GD 1033          BAKER

H 0243            ר כ ב

Concept of root : made firstborn

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ר כ ב

bikker, *bakher

create firstborn

Related English words

none

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ר כ ב

bikker,

*bakher

create firstborn

b . k . r

Dutch

baker

baker

dry nurse

b . k . r

 

 

Proto-Semitic *BAKER --- *BAKER Dutch

 

 

Words come and go. Many have totally disappeared, others have shifted meanings or have been limited to very special or locally defined use. This is the case of the Dutch word "baker", which in fact has reconquered a place in official Dutch after having been restricted to Frisian, one of the smaller sisters among the Germanic languages. The "baker" is the person, always woman, who assists at and after the birth of a child, looking after mother and child. She may act also as a midwife, but this is not her profession. This word "baker" has no known etymology nor cognates in other Germanic languages.

 

It has been tried to invent a reasoning: "to bake", in Dutch "bakken", but in Middle Dutch also "baken", is a way of bringing heat. And a dry nurse brings warmth to a baby. So "baker" may be "she who brings warmth". We do not think dry nurses have the habit of baking children. No further comment about this etymological fantasy.

 

 

Note:
  • Frisian is not a dialect but a separate language that has official legal status and is spoken in the Northern Dutch province Friesland . It is related to both Dutch and English. Two millennia ago it had a vaster territory, also in actual North-Western Germany. Centuries of conflicts and regular wars between Holland and Friesland have led to a reduction of the territory of the Frisians and their language. In the Golden Age of Rembrandt Holland and Friesland were sound allies in the Seven Provinces. After World War 2 a fierce and proud national action has brought the recognition of Frisian as an official language of the Province of Friesland. The language has interesting characteristics and some words that are unknown in other Germanic tongues. The word "baker" is among those.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew in the Bible uses two verbal forms based on the same root to express the concept of "firstborn" : "BEKHOR" and "BUKKAR". These words are not unfrequent and they indicate the existence of the verbs of this entry, the intensive form "bikker" and the standard form that might have been "*bakhar" or "*bakher". We see "bakher" as more probable but cannot be certain about that. One should remark that an elder sister in the Bible is called a "bakhirà". Meanwhile in modern language a firstborn is called a "bakhir" with the female "bakhirà" , a verb "*bakhar" is not used and the intensive form "bikker" has shifted to the meaning of "to prefer". Also Hebrew has had its changes.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic This root "ב כ ר ", is found in Aramaic "bakkèr = to bring forth"and Syriac "bakkar" with the same meaning. Both languages have " ב כ ר א, bukhar'à = first born" and "ב כ י ר, bakkir = first crop". Ugaritic, Ethiopian, Tigre, Akkadian and Arabic all use the same root and it should have been present already in Proto-Semitic: "* ב כ ר.

     

    The root besides the basic meaning of " to bring forth, create" also deals especially with the concepts of "first child" and "first fruits" like those that had to be brought to the Temple in Jerusalem.

 

Note:
  • Similarity can be seen in the words as well as in the field they are applied to, if we add to the above information that the following causative form of our word, " ה ב כ י ר, hivkir " carries the message of " give birth for the first time". This implies that the accent lies on the woman instead of on the father of her child . It is her first child that is born. If she is the legal wife of somebody, he may have his first legally born child at the occasion. Probably meanings of words like this have undergone changes also with developments (negative or positive ?) in family law and social structure in favour of men and sons as against women and daughters.

     

    Anyhow this analysis brings us somewhat nearer to a common origin of this interesting Hebrew root and that as well interesting nearly forlorn word, saved in Frisian .

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. We are dealing here with an isolated Dutch and Frisian word and have no possibility for a hypothesis for Proto-Germanic or Indo-European.

 

 

 

 
"...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: 23/12/2012 at 15.33.44