GD 1060          KRAAM

H 0774             ם ר ק

Concept of root : spread over

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ם ר ק

qaram

to spread over, cover

Related English words

none

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

      ם ר ק

qaram

to spread over, cover

q . r . m

Middle Dutch

crame

crame

spread cloth,

 stall

c r . m

Dutch

kraam;

kramer

kraam;

kramer

market-stall;

market-vendor, pedlar

k r . m

 

 

Proto-Semitic *QERAM --- *KRĀM- Proto-Germanic

 

 

Take a large piece of cloth, spread it out on the floor, the sand, the earth. Upon it you can display the things you are offering for sale on the market. That is the way markets are in poor African countries, but it was not so different in earlier times in Europe. In Holland in the time of Middle Dutch they called that spread cloth that covered the ground to expose more safely the merchandise, a "crame". Today a "kraam" is a market-stall. With the development of the presentation of the goods at markets, Dutch maintained the ancient word.

 

The root and the meaning are identical between Hebrew and older Dutch. Some see this root as indicating specifically "to cover with crust", because it seems to be used that way in Aramaic and Syriac. But in Hebrew it has a wider range, as can be seen in Ezekiel 37:6 and 8 , where the cover is human skin. And this becomes more evident from the word "qerem" for "fine cloth" and "hanging" found in Post Biblical texts .

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic This root is seen also in Aramaic and Syriac "ק ר ם , qeram" and may well have been present in Proto-Semitic: "*ק ר ם , Q R M". In the above comparison we present the vowels " E " and " A ".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic Middle High German gives us the comparable word "kram", where the meaning is that of a cloth that also keeps out somewhat the rain, used to protect the goods, also already a market-stall and even the merchandise itself. In modern German "Kram" indicates principally "rubbish", also figuratively, but a "Kraemer" remains a market-vendor. Proto-Germanic may have had in use a form "*KR Ā M-".

 

Note:
  • Dutch has also coined the noun "kramer" for a "market-vendor" and in extension "pedlar" though pedlars are usually called "marskramer", because they carry a "mars= basket, pack" with their merchandise. "Kramer" also has become a family-name in English.

 

 

 

 
"...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: 22/11/2012 at 18.20.46