E 0917          THRESH

The word " thresh " is of Germanic origin .

H 0339            ש ו ד , ש ש ד ר ס , ד

Concept of root : threshing

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ש ו ד, ש ש ד ר ס , ד

dosh, dashash, daras

to thresh, trample

Related English words

tresh , Old English : derskan.

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ש ו ד ;

ש ש ד

ד ר ס

dosh;

dashash;

daras

to thresh, trample

d (o) sh >

d . sh . sh

d . r . s

English

to thresh

to thresh

th r . sh

Middle English

thresshen

to thresh

th r . sh

Old English

therscan

to thresh

th . r sc

Dutch

dorsen

dorsen

to thresh

d (o) r s

Middle Dutch

dorscen , derscen, darscen

dorskhen

to thresh

t (o) r sc

Italian

trescare

trescare

lively dancing

t r sc

 

 

Proto-Semitic *DERAS, *DOSH --- *DORSK Proto-Germanic

 

 

The threshing of corn, grain was in the past around the Mediterranean done by trampling, even by animals. Thus the word has acquired the specific meaning of "threshing". The odd thing is that in the North threshing was done by flailing. Perhaps earlier also up North the feet did the work to free the grains of corn from the ears.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew in this root in modern language has abolished the central waw, that was pronounced as a vowel O.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. These two roots are found in Aramaic and Syriac "ד ו ש, dosh = to tread under foot, trample, thresh" and in Aramaic "ד ר ס ", and Syriac "ד ר ש ", both saying deras = he trod, trampled" . Akkadian has "dāshu = he trod upon, trampled down, threshed" . There is a cognate in Arabic "dāsa = he threshed, trampled down, trod upon", that some consider a loanword from Aramaic. A supposition we see as little convincing. Possibly Proto-Semitic had "*ד ו ש, D W SH" as well as "*ד ר ס , D R S".

 

Note:
  • Germanic had the, supposed, verb "*dreskan". One should remark that very frequently the Hebrew letter "shin", pronounced "SH" and being an impure S, corresponds to the following Germanic consonantial sounds : English "SH" and German "SCH" identical in pronunciation to Hebrew "SHin". Scandinavian "SK" and West-Flemish dialect of Dutch "SCH" sounding "SK". Dutch S, developed from SCH that had come to be pronounced like a pure S.

 

Note:
  • Germanic in this root has an R, in metathesis sometimes before, mostly after the vowel. The vowel varies from O to A to E. The metathesis of the R is clearly seen in the development from Old English to Middle English .

 

Note:
  • English has TH whereas in Germanic the D is more common. This is a characteristic of English language development, with the article "the" as the most obvious example. It may interest to know that in Modern Greek the D is no more pronounced D, but nearly as English TH in "the".

     

    English has also undergone a metathesis between "R" and the vowel "E", in this case in Old English that has both "ð:erscan" into "ð:rescan" .

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. In some older languages we find the "R" immediately after the initial dental, as in Old Norse "þreskja", Gothic "þriskan" and Old High German ""dreskan". But the "R" comes after the vowel in Old Danish "thærskæ" as well as in Middle Dutch where we see "dorscen, darscen, derscen" and in Middle Low German "doeschen, dershcen". The fact that in Dutch and Low German a probably older vowel "O" is used, that less easily undergoes the metathesis with "R" and that was present in Biblical Hebrew, makes more probable that Proto-Germanic had "*D O R SC-", though the strong tendency towards metathesis after a supposed introduction of a vowel "E" may already in Proto-Germanic have produced a "DR E SC-.

 

Note:
  • Italian has this word either from Late Latin "triscare" that was itself of Germanic origin, or directly from the Goths or Lombards who have had their reigns in Italy for centuries. In fact it is hard to distinguish fully between Italian and Late Latin. The reason why we opt for a direct loan from the Lombards is that Milanese, the dialect of Milan, has or had the verb "trescą" to express the action of "threshing".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European . There is an existing hypothesis "*T E R SK-", based on words also meaning "to rub", mentioning Latin "terere", Greek τειρω, teiro" and Russian тереть, teretj. Latin "terere" besides "to rub" indeed also means "to thresh". Greek "teiro" has further different meanings, but not in the sense of "threshing" and the same goes for Russian "teretj".

     

    Regretfully the clearest comparison remains with Proto-Germanic.

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 24/12/2012 at 15.48.12