E 1031          ZOOLOGY

The word " zoology " is of Greek origin .

H 1005         ן א צ

Concept of root : cattle

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ן א צ

tso’en

small cattle

Related English words

zoology

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ן א צ

tso’en

small cattle

ts . (‘) .

Greek

ζωον, ζοον;

ζωα , ζοα

zo’on;

zo’a

animal;

animals, cattle

z  (o)

English

zoology

zoology

z  (o)

 

 

Proto-Semitic *TSO'È-N --- *ZO-ON Greek

 

 

Life continues through seed, and people have discovered this certainly many thousands of years ago. Therefore one may suppose that sometimes a link has remained between words for living beings and words for seed. See entry E 0784 (Hebrew 1006). And there is a relation between words of this entry and the concept of life.

 

This is decidedly the case in Greek, where "ζαω , "zao" is "to live" and "ζωη" , zo’è" stands for "life". The root is very brief. Our word "zo’on" originally comprises all living beings, humans and animals. Gradually its use has gone concentrating on that of animals, and in plural it is the normal word for "cattle".

 

The final " -ON " in Greek is a suffix, used to shape a noun . In Hebrew this could have been, but there is a second word with the same meaning, that is " צ נ ה , tsoné". And unless this has been formed after "tso’en", the N is part of the root. Yet we suppose it is not, because we have two similar words for "gazelle", about the wild counterpart of small cattle ( goats and sheep) ; " צ ב ה , צ ב י , tsaw'à, tsewì". The three words have in common the TS and Greek and Hebrew both make use of the vowel " O ". Further two of them have an Aleph, perhaps for better pronunciation. We add a third word, where a hyena is a " צ ב ו ע , tsawu‛à ". Then there is the root " צ ו ד , TS W D ", that deals with hunting and prey’s. This can be compared in semantics with a couple of Greek words for "animal" and "hunt" : "θηρ, θηρα" , or "thèr, thèra". These are directly related to English "deer" or the animal for hunting par excellence. See entry E 0248 (Hebrew 0330).

 

In Hebrew a he-goat, birds, snakes and frogs also have names that begin a TS that seems to carry a message of life like the Greek Z. But then we see words with Z in Hebrew for the male human, the life-giving female bust, wolfs, wild goats and again gazelles and snakes. And even for "to sow" and the male member. A profound study might lead to conclusions about the possible relationships between these words.

 

One must note that the Z is not a frequently used first consonant of roots.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic is seen as having had already in use this root we see in Hebrew: "* צ א ן , TS Aleph N". It must be noted that many Semitic languages, like in Ugaritic "tsin", Moabite " צ א ן , tso'en", the Tel el-Amarna letters "tsūnu" and Akkadian "tsēnu", have the first consonant TS like Hebrew, but Arabic in "dhā'in" and "dha'n" has a "DZ" which is nearer to the consonant "Z " and to Greek. The final "N" is in all probability a suffix for the shaping of a noun. For Proto-Semitic the hypothesis maintains the "TS" and the Hebrew vowels that may have been in use already.

 

 

 

 
"...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: 14/12/2012 at 9.17.37