GD 1049A          HAVENEN

H 0410            ה ו ה

Concept of root : serious damage

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ה ו ה

hawwa, howa

great damage

Related English words

none

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ה ו ה

hawwa, howa

great damage

h . w .

Dutch

havenen

havenen

to cause great damage

h . v . n <

* h . v

 

 

Proto-Semitic *HAWÀ --- *HĀV- Proto-Germanic

 

 

The Hebrew word is a noun with, already in the old times of the Bible, no more verb in use. The identical verbs that existed had different meanings, apparently not related to "damage". The Dutch word "havenen" should be an intensive or iterative form of an earlier verb "haven".

 

At the same time it seems absent from other Germanic tongues and no reasonable explanation of its etymology is available.

 

Note:
  • Dutch "haven" and "havenen" have various meanings, some of which seem comparable to those of Hebrew "hawwa". And they find further relationship in Hebrew words that begin with "GH" instead of simple "H". One of the origins in Hebrew of "GH" is the reinforcement of "H" for reasons of expressiveness or diversification.

     

    There are roots "H W H" with meanings we consider very different, like "to be, become" , a very important verb in Hebrew and "to fall", a little used verb because for "to fall" Hebrew mostly uses the verb "naphal" of entry E 0319 (Hebrew 0652).

     

    This Dutch word havenen is sometimes wrongly seen as belonging together with those of entry number GD 1049B (Hebrew 0411) , but the difference in meanings, also found in the "same" Hebrew root, make this not very probable. A related composed verb in Middle Dutch is hanthaven, that carries the meaning of "to lay violent hands on somebody or something". Litterally it means "causing by hand serious damage to somebody or something".

     

     

    Similar verbs with different and even contrasting messages are also present in Dutch. Middle Dutch "haven" means "to work on, process, look after " and in eastern dialect it also stands for "to have". "Havenen" means "to treat carefully, look after, clean, repair". This is quite the opposite of "to damage seriously" and it can not be explained semantically with a "to look after badly".

     

    One can think of an explanation. In very old language , there were words that meant "to move from one place to another", comprehending the two kinds of movement that today are expressed by "to come" and "to go". The old basis "*HAF" or "HAV-" in Dutch or its predecessor, may have meant "to deal with by hand", without specifying if that "dealing with" was good or bad. It would then comprehend "to cure, look after" as well as "to damage". Thus also the composed verbs that specify that it is the "hand" that does the action, "handhaven, hanthaven" with the meanings of "to protect, look after" and "to attack, damage".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This Hebrew noun as shown also has a version pronounced as "hową". This is found in Is 47.11 ("disaster, destruction, ") and Ezek. 7.26 ("calamity, ruin") .

     

    The root is sometimes seen as having been derived from a verb " hawa" with identical spelling, but with the meaning of "to fall". That other verb is present in a phrase of the Lord as referred to in Job 37.6 : " And he said to the snow : fall to the ground". It is also present in Arabic and Syriac with that meaning of " to fall". There is no sufficient semantic link and this thesis remains more improbable than uncertain . Anyhow with only Hebrew we have little information as a basis for a hypothesis of a Proto-Semitic root with the meaning of this entry, which still may be realistic : "*ה ו ה , H W H".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. It is probable that Proto-Germanic had , besides the forms that have led to German "haben" and English "to have", a similar form with different meanings as shown in this entry : "*H A V-.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. Cognates in other Indo-European languages seem not be present and the comparison stays between Semitic and Germanic.

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 24/10/2012 at 17.23.30