E 0873          (TO)  STEM

Th verb " to stem " is of Germanic origin .

H 0864            ם ת ס

Concept of root : satam, sittèm

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ם ת ס

satam, sittèm

to stem, plug, obturate

Related English words

to stem

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ם ת ס

satam, sittèm

to stem, plug, obturate

s . t . m

English

to stem

to stem

s t . m

Middle Dutch

stemmen; stommelen

stemmen ; stommelen

to stem

s t . m

Swedish

stämma

stemma

to stem

s t . m

 

 

Proto-Semitic *SATAM --- *STÈM- Proto-Germanic

 

 

A clean-cut case of similarity may indicate a common origin here.

 

Note:
  • Dutch in modern language no more uses these two verbs. Instead it has "stremmen" that also stands for "coagulation", like that of blood or milk. This same verb with both meanings was as well present in Middle Dutch.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. German does not use this root in this sense, but Middle Low German had the same "stemmen" as Middle Dutch. Old Norse "stemma" carries the same messages of "to stem, dam, stop". Proto-Germanic probably had "*ST È M-". There seems to be no solid reason to suppose that the vowel in Proto-Germanic was " A ".

 

Note:
  • Hebrew spells this root also with the letter Sin : "ש", that in modern language, but certainly as well already in the time of the Patriarchs, when alphabetic writing began, had the same sound as the Samekh : "ס"

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic The root "S T M" expresses various concepts, shown in his entry and in E 0869 (Hebrew 0865). This root in the sense of the actual entry is present in Aramaic "ס ת ם, setam he stopped up, closed" and has a cognate in Syriac "ס ט ם , setham = he stopped, restrained, closed". It also has a cognate in Arabic "sathama = he closed" and Akkadian "shutummu = storehouse" may be related. This root may well have been present in Proto-Semitic as "*ס ת ם , S T M".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European We have no information outside Germanic that would allow a hypothesis for Indo-European for the specific meaning of English "to stem". One must note that "stem" in English has various quite different meanings. And in other languages the combination "ST M", with about any vowel expresses again other concepts.

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 28/11/2012 at 11.55.37