E 0085          B E D

The word " bed " is of Germanic origin .

H 0236            ד ב

Concept of root : bed

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ד ב

bad, bod

perch, beam

Related English words

bed

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ד ב

bad, bod

perch, beam

b d

English

bed

bed

b d

 

 

Proto-Semitic *BAD --- *BAD Proto-Germanic

 

 

Usually the English word "bed" is seen as coming from an Indo-European root "*bhedh" that should have meant "to dig". But we think that human beings did not often have the habit of digging holes in the ground to sleep in. And it is known that from ancient times in Egypt and Greece for example, beds, as used by rich people, or headrests as used by the less well to do, were either pieces of wood or composed of strips of wood.

 

 

Note:
  • English "bed " is an old word, found already in Old English, as "bed" o "bedd". It has its sisters in many Germanic languages . An etymology has not been established .

 

Note:
  • Germanic. The old Germans used fixed wooden beds against the walls of their dwellings. Such constructions are not very far away from the meaning of the Hebrew root of this entry . The use of beds as non-fixed furniture came into use during the Middle Ages .

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. We find a proposed "*badja", in which "ja" is a suffix. Nearly all Germanic languages, old and new have the initial B and the final D. The exception is German, from Old High German on, that has TT instead of B: "Bett". This is an often seen phenomenon and is to be considered as a German change . Also nearly all languages have a vowel "E". The first exception is Gothic, that has an "A", like Hebrew. The second is that Old Swedish, and modern Swedish, use the "ä" : as in Swedish "bädd".

     

    It has been tried to relate the word " bed" to a hypothetical Indo European verb "*bhedh" for " to dig", cognate of Latin "fodere". This probably false track is followed because the word "bed" has also been used for "lair". A lair is not characteristically a place that has been dug by an animal. Instead it is just a place on the ground that is a bit hollowed out. And a "bed" in Germanic is also used for a flower-bed that is an absolutely not dug place, instead it usually is higher that the surroundings, as is a bed for human use. This is already seen in Old English "wyrtbed" for "vegetable pad". Interesting is that German, again already in Old High German, has diversified, by using ( as well) a sisterword "Beet" as distinguished from "Bett", to indicate flower- or vegetable beds.

     

    Consequently Proto-Germanic may have had "*BAD", changing already into "*BED".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic perhaps already used this two consonant root, that is also seen in Aramaic *ב ד , B D Aleph, bad'ā". The second consonant would easily double in words with a suffix, as in the shaping of a noun as found in Hebrew "ב ד ד, B D D, badad = olive presser". This word has a cognate in Arabic "badd" with tha same meaning. Perhaps Proto-Semitic used a two consonant root "*ב ד , B D with the meaning of "pole, rod, board".

 

 

 

 
"...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: 07/10/2012 at 17.58.05