Comments on: Hebrew Roots of 10 English Words https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/ Sustainable news for the Middle East Thu, 25 Sep 2025 07:41:08 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Laurie Balbo https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/#comment-57778 Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:04:10 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=84011#comment-57778 See what happens when you take the girl out of the City?

Absolutely right, STS, seems I recall BUPKES about the old slang (kick me in my TUSH and send me on my way…)

Thanks for the correction and the clearer insight into “tokhes”.

]]> By: S T S https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/#comment-57199 Sun, 04 Nov 2012 05:59:59 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=84011#comment-57199 Submitted too fast: Tokhes comes from the Hebrew word for
under, takhat, pre-Israel Ashkenazi pronunciation takhas or takhes.

]]> By: S T S https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/#comment-57198 Sun, 04 Nov 2012 05:56:19 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=84011#comment-57198 As for bum/rear end, the well-known Yiddish word
is tokhes, from which we get tush and tushie.

]]> By: S T S https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/#comment-57197 Sun, 04 Nov 2012 05:54:12 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=84011#comment-57197 Bupkes does not mean bum. It is not used to mean that at all.
It means nothing much.
‘I was paid bupkes’ means I was paid very little.
‘He sold it for bupkes’ means he didn’t get much for the item.
It means animal droppings, especially as in goat sh*t,
small worthless pellets.

Other words listed have derivations and definitions that
could be quibbled with at least or simply corrected.

]]> By: laurie https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/#comment-57101 Sat, 03 Nov 2012 07:56:24 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=84011#comment-57101 Keep ’em coming: really interesting to see the connectivity between languages!

]]> By: Ilan Ben Zion https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/#comment-57055 Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:43:28 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=84011#comment-57055 OED gives jot its origin with Greek iota, but does not offer much further by way of brouhaha. While possible, not plausible.
Kibbutz, being a unique term, is used in English to refer to the Israeli phenomenon.
How about philistine? Goliath? Messiah?
Better yet, how about loan words into Hebrew from foreign tongues, take Greek or ancient Egyptian, for example. There are a trove from either.

]]> By: laurie https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/#comment-56986 Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:36:28 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=84011#comment-56986 The list can go on and on, eh? Kibbutz for certain (does it hold any other meaning that it’s original Hebrew?), and abracadabra – that’s a brilliant addition!

Wikipedia wasn’t my source for these, but they do tag brouhaha as French by way of Hebrew (from French brouhaha, possibly from a corruption of Hebrew בָּרוּךְ הַבָּא) and the Collins English dictionary pins “jot” on Semitic origins…but who am I to argue?

Thanks for the great comment!

]]> By: Ilan Ben Zion https://www.greenprophet.com/2015/09/hebrew-roots-of-10-english-words/#comment-56964 Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:21:27 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=84011#comment-56964 Hate to correct you, Laurie, but brouhaha and jot are not Hebrew-derived.
According to the OED, brouhaha is from French and jot is from Greek.
Had you mentioned shibboleth or abracadabra, paschal or kibbutz, you’d be onto something.

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