E 0701          PROVE

The word " prove " is, via Old French, of Latin origin .

H 0275            ר ר ב

Concept of root : select and prove

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ר ר ב

ר ר ב

ה ר ב

barar;

birrèr;

barà

to choose, select;

to prove, control;

to choose

Related English words

to prove  

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ר ר ב;

-

ר ר ב;

-

ה ר ב;

barar;

-

birrèr;

-

barà

to choose, select;

to prove, control;

to choose

b . r . r <

b . r .

Greek

βραβευς

brab(eu)s

arbiter, judge

b r . b

Latin

probare;

-

probus

-

-

probare;

-

probus

-

-

to prove, try out,  judge;

sound, solid,  good as should be

p r . b

Russian

избирать

izbiratj

to choose, select

b . r

English

to prove

to prove

p r . v

 

 

Proto-Semitic *BARÀ --- *BRO- Indo-European

 

 

A nice group of words, in which it is useful to begin by distinguishing between the two Hebrew verbal forms. The second and intensive one, "birrer", finds it sister in the Russian word, but the basis "barà" is nearer to the Greek, Latin and Germanic sectors.

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew has a root with three consonants , "B R R", but this has rather obviously been derived from a simpler root with only two of them :" *B . R ." . A simpler root that carried the same or a comparable meaning, as this doubling of the second consonant of two is a common phenomenon, apparently used in Hebrew to satisfy the wish and need to work with and coniugate roots with three consonants. This number three is so prevalent and important that scholars tend to see this as a gift from God. In this case the two consonant root continued to exist, but remained limited in its task to expressing the concept of "to choose", whereas the extended, three consonant root B . R . R acquired also the other meanings of this entry. With the same or an identical root we find also the concept of " to purify", that is linked to our entry E 0068 (Hebrew 0260). The trwo concepts should not be seen as one.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic "B R" as a root is present in many Semitic languages, but with several different meanings, such as "son", "threshed grain, corn", "uncultivated fields, grounds", "exterior, outside", and "pure, purity, cleanness" and finally "to choose, select" of this entry. Aramaic and Syriac "ב ר ר , berar" says "to select, set apart" and Syriac "ב ר , bar" says "he set apart, separated". A root similar to Hebrew may be hypothesized for Proto-Semitic, besides an older two consonant root. The two would be "*ב ר ר, B R R" and " *ב ר ה , B . R . + accentuated vowel" .

 

Note:
  • Greek and Latin, if we suppose that the original, perhaps Nostratic root that has led to the different Hebrew and European words, was "*B R", Greek and Latin have added a B in a kind of not uncommon repeating the initial consonant of the root. Latin in the process has made the first consonant explosive ( P ). Seen the similarity of meaning, this supposition can be justified. Greek scholars do not define any etymology for "brabeus". For Latin there is some confusion in the theories about the etymology, in that some scholars see the existing adjective "probus" as the basis of the meaning of the root. It stands for "sound, solid, good as should be".

     

    We see "probus" with this message as the carrier of the message "proven and found good". This exists in English usage as well, if manufacturers speak of "proven quality", or "quality product", which supposes exactly a positivity without specifying this.

 

Note:
  • Russian "izbiratj" , besides "to choose, select", can also say "to adopt, embrace". It sometimes is used without the second " I ", becoming "izbratj". The verb has a prefix "iz" , that roughly corresponds with English "out". The verb without this prefix, "bratj", stands for "to seize, take hold of, take away". The shift in meaning is not too big to exclude the similarity, that is again confirmed by the version with the prefix "iz".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European and Proto-Germanic. Greek has "BRAB- < *BRA", Latin "PROB" < "BRO-", Russian simply "*BIR-". But then we add an Old English"prōfian" that can hardly be explained by Latin or Old French, and that indeed has been substituted by that Old French, with "prover" an older form than "prouver".To this can be added Old Norse "profa. Things remain uncertain, but we dare make a hypothesis of "*P R O-" or "*B R O-" for Indo-European. With that we nearly jumped the intermediate position of Proto-Germanic, that may have been "*P R O (B)-".

 

 

 

 
"...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 16.52.17