E 0923          TIRO-

The first wordpart " tiro- " is of Latin origin .

H 1001               י ר ט                  

Concept of root : freshness

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

י ר ט

tharì

fresh

Related English words

tyro, tiro, from Latin  

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

י ר ט

tharì

fresh

th . r (y)

Latin

tiro

tiro

beginner, novice

t . r .

 

 

Hebrew THARÌ < Proto-Semitic *THARÀ --- *TIRO Latin

 

 

Greenhorn and freshman are some of the words with which beginners are described in English. The color and freshness of young plants have inspired this semantic use. Other languages have comparable habits.

 

The Hebrew word "tharì" means "fresh" in various senses, from fresh fruit to fresh wounds, just like in English. This has made us suppose a far away common origin between the Roman "freshman" and the Hebrew "freshness". The extended root " ט ר ם , TH R M " is used to express the concept of "first, before", as in the word "therem".

 

Note:
  • Latin " tiro " is a lonely word, but with the clear message of " a beginning person" in all senses. Later it has gone mostly concentrating on that of a "recruit", becoming " young soldier " and even "hero". We find it in English " tiro" mostly spelled erroneously with Y : "tyro". This error was not a fault of the British, as already in medieval Latin this spelling was used. It can be explained by the fact that so many words, also in Latin, came from Greek that made a frequent use of the "y", though that was a "ü" then.

 

Note:
  • Greek has two words for " young assistant" or "young companion in arms", that were "θεραψ , theraps" and "θεραπων , therapon". Later this became to mean "servant". Meanwhile young people have to be looked after and consequently the verb "θεραπευω , therapeuo" stood for " to look after, cure". In the end this has given us the English word "therapy" !

     

    One may wonder if the Greek root "TH . R" with these meanings should be inserted in the table above. On the other hand we also see, more directly perhaps, the verb "τηρεω , tèreo" that says precisely "to look after", just what a "πατηρ , patèr" does with his youngsters of fresh age. Also this we have not inserted.

 

Note:
  • Greek and Hebrew. Along the line of thinking mentioned in the previous note, one might wrongly phantasize other things. We know what "therapy" is : the curing of sickness or ailments, often by the prescription of medicins. Well, a medicin in Hebrew is a " ת ר ו פ ה ", and this is pronounced "teruphà". This sounds rather near to "therapy", but if we look deeper we see that in "teruphà" the T is a prefix. The root does not have that T, but just R and PH that means " to cure (from sickness)". In fact Raphael was "cured by God ( RAPHA-EL)".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This root is found also in Arabic "thariya = was fresh" and was probably in use in Proto-Semitic "* ט ר (י) , TH R (Y)" A root without "Y" is considered to be at the origin, but in the word "thari" the "Y" may be a third element of a thus lengthened root.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. A proposed cognate for Latin "tiro, tironis" is the Greek verb "teiro", because military recruits are tormented and become exhausted, which is true. But in reality the concept of "freshness" is not at all represented in the messages "teiro" carries : "to exhaust, finish off, oppress, weaken, torment". So our comparison stays between Semitic and Latin.

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 13/12/2012 at 17.55.00