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E 0937 TOW
The word " tow " is of
Germanic origin .
H 1002 ה ו ט
Concept of root : spinning
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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ה ו ט
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thawą
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to
warp, spin
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Related English words
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tow
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Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
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Languages
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Words
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Pronunciation
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English meanings
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Similarity in roots
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Hebrew
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ה ו ט
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thawą
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to warp, spin
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th . w .
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Old English
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tow-
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spinning-
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t . w
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English
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tow
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spinfiber ; tow
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t . w
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Middle Dutch
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getouwe
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ghetouwe
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loom
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t . w
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Proto-Semitic *THAWÀ --- *TŌW- Proto-Germanic
Warping is done on a loom, that in Dutch is called a "getouw". There we can see an indication of a common origin with Hebrew "thawą". The English word "warp" has more than one meaning and its use for the work with the loom is a bit out of centre, not characteristic for its root. Old English " tow- " is only found in composed words, like " tow-hus " for spinning-room.
The overall picture becomes very complicated when we see "getouw" explained as saying "tool" in general. Without specifying all the existing confusion, we point out that the only possibility to find our way out of it is to look for the semantic beginning. Spinning came before working with a loom and weaving. If a root, like Hebrew " TH . W. " is used for warping and spinning, originally it may have referred to "spinning". This is in line with the Old English root "tow" for "spinning". Modern English still uses the noun "tow" for the coarsely prepared raw material, flax or hemp, that is to be spun.
The loom may well have been the first real complex tool human beings have built. The invention was born out of the necessity to weave fine and supple fibers such as wool. Understandably the name to be given to that complex tool could very well carry forward that of the material used, the spun fibers themselves, the threads or "*tow" that had been spun. If we transfer this to West-Germanic, a "ge-touw" is the natural and logic name for a machine that deals with "touw".
Once that first kind of "machinery" was known, its name may have influenced language in the choice for the general indication of more complex tools. Thus in Middle Dutch we see "getouwe", besides its basic meaning "loom" also used for other complex tools . It even indicated "equipment" and "labour". And there we see it meeting with another noun, "ghetuuch" or "tuuch", later becoming "tuych", that also means "equipment, tools", but in its root has a consonant more : "T . W(U) . G" instead of "T.W". Yet it was also used to indicate a peace of fabric, so that the picture stays complex.
English today has a word "to tow" for "to drag or pull on a line". Old English had "tēon". This is considered to come from an Indo-European root "*deuk" for "to lead", together with "to tug". But not having G or K, it may have received an instrumental name, as "towing" is per definition done with a lead, a line, that is spun and is called a "tow" or in Dutch a "touw".
We jump one line to introduce another complication. Gothic "taujan" meant "to work on something, prepare" and has its relatives in Old High German "zouwen" and Middle Dutch "touwen" and "tooyen". These words were used for different kinds of works and handicrafts that preceded modern industry, not for work in general. Their roots were "T . W" , its elaborations or natural developments of this. Old Norse had a very short version in the verb "tō" . And perhaps this instead of complicating does simplify the problems.
Perhaps a dental, T, TH or D, together with W that might become OW, UW , Y or simply O, shaped a primitive root that indicated " productive work by human hands ". Then we find this in modern English in "to do". If that is true, we talk about a situation of perhaps 50.000 years ago, and anything we say will remain hypothetical, independent of the aplomb or conviction with which one will express oneself.
Meanwhile we anyhow have a clear similarity between two meanings of the above Hebrew root "T . W" and a couple of old English words.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. This root is seen in Aramaic "mathewayetą spider" and Ethiopian "thawaya = he twisted, turned", that are related to the action expressed in Hebrew. It has cognates with initial T instead of TH in Akkadian "tāmu = to spin". Arabic "tawa(y) = he wound" is related. The root was probably present in Proto-Semitic : "* ט ו ה , TH W Hé (accentuated vowel)".
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. The Old English words "towcræft = spinning", "towtōl = spinning tool" and "towhūs = spinning house" give a valid indication for Proto-Germanic, that probably had "*T Ō W-". It must be remarked that besides "to spin", very similar words serve the concepts of "to tow" and "work".
Note:
- Indo-European. We have no information available about possible cognates in other branches of Indo-European. The comparison stays between Semitic and Germanic.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 13/12/2012 at 18.07.02 |
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