E 0520          LAMP

The word " lamp " has, via Old French and Latin, a Greek origin .

H 0549         ד י פ ל

Concept of root : torch

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ד י פ ל

lappid

torch

Related English words

lamp

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ד י פ ל

      lappid

torch

l . p . d

Greek

λαμπας,

λαμπαδος

lampas,

lampados

torch

l . m p . d

English

lamp

lamp

l . m p

 

 

Proto-Semitic *LAPED --- *LĀP- Indo-European

 

 

The Biblical Hebrew word "lappid" should have been derived from a root "*L P D", that is found in Medieval Hebrew, where it stands for "to burn". The word "lappid" is old, but its kinship with the Greek root "L . P . D" in "lampados" is clear. The difference is that the Greek root has been nasalized into "L . MP . D". There certainly has been in Greek a still older root with only two consonants "L P". The third consonant D, added to the first two "L P", has the function to specify the step from "to lighten" to the used instrument, a "torch".

 

 

Note:
  • Greek "lampas" is seen as derived from the root of the verb "λαμπω , lampo" = "to shine, send light, be brillant". And Greek scholars consider this indeed as a development of an older root "*L P" or as they put it "*LAP".

     

    This difference between "L P" and "LAP" is based on that between two approaches. European scholars mostly consider vowels as part of roots. We consider as part of roots only "vowel-positions" at the beginning of syllables . Nobody can say that one or the other opinion is absolutely true or wrong. Scientifically a definition must be the most practical instrument to serve the goal of science. In the case of linguistic roots that goal is the proper analysis and comparison of languages, words and their roots.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew "lappid" is in all probability an intensified form of the action of the old root "ל פ ד , L P D, lapad = to burn". Sometimes this is seen as derived from "lappid", but obviously it is the other way around. Yet "LAPAD" seems to have been not a much used verb, though in Medieval Hebrew there is the relfexive form "ה י ת ל פ ד , hitlappèd = to glitter, shine".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This root is also found in Aramaic " ל פ י ד א , lapidà = torch" , which gives a narrow basis for a hypothesis that it was already present as such in Proto-Semitic: "*ל פ ד, L P D". In our comparison we have placed the vowels " A " and " E ".

     

    One observes then that both in Post-Biblical Hebrew "lampad" and in Syriac "lampida" we find nasalized forms probably under Greek influence.

 

Note:
  • English "lamp" comes from Latin that has in this case been just the mediator between Greek and many modern languages.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. If Latin and Germanic indeed have their words from Greek the remaining information is limited.

     

    Hittite has "lap- = to glow", "lapnu- = to make glow" and "lappija- = glow", which clearly confirms "L A P".

     

    Baltic has a hypothesis of "*lāp-ā-" , obviously not loaned from Latin.

     

     

    Indo-European probably had a form "*L Ā P-".

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 04/11/2012 at 16.49.06