|
GD 1065 MATE
H 0568 ט
ע
מ
Concept of root : littleness
Hebrew word
|
pronunciation
|
English meanings
|
ט ע מ
|
ma‛ath;
me‛ath
|
to
reduce, be reduced;
little, small
|
|
Related English words
|
none
|
|
Comparison between European words and Hebrew
|
Languages
|
Words
|
Pronunciation
|
English meanings
|
Similarity in roots
|
Hebrew
|
ט ע מ
|
ma‛ath;
-
me‛ath
|
to reduce, be reduced;
little, small
|
m (.) th
|
Middle Dutch
|
mate
|
mate
|
little, small
|
m . t
|
Dutch
|
mate ;
matig
|
|
little,small;
reduced, limited
|
m . t
|
Proto-Semitic *MA‛ATH --- *MĀT- Proto-Germanic
All these words have "little" or "small" in quantity or size, but also in figurative sense, such as "insignificant". The similarity is surprising. This Dutch word "mate" in modern language is practically only used in some fixed expressions and its origin is mostly misunderstood through confusion with two other words "maat" that stand for "measure" and " companion ".
There are in fact in Middle Dutch several similar words "mate" with different meanings and origin. One of them has been lent into English as "mate", on board of a ship.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. This root is found in Aramaic "מ ע ט , me‛ath = to be small, be few, diminish". Akkadian has "mātū = to become few, diminish". Arabic shows "ma‛ita = became few". Probably this root was used in Proto-Semitic : "*מ ע ט , M Ayin TH".
p>
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. Usually this Dutch word is considered as having the same root as the identical "maat = measure". This would mean a so called pregnant use of the root, with "to measure" becoming "to measure as small" and from there "to be small, insignificant". But that hypothesis is not right. There are just two identical roots with different meanings .
Old English helps us with "mæte = small, moderate, poor, inferior" and from there then also a derived "mean, bad". It is important to note that the meaning "measure" is expressed by a different word in Old English: "mæð".
A comparable confusion in which the two identical roots are not seen of different origin, we find in German . Here we find two adjectives "mässig" that serve two messages. The first one is "with measure, keeping measure". The other one, related to the words of this entry, says : "small, trifly, insignificant", without supposing any action of measuring.
Proto-Germanic probably had for the concept of "small, little, insignificant" a form "M Ā T -".
Note:
- Indo-European. Information about possible cognates in other groups of Indo-European languages does not seem to be available. Therefore the comparison stays between Semitic and Germanic, as so often is the case.
|
|
|
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 05/11/2012 at 17.55.01 |
|