E 0961          VERSION

The word " version " has, via Old French, a Latin origin .

H 0380            ה ס ר ג

Concept of root : to bend

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ה ס ר ג

girsa

version

Related English words

version

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ה ס ר ג

girsa

version

g . r s

English

version

version

v  .r s

 

 

Proto-Semitic *GERAS --- *WERS- Indo-European

 

 

Our supposition is that in this case the European " V ", earlier " W ", corresponds with the Hebrew initial " G ", just as can be the case between Germanic and Latin. Naturally both nouns are related to verbs that mean amongst other things "to bend". In the English case this is Latin "vertere, versus" and in Hebrew it is the Biblical verb " ג ר ס , garas ". This verb with this meaning is not used in Modern Hebrew . It says "to study", but that was also already the principal meaning in Biblical Hebrew. Aramaic gives us an indication about the way this verb may have developed semantically, as it expresses there "to review" and then consequently "to study".

 

Hebrew has another verb, that is related to "garas" and means "to bend, curve" : "ק ר ס, Q . R . S ".
The basis for a possible common origin on the basis of a supposed similarity in sound and meanings is there, though we feel some doubt with respect to the many different specific ways of bending or curving that may be expressed by the two roots in Hebrew and the Latin one.

 

There is as well an identical verb that says "to squash, mince, mill,grind", that is related to the word of entry E 0395 (Hebrew 0378).

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew with this root, compared with entry E 0400 (Hebrew 0384) shows how when the spoken language was codified alphabetically, sometimes the two letters "Sin ש" and "Samech ס" gave some confusion. There must have been some difference in pronunciation between these two letters S, but apparently not all speakers fully respected the rules.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This word, found in later texts, may have been taken from Aramaic "ג ר ס, geras= to review, study" and " ג ר סא girs'à = review, version". This is a small basis for a hypothesis for Proto-Semitic. "*ג ר ס, G R S".

 

Note:
  • Latin and Italian. Latin did not use a word " *versio " , but expressed the concept of " version " with composite words, like "conversio , gen. conversionis" . French and Italian instead use the same word , "version (FR) versione (IT )" that we find in English . The responsibility for this lies with Late or Vulgar Latin , that left out the prefix "con" from "conversio" .

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. The Latin verb "verto, verti, versum, vertere" stands for "to turn" in various senses . The words "versus, versum" and older "vorsus, vorsum" mean "versus, turned towards". "Verto" has many cognates meaning "to turn", like Old Indian "vártate". The hypothesis for Indo-European is "* W E RT- ", but "*W E RS- must have existed as well. Both may indeed have coexisted. It is quite possible that in the root with final " T " also an alternative vowel "O" was used : "*V Ō RT-".

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 21/10/2012 at 16.49.32