E 0892          (TO)  SWEEP

The verb " to sweep " is of Germanic origin.

H 0848          ף ח ס

Concept of root : to sweep

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ף ח ס

saghaph

to sweep, carry away, overwhelm

Related English words

to sweep

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

      ף ח ס

saghaph

to sweep, carry away, overwhelm

s . gh . ph

Latin

scopae ;

scopare

scopé ;

scopare

broom;

to sweep

s c . p

Old English

swapan

to sweep, carry off, take possession of

s w . p

English

to sweep

to sweep

s w. p

 

 

Proto-Semitic *SAGHAP --- SCOP-AE Latin < *SGOP- Indo-European

 

 

The same root in Latin is used in "scapus = shaft" and in "scopa = small branch, twig". Certainly brooms were and often still are made of twigs, and the general opinion is that this is the origin of the words for "broom" and "to sweep" in Latin. The "shaft" we see in "scapus" meets a Greek "stick" in a a few Greek words. We find "σκιπος , skipos = stick", "σκηπτρον , skčptron = stick, sceptre". This has found its way into many modern languages.

 

The Hebrew verb besides the action of a broom comprises also other kinds of sweeping, as by water that carries away things. And a branch is called a "sa‛iph", with a guttural Ayin instead of a guttural GH in the root : " ס ע ף ". It should be noted that a Hebrew "Ayin" often corresponds with an Arabic " GH ". The concepts of a branch and of sweeping seem related, but less narrowly in their word shaping than we see in Latin.

 

The result , also taking into account the following notes, seems a possible common origin.

 

Note:
  • English. There are many words with "SW" in Germanic tongues , that indicate round or swinging movements . But few have a P as third consonant. We see Old English " swipe ", like Dutch " zweep" to say " whip". The peculiar fact in this entry is that this W in second position corresponds with Latin and Hebrew gutturals.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew has another verb for "to drag along, around, away", that has a root "S GH B" : " ס ח ב , saghav" and that seems not too far away from the action of sweeping. Besides, there is "sighč, ס ח ה " that stands for "to sweep away", but has disappeared from modern language. One must conclude that the P as third consonant was not part of the original root that, in old times, indicated the action of sweeping. On the other side we also have the very famous word " sukkot", plural of " ס כ ה , sukką ", that is a hut or shelter built from branches. The harvest festival of "Sukkot", when the Jewish children and not only they, build these shelters , is important . Another version for such shelters, that recall temporary protections the Jews made while wandering through the wilderness, is " ס ך , sokh ", the male version of "sukką".

 

Note:
  • Latin and Hebrew show us something peculiar when a " ש ק ף , sheqeph " is a loom and a "scapus" the horizontal part of it.

 

Note:
  • Latin and Hebrew. There remains the question when the third consonant P was introduced. Possibly before the languages separated fully ?

     

    Another important aspect in all this is that "scopa" in Latin was not the normal word for "branch", on the contrary. It was very seldomly used and a branch was called a "ramus", and that in all senses. "Scopa" existed for "thin twig", and perhaps this has been derived from the action of sweeping for which especially thin twigs were used. Thus we would have had "scapus = stick" and "scopare = to sweep", leading to the plural "scopae" for broom ". Yet it is still possible that "scopa" was at the basis of the verb "scopare".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This root is seen in Aramaic and Syriac "ס ח ף , seghaph = to cast down, throw down, overturn". Akkadian "aghāpu = to throw down, overwhelm". Arabic "saghifa = violent rain", a phenomenon that may have some of he effects the other languages describe with their verbs. This root probably was in use in Proto-Semitic: "*ס ח ף, S GH P".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. English " to sweep" has a very interesting group of relatives in other Germanic languages. We recall the Hebrew and Semitic letter "Waw", that represents the same letter in Classic Greek ( that received its name from Semitic) and that so often has disappeared. This "Waw" , a consonant "W", can become and is also used for vowels, especially "U" and O". Interesting is then that these vowels easily change into " Ĭ ". In Germanic and other Indo European languages the same phenomenon can be observed. See our chapter regarding "The willing and willfull "W", (Hebrew 0001_aa28).

     

    And so English "to sweep" has in Old Norse and Norwegian "sopa" a sister that has "O" where "to sweep" has "WE". Old English , besides "swapan= to sweep" and "swępa = sweepings" also had the same root as Old Norse in "*swopa", found in "geswope = sweepings". We must make an intermediate remark: in Dutch a "zweep" = a "whip". And in Old English we find two peculiar sister words, the older sister "swopu" and the younger sister , or rather genetically the daughter "swipu" that carry the same meanings : "whip, scourge, stick". In other cases as in Latin "scope" we see "stick" and "broom" using the same root. Besides "swopu" and "swipu" also "swipe" and "swipe" were known in Old English. It is useful to see that various versions of this willing flexibility are recognizable in Middle Dutch with words for "whip" as : "swepe, sweep, suepe, zwepe, swiep, swiepe".

     

    This all teaches us that our "W" might find some relation in Hebrew with words beginning with an "S" followed by a Waw as vowel. There is indeed such a word: "suph= cane", the cane growing also in the sea Moses had to cross with the Jewish people. Tough "cane" can be used for "canes" that can be put to a use comparable with that of whips. But also a good "cane" has a shape not too far from branches used to make sweeping brooms. In fact English "scourge" can be used both for "whip" and for "rod". Of course this has not brought English "to sweep" too much nearer to Latin "scopa". Or to Hebrew "saghaph" or as the imperative would be "sĕghaph"

     

    Another very interesting aspect is that when the action of "sweeping" is done in a wet environment, the final "P" may become a "B", as in English "to swab", that also has relatives in other languages. Back to Proto-Germanic, this presumably had "*S W O P-" .

 

Note:
  • Indo-European probably used a combination "*S W P-" that gave origin to words for "to throw" and "to sweep":

     

    Old Indian has "svapū: = broom", that brings us nearer to English "to sweep". But the word seems rather isolated and gives a narrow basis for comparisons.

     

    Slavic "*svepiti" and Baltic "*sup-" refer to "to throw", as does Latin "supo, supare", that further led to the better known composed verb "dissipare = to throw apart, disperse".

     

    Indo-European The mentioned meaning of "to throw" and related messages, in Semitic was present together with that of "to sweep", as seen in the above Note on Proto-Semitic. The recognizable similarity in sound and meaning, between Semitic and Indo-European seems to be limited to Latin "scopare" and Hebrew "saghaph" regarding the meaning of "to sweep".

     

    Yet some further conjecture is possible. A Germanic "W" or " V " may correspond with a Latin and Hebrew " G " or " GH ". A well known example is "Wales = Galles" and another "William = Guillaume". It is thinkable that in this case "SW, SV" in Germanic corresponds with "SC" in Latin and "SGH" in Hebrew. We just put a guess, a kind of hypothesis of Indo-European "*SGOP-" in the above comparison, for further judgment and exploration.

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 27/11/2012 at 17.24.59