E 0116          BREAD

The word " bread " is of Germanic origin .

H 0279            ת ו ר ב

Concept of root : food

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ת ו ר ב

barot, barut

food

Related English words

bread

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ת ו ר ב

barot, barut

food

b r t

Greek

βρωτυς,

βρωσις

brootϋs, broosis

food

b r t

b r s

German

Brot

broot

bread

b r t

Middle Dutch

broot

broot

bread, food

b r t

Dutch

brood

brood

bread, food

b r d

English

bread

bread

b r d

 

 

Proto-Semitic *BAROT --- *BRŌT Indo-European

 

 

The similarity between Greek and Hebrew shows to be without doubt. A somewhat different question is that of the Germanic words.
One should recall that Hebrew between three consonants likes to place two vowels, whereas European languages normally use only one vowel.

 

Note:
  • Bread and its sisters are by about all scholars seen as derived from an Indo-European root "*bhreu" meaning "to bubble, boil, effervesce, burn". From that root we should have in English the words "brew, broth, broil, brood, breed, bread, breath, braise, breeze, burn, brand, brindled, brandish, barm, ferment (via Latin) etc.". Quite a few as one sees.

     

    The reason or cause of "bread" belonging to this group would be that at a given moment people, probably during the iron age, began to use yeast for making bread. This makes the paste swell and therefore people, in order to give a name to the new bread, wanted to substitute the old Germanic word "*hlaiba", in Old High German "hleib".

     

    There are some odd points in this reasoning. Its defenders recognize that the "new" word came to be used also for the older kinds of "bread". So where was the distinction ? And it does not explain why the Slavs did not use this new word and stuck instead to the sister of "hleib", the well-known "chleb". Further, why is that word "hleib" not found in Old English or Old Dutch?

     

    Certainly, if we talk about a supposed development of over several thousands of years ago, conjecture may reign supreme. Probably "bread" has nothing to do with "brewing" etc., but is akin to the Greek and Hebrew words for food. We should consider the fact that the words for "bread" are generally also used in the sense of "food". This could have been a figurative or extensive use of an original word for bread. But it is quite as possible that a general word for "food" may become the name for the "staple food" by excellence that through the ages, since agriculture began to develop, bread has been. In this respect one may compare with entries E 0070 (Hebrew 0263) and E 0347 (Hebrew 0266), that show us words with "B R" in the root, one meaning "cereals" and the other "to eat". Food and eating are in practice akin .

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. The Hebrew word of this entry should be a normal formation on basis of a root "B R H " that says " to eat" , according to some specifically " to eat bread ", perhaps in a development from "bar = grain" > " barą = eat (a product from ) grain ". This root is seen in Akkadian "barū = to eat one's fill" and "ushtabarri = to be satiated". Then there is Syriac "א ס ת ב ר, estabar = he ate, fed on". This last word is sometimes considered a loanword from Akkadian, but it is rather different in both meaning and sound.

     

    Proto-Semitic may well have used already the root with final Aleph : "* ב ר א, B R Aleph".

     

    It is quite possible that the words of this entry, "barot" and "barut", though both just hapax legomena in the Hebrew Bible, may have been in use already in Proto-Semitic.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. Words for "bread" are found in older Germanic languages. Old Saxon had "brōd", Old English changed the long vowel "Ō" into "EA" : "brēad". Old High German preferred a final "T" : "brōt", according to the German habit and Old Norse had "brauð". Proto-Germanic probably had the form "BR Ō D-".

 

Note:
  • Indo European. Seen the similarity between Greek and Germanic, a hypothesis can be made of a form ""*BR Ō T-".

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 10/10/2012 at 11.50.54