E 0264         DOOR

The word " door " is of Germanic origin .

H 0977               ע ר ת                

Concept of root : door

Aramaic word

pronunciation

English meanings

ע ר ת

ter‛à

door

Related English words

door

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ר ע ש

sha‛ar

door, gateway

sh . (‛) . r

Aramaic

ע ר ת

ter‛à

door

t . r (‛) .

Greek

θυρα

thüra

door, gate

t . r

Old High German

turi

türi

door

t . r

German

Tür

tür

door

t . r

Old English

dor;

      duru

door, gate

d . r ;

d . r .

English

door

door

d . r

 

 

Proto-Semitic TA‛ÀR --- *DWŌR- Indo-European

 

 

We have a rather clear similarity with Aramaic this time. This language had been chosen because in Hebrew a door or gateway , besides some other different names (delet, petagh), is called a " ש ע ר , sha‛ar," plural "she‛arim". This last word is found in the name of the well known orthodox quarter of Jerusalem, called "Hundred Gateways", or "Me'a She‛arim".

 

Sometimes a root that has an initial T in Aramaic, in it sister-tongue Hebrew has an initial SH. In this case we also have a metathesis between the guttural R and the guttural stop Ayin. Probably the initial " T " is the original one, as it shows similarity with Greek and other European languages.

 

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. In this case we see many versions.

     

    1. "SH Ayin R" is Hebrew and Phoenician,

     

    2. Ugaritic has "T G R";

     

    3. OS Arabic "T Ayin R".;

     

    4. Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic "T R Ayin", with Arabic "tur'à" especially interesting on account of the vowel it uses here.

     

    For that reason we tend to look also at Indo European and say that Proto-Semitic may have had an old root "* ת ו ר , T W R, tor", followed by a more typically Semitic one "*ת ע ר , T Ayin R", but anyhow with a split-up in some early phase that is hard to define precisely.

 

Note:
  • English and Old English, contrary to the other words in the table, have the voiced dental D. But we see this D also in Nordic and Dutch. Interesting is that Old English still used the word also for "gate", as we see in Greek and Hebrew.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. All Germanic languages have an initial "D" and an "R" after the vowel, with the rather common exception of High German and its predecessors. These have an initial "T" in "Tor" and "Tür". The vowel varies, but all in the realm of "O" an "U", also "Ö" and "Ü". Middle Dutch had "door, dore, doer, doere, dure, deure". Modern Dutch has "deur", in which "EU" is near Scandinavian "Ö".

     

    Some languages distinguish between a common door and a large door or gate. Old English "duru" and Old Saxon "duru, dora" stand for a normal door of a house. But a "dor" is a large door or type of gate in Old English , Old Saxon and Old Frisian. German has a "Tür" as a common door and a "Tor", for the larger entrances.

     

    We will have to accept as a probability that Proto-Germanic had both "*D Ō R-" and D Ū R-", both as long vowels.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. A first very important observation is that for "door" in Indo-European we see the same kind of adventures that the group "W V U O F" lives in Hebrew and that we so often have to point out. In fact there are many variations , from this group, that appear after the initial dental. In Old Indian, Avestan, Slavic and Baltic there is just a consonant "V", that then requires a vowel for pronunciation, mostly an "A", but in Russian "E". But in other cases the "Ū" appears. In Germanic we see the vowels "Ō" and "Ü", also seen in Greek. In Celtic there is mostly "Ō", but also "Ū".

     

    Old Indian has "dvar, acc. durágh

     

    Avestan shows a root "DV(Ā)R-" in accusative "varŹm", with a meaning that besides "gate" has been extended to "court".

     

    Slavic with its Russian "дверь, dwyerj = door" has a hypothesis of "*dvjrj" with a nearly disappeared vowel, the Serbian way. This in fact respects Old Church Slavonian "двърь = door".

     

    Baltic is also supposed to have used different vowels in different cases. , with respectively "*dwar-" and "*dur-", but on the basis of the evidence just "D Ù R-" seems more near the mark. Old Prussian "dauris" should have developed out of an earlier "duris", that is practically found in Lithuanian and Latvian.

     

    Armenian uses D U R-" in durrn, durs, durkh, but then that vowel is absorbed in a genitive "dran".

     

    Celtic languages give Old Irish "dorus", "dor ( = ostium)", and then Cymric, Cornish and Old Breton "dor". The indication is D O R-, though in Gallic also an alternative vowel "U" is seen: "doro, duros, duron".

     

    Latin is a very special case. The words "foris = door" and "fores = double doors" are generally recognized as the Latin cognates of "door" and all the others. Indeed there are several cases in which a Latin initial "F" corresponds with quite different Indo-European consonants, and among them with Greek "TH", as in this entry. But this is a specific Latin development that does not indicate a different origin. There remain doubts and we leave the Latin word between brackets.

     

    The existing hypothesis of Indo-European "*D W Ō R- is quite convincing.

 

 

 

 
"...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: 11/12/2012 at 12.40.54