languages show this same combination of meanings, in fact that of a realm and of richness, in German as shown above, but also in the Nordic languages and Dutch. In Entry E 0726 (Hebrew 0819) we see that the second meaning, that of richness, may be of different origin. Therefore we placed it here between brackets.

     

    In older Germanic languages , besides the words mentioned in the table , there are Old Saxon and Old Danish "rīki", Old Swedish, Old Frisian, Middle Low German and Middle Dutch "rīke". Old High German had "rīchi", that led to modern German "Reich". Proto-Germanic probably had "*R Ī K-"

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. The existing hypothesis is "*R È G-" and this might be right. On the other hand, in this case where "RASH", similar to Semitic from which it certainly not has been loaned, is together with the more frequent "RAG-" seen in the Eastern Indo-European languages, this "RASH" just may be nearer to the origin. We add this to the comparison above: "*R Ă SH-".

 

 

 

 
"...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: 25/11/2012 at 16.12.38