E 0564          MARINE,  MERE

The word " marine " is, via Old French, of Latin origin.

The word " mere " is of Germanic origin .

H 0595             ר מ

Concept of root : water

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ר מ

mar

drop

Related English words

marine; Old English mere

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ר מ;

mar

drop

m . r

Greek

μυρω;

-

-

αμαρα

müro

-

-

amara

to drip, drop, trickle;

canal

m . r

-

-

. m . r

Latin

mare

mare

sea

m . r

Old Slavic

morje

morye

sea

m . r

Gothic

mari

mari

sea

m . r

Middle Dutch

maer;

mare

-

maar;

mare

-

sea;

pool, lake, marsh

m . r

Old English

mere

sea, lake

m r .

English

mere ;

-

marine

pool, pond, marsh ;

marine

m . r .

 

 

Proto-Semitic *MAR, *MAW --- *MĂR- Indo-European

 

 

With exception of the rather obvious similarity between Hebrew and Greek, in this entry we are making a daring comparison . Greek and Hebrew have in common the message of "to drip" and "drop( of water)", but the other Indo European languages do not share that concept. They deal with water in many forms and where it is present. Thus a daring hypothesis is the one we are making in this entry. Beginning with European "MaR-", found in Latin, Germanic , Slavic and Celtic, we learn that no further road back has been established. On the other hand we observe that the root "M . R" has been used to indicate "sea", "lake", "pond (f.e in Anglo-Saxon mere", "lagoon (Old Prussian mary)" .

 

In entry E 0566 (Hebrew 0598) we can find an extended root, related to "M . R" of this entry.

 

Note:
  • Greek, gives a very good confirmation of similarity with Hebrew "mar" in the word "müro", as well as a strong indication towards the meaning of "water" in "amara" that has a confirming A as a prefix.

     

    But Greek does not participate in using this root clearly to say "sea". Yet it has a few more isolated indications of a previous existence and use of a root "M . R" with meanings regarding water and sea: "μορυσσω , morüsso = to immerse"; "μαρινος , marinos" and "μορμυρος , mormüros" are fishes; "μορμυρωπός , mormüropòs = fisheyed". And the verb "μορμυρω , mormüro" that we also see in entry E 0608 (Hebrew 0597), indicates the sound of water moving violently in various ways.

 

Note:
  • Middle Dutch once more helps our understanding. The word "maer" for "sea" might make us think of a loanword. But with the vowel A this should be a loanword from Late Latin or Italian, because French has "mer, mèr" with an E. If we add to this the second word, that diversifies from "maer" : "mare" with two syllables and indicating only still waters, that idea of a loanword is bound to disappear.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew has another word with the same root and indicating something of water: " מ ו ר ה , moré = fresh first rain", an important phenomenon in the Israelian climate. The common word for water itself is " מ י מ , mayim ". This is a plural, but the Bible still has as well the singular " מ י , may ". This may have been "* מ ו ,maw" or "mav " originally. The other word we must know in this context is the one for "sea", that is " י מ , yam ". This word also meant "river" and is used for "West", because the sea in Israel mainly was and is in the West.

     

    A particular aspect is that we find in "may (water in general ) " and "yam ( water geographically ) the " Y " in two different positions with respect to the " M ". Genesis 1:10 specifies that He gave the masses of the " waters" ("mayim" ) the name "sea" ("yamim").

     

    Our Hebrew word "mar " is a hapax legomenon in the Bible, which means that it is found only once, in Isaiah 40.15, in which the prophet explains in strong terms how small everything is in the mind of or in front of God. The traditional translations say that "mar" is "a drop", and then the phrase becomes : " The nations (are) like a drop in a bucket" . But the Hebrew text does not speak of "mar in a bucket" but "mar from, out of a bucket". And just try to pour a drop out of a bucket. So another translation says "the nations (are) like a drop fallen from a bucket". Drops simply do not fall from buckets. Now the comparison with the Indo European words tells us that the root "M R" may well indicate the concepts of "wet" and "water", that are of course related. So we should like to suppose that "mar" in Isaiah 40.15 stands for "water", perhaps "a little water". And the phrase is then : "The nations are like a little water out of a bucket". In the second phrase the nations are considered "like dust on a balance", but the word translated as "dust" also means crushed material, not really dust. So one might read this as: "The nations are like shattered pieces on a balance".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. We have no evidence from other Semitic languages regarding the word "mar". The word "maim" instead has its sisters in many languages. There are Aramaic and Syriac "mayà", Arabic "mā'", Ethiopian "may, OSArabic "mū, mā and Akkadian "mū". All are in singular. Ugaritic had both singular and plural, as Biblical Hebrew. Proto-Semitic may have had "maw.

 

Note:
  • English. Old English used the word "mere" for "sea, lake" as Middle Dutch "maer", as well as (artificial) pool, cistern. Modern English instead gives it those of Middle Dutch "mare" : "pool, pond, marsh".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. In older and newer Germanic languages we see the combination "M vowel R -" used to indicate many different kinds of water and places with water, from "sea, lake, pool, mere" to "moor, marsh" as well as "cistern, artificial pool". And also "canal, drainage". The used vowel is mostly "E", but still rather frequently "A", as in Gothic, Nordic languages and Frisian. Middle Dutch uses both vowels: "mare, maer, mere, meer". The occurring of "A" and "E" was also seen in Old High German, with "mari" and "meri".

     

    An "O-sound" is used in some words for "moor" or "marsh" that can be considered a development of diversification in the use of the root. The same goes for additional consonants as "SH" in "marsh" and for suffixes like "AS" in Dutch "moeras = marsh" and "AST" in German "Morast= marsh". The hypothesis for Proto-Germanic is "*M Ā R-".

 

Note:
  • Celtic . Cymric, Breton and Cornish all have "mor = sea". Old Irish "muir" has a genitive "mora. Celtic probably was "M O R-".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. Baltic presents, with the meaning "sea" Old Prussian "mary" and Lithuanian "mārè". Old Slavic is seen in the Table and Russian, like other modern languages, has followed in its tracks with " м о р е, morye = sea".

     

    There can be little doubt about the consonants " M " and " R ", but the vowel is not fully certain. The most probable remains "*M Ā R-. The meaning is that of "water" in many forms.

 

 

 

 
"...the town, to which was given the name Babel, because it was there that the Lord confused the language of all the world on the face of which He dispersed them. GENESIS 11,9"
 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 08/11/2012 at 11.01.54