E 0696          PRAIRIE

The word "prairie " comes from French and indirectly from Latin

H 0051          א פ ר

Concept of root: pasture

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

א פ ר

aphar

pasture, prairie

Related English words

prairie, via French

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

א פ ר

aphar

pasture, prairie

a ph . r

Latin

pratum

pratum

field, meadow

p r .

English

prairie

prairie

p . r .

 

 

Proto-Semitic *APHAR < *PAR --- *PRA- Indo-European

 

 

The Hebrew root "A P R" is in all probability composed of an Aleph placed in front of an older root "*P R". This older root "*P R" indicates the wild, uncultivated and relatively open grounds that were to be found around the Eastern Mediterranean. This root, with a "Z" behind it, " פ ר ז, P R Z", gives the meaning of "meadows", practically little different from the message of "A P R". The pronunciation "aphar" is due to the rule that a single "P" between vowels in Hebrew is pronounced "PH". In various languages exist many cases in which a P is pronounced as PH or as F , which is basically the same sound .

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. With this same root there exists a perhaps older word, in which instead of two vowels "A", two vowels "E" have been inserted. Thus obtaining, instead of "aphar" , "epher".

     

    This version does not mean prairie or meadows, but rather dry, dusty grounds. In reality, the difference is limited, as the root continues to deal with the same uncultivated grounds. Anybody who has visited the countries around the Eastern Mediterranean, for example already Greece, knows this difference in aspect of the same terrain in various seasons.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. Some scholars believe that "aphar" has been loaned from Akkadian "appāru", but that word means "swamp, marsh", which is not far from a "wet pasture". This has led people to translate Hebrew "aphar" itself as "pasture, saturated with water", but that is rather daring if we see that the same root "Aleph P.R" is used to express "ashes (epher)", "ash-colored (aphor)", "unsolid grounds (epher)" and "bandage, mask (apher)". Besides this we must mention that some scholars believe that Akkadian would also have loaned this word "appāru", from Sumerian. That seems obviously not the case , as we have here simply two Semitic sister words. And Akkadian, like Hebrew, also has a second version in "epiru = dust, earth", that thus corresponds with the just mentioned Hebrew word "epher = dust, ashes, unsolid grounds".

     

    Proto-Semitic certainly must have had an original root " פ ר * P . R", from which then the newer root "א פ ר aphar" has been developed.

 

Note:
  • Latin. There is much uncertainty and debate about the etymology of the Latin word "pratum". The similarity in sound and meaning with Hebrew has been further elaborated in our entry " פ ר א (par'à)", E 0330 (Hebrew 0704).

 

Note:
  • French. The English word "prairie" tells about the plains of the Mid-West and West where the deer and the antilope play and the bisons graze. But the French were there before the English and gave them their name. So here we have simply a loanword from French into English ! There is still another word in French, "pré", meaning "meadow". Visitors of Paris certainly know the famous place Saint Germain des Prés, the Holy Germain of the Meadows. Probably this name was given before that part was all town. The word "prè" itself is a classic example of how the Celts and after them the Franks altered Latin words to create that beautiful Neo-Latin language which we call French.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. The Latin word "pratum" seems to be isolated in Indo-European, as no convincing indications of possible cognates have been found. So the available hypothesis "*P R A T-" is based on Latin only. Some Celtic words have been seen as related, like Middle Irish "rāth = earthen bank" and Middle Cymric "bed-rawt = grave-mound" . But they indicate heaps of earth, nothing like a meadow. So we must limit ourselves to a hypothesis on the basis of Latin, that probably has added the " T " or "-tum" to an earlier "*P R A-".

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 25/09/2012 at 14.16.41