E 0330          FEROCIOUS

the word " ferocious " has its origin in Latin .

H 0704            א ר פ

Concept of root :  being wild

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

א ר פ

par’à;

per’é

-

to be wild;

wild ass, onager, desert dweller

Related English words

ferocious, from Latin

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

א ר פ

par’à;

per’é

-

-

to be wild;

wild ass, onager, desert dweller

p . r (‘)

Greek

φηρ

phèr

animal living in the wild

ph . r

Greek Thessalian

φειρος

pheiros

animal living in the wild

ph . r

Greek Lesbian

φηρος

phèros

animal living in the wild

ph . r

Latin

ferus ;

ferox

ferus ;

ferox

wild animal ;

wild, ferocious

f . r

English

ferocious

ferocious

f . r

 

 

Proto-Semitic *PAR'À --- *BĀR, *BĒR Indo-European

 

 

The Hebrew roots "P.R" and "B.R" as in E 0071 (Hebrew 0261) are related.

 

The root of this entry has a very particular role through the creation of numerous names of animals. Their development is not identical, and therefore we have to divide them in various entries. But first we will go into some aspects regarding this and other roots that have some relation with living in the wild.

 

Before the Romans had begun to cut most woods in Italy for the building of ships for their navy as well as for the melting of iron, the country was full of woods. Thus English "wild" was Latin "silvaticus, that has led to Italian "selvatico", French "sauvage" and Spanish"salvage". All were based on the Latin word for "forest" : "silva". The Spaniards had a problem with this though. They had the Latin word ready, but did not have so many forests. So they added "montesino" and "monteraz" that referred to the mountainous regions where many wild animals lived and live in the Iberian pensinsula.

 

In Germanic languages like German and Dutch, the word "wild, wild" refers to the words "Wald" and "wold > woud" that mean "forest, wood". Naturally English "wood" is a sister of them. These tongues were spoken in lands with lots of woods, and wild life was linked to the concept of forests. The change of vowels, from A and O into I, says that we have passed, in this case, from a noun to an adjective.

 

Greece, like Spain, had less forests and wild animals lived in more open grounds, that were called "αγρος , agros" and so the animals living there became the adjective "αγριος , agrios" . These wild grounds gradually became more cultivated, but maintained the linguistic root that they had. In this way the Greek "agros" from a wild field became a cultivated field. And the same root is found in Latin with "ager", German "Acker" and Dutch "akker". With all this development, Greek "agrios" remained the word for "wild", with derivations like "αγριαινω , agriaino", saying "to infuriate".

 

Words like "agros" can be compared with the Hebrew root that gave the word "ikkar" for "peasant". See entry number E 0004 (Hebrew 0025). We should ask some questions as to the development, through which wild terrain was turned into cultivated earth. "Agriculture" is a key word, fully expressive about its origin and meaning. But the timing in which it took place is less easy to define. And were Greek, Latin and Hebrew at the time still sufficiently akin to undergo the same development with the same root ?

 

In Israel there were not so many forests either. More or less like in Greece, there was mainly partially open terrain. The open grounds had a name, based on a root "*P R". Their derived root was "P R Z". Today "prazot" are still open fields and somebody living there was called a "prazon" in the Bible.

 

From this root "*P R"also a new root "P R א, par’à" = to be wild" was developed. Besides this, it also gave names for various bigger wild animals. For example "par" and "parà" for "bull" and "cow", that kept these names also after having been domesticated . Then there was "per’é" for the wild onager ass, and "pered" became a mule, much like a horse in Low German and dialectal Dutch "peerd". n Hebrew a saddle horse became a "peresh" , like its rider. The fields were those animals graze is still a "pirza".

 

Note:
  • Greek has a root "θηρ , thèr " for "wild" in words like "θηρος , thèros = wild animal". This is considered a development from a root "φηρ , phèr" that is in fact still found in Greek and in several Greek dialects. This makes it directly related to Latin "ferus". "Thèr" itself in our opinion may be related to German "Tier = animal", which in turn is a sister of English "deer", a word that has specialized in a specific type of animal apparently very common in the English woods and fields. Obviously "deer" does not come from a root "dheu", telling "to rise in a cloud". A bit too far-fetched.

 

Note:
  • Latin "ferus" is akin to Hebrew "P R". We see no reason to suppose an origin in a hypothetical Indo-European root "*ghwer", as usually is done. There are no European words to sustain this. Perhaps someone supposes that Russian "зверь, zwerj = wild beast, animal, savage animal ", as mentioned in entry E 0081 (Hebrew 0707), derived from an Indo-European "*ghwer", but the initial "Z" as in Russian "zwerj = wild animal" is just a later added prefix. This leaves an original "*B E R".

 

Note:
  • Germanic shows us words like "bear" and "boar" to which we refer in entries E 0081 (Hebrew 0707) and E 0102 (Hebrew 0706).

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic is seen as having the same root as Hebrew "*פ ר א , P R Aleph". This root is used to express as a verb the concept of "to be wild", but also especially as a noun "wild ass, onager". Akkadian has purimū= wild ass". The clear difference between the Proto-Semitic and Hebrew "P" and the Greek and Latin "PH" or "F" is a normal phenomenon. One should consider that also Arabic here has "fara = wild ass". Frequently we see this kind of development in Arabic, that is thus in this sense comparable to the mentioned Indo-European tongues.

 

 

Note:
  • Indo-European, on the basis of the mentioned information, may have had "*B Ē R-", though a "B Ă R-" and "P Ă R-" and even "P Ē R-" are also quite possible. In Indo European there may have been a tendency towards differentiation, opting for a vowel "E" for swines and a vowel "A" for bovines. But such a choice, if it has existed, has not been followed to the end if we see for example Dutch "varken = pig". The (re-)introduction of a vowel " Ă " or as in Latin "Ŏ"may be connected to the extension of the root with a final K-sound, used to diversify towards tamed swines.

     

    Anyhow the complicated picture indicates that on the basis of old roots "*P . R" and "*B . R" that indicated, both in Semitic and in Indo-European, various types of wild grounds, names were given to important animals living there, again both in Semitic and Indo-European. Latin, Greek and Balto-Slavic used the same original roots to create a general name for "wild animal". Germanic and Hebrew , but also Latin and others, used those roots in the names of specific animals.

 

 

 

 
"...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: 17/11/2012 at 14.09.14