Random thoughts
When a Jewish state became a reality back in 1948, it was decided by the founders that the ancient Hebrew language would be revived as the official language of modern Israel. This wasn't as simple as just digging up dusty alphabets and dictionaries, however, not least because there were words that just didn't exist thousands of years ago -- airplane, for example.
The scholars worked out what to call an airplane; they combined the word avir, Hebrew for "air," with the word avion, French for "airplane": Aviron. Cool as can be.
In many cases, though, there wasn't any relevant word to build on and the scholars simply adopted what they needed straight from some other language. Hence, telephone.
Where am I going with all this? Well, during the excellent BBC series, Elusive Peace, on PBS yesterday, I discovered that the Hebrew word for terror is — terror.
Think about that.
The scholars worked out what to call an airplane; they combined the word avir, Hebrew for "air," with the word avion, French for "airplane": Aviron. Cool as can be.
In many cases, though, there wasn't any relevant word to build on and the scholars simply adopted what they needed straight from some other language. Hence, telephone.
Where am I going with all this? Well, during the excellent BBC series, Elusive Peace, on PBS yesterday, I discovered that the Hebrew word for terror is — terror.
Think about that.
posted by The Voice | 12:45 PM
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