GR 1210A          MAZA

H 0608            ה צ מ

Concept of root : kneaded bread

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ה צ מ

matsą

unleavened bread

Related English words

matzo, from Hebrew

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ה צ מ

matsą

unleavened bread

m . ts .

Greek

μαζα;

-

-

μασσω

maza;

-

-

masso

dough, round bread;

to knead

m . z .

m . s

 

 

Hebrew *MATSÀ --- *MAZÀ Greek

 

 

A matzo is the typical flat and brittle piece of unleavened bread that is the only bread one may eat during Jewish Passover. Today it is made and sold all the year over in Western shops and is part of the general diet. But its origin lies in the days when Moses led the Jewish people away from Egypt and there was no time to have dough leavened. The word "matsą" in fact had the root of the verb "to knead". Perhaps the reason why this specific type of bread was called "matsa" is that the dough was "only kneaded" and not leavened.

 

 

Note:
  • Greek. This word "maza" is identical to the one we found in entry E 0569 (Hebrew 0600). Perhaps under the influence of this "maza" is also translated as "kneaded mass". The fundamental truth is that there are two identical words "maza" in Greek, but with different meanings, one standing for "block, mass" and the other for the fully different object that is a round bread. The round bread, mostly beautifully shaped according to tradition, in all probability was mostly baked from barley-flour, and this in contrast with "αρτος , artos" bread made of wheat-flour. The word "maza" in Modern Greek continues only in the meaning of entry E 0569 (Hebrew 0600) , "mass".

 

Note:
  • Greek and Hebrew. The Greek Z corresponds with Hebrew TS. We point out that there is a certain fluidity between various sounds like this. The letter Z in German represents a sound TS, in Italian DZ. And the letter S in German often is pronounced Z.

     

    There is little doubt that the two Greek words of this entry, "maza" and "masso" are of a common origin. It is less easy to define with certainty their common root. Anyhow a root "mag", as often supposed, is improbable. This idea comes from a comparison between the actions of "kneading" and "mixing", but this is wrong. In any society, and certainly also in the bronze or stone ages, when our languages were born, a clear difference between saying "to mix" and "to knead" was simply necessary.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. Actions of the human hand often are expressed by verbs that are related to the word "KAPH", that means "hand" or "palm of the hand". But several others begin with "M" with following in the basic form a vowel A. This recalls the Latin word "manus", but further research is required to establish a possible common origin. Anyhow we see some of these verbs in our entries E 0591 (Hebrew 0601), E 0570 (Hebrew 0604), RU 1268 (Hebrew 0605) and this GR1210A (Hebrew 0608) .

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This word " matsą " can not be related to the root "M TS TS" or its origin " *M TS " as some believe. That root says " to be drained, sucked up, pressed out" and none of these procedures are applied in the preparation of mazot. We have no information from other Semitic languages that helps us to establish a hypothesis for Proto-Semitic.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 08/11/2012 at 16.01.22