GD 1090          SACHTEN

H 0899            ך כ ש

Concept of root : calming down

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ך כ ש

shakhakh

to calm down

Related English words

Soft

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ך כ ש

shakhakh

to calm down

sh . kh . kh < *sh . kh

Middle Dutch

sachten

sakhten

to calm down

s . kh (t)

 

 

Proto-Semitic *SHAKH --- *SACH-TEN Middle Dutch

 

 

The meaning of the two words is identical, "to calm down". But this or a similar Middle Dutch root , in the word "sachte", serves also many other ideas, many of which litterally or figuratively related to English "soft".

 

Note:
  • English, German and Dutch. In modern language the Dutch adjective "zacht" is best known in the meaning of "soft", to which it is related. Also Middle Dutch had both "sachte" and "socht" as well as "saefte". German instead has a nasalized form in "sanft", that is not the original version as some think. Nordic is "sakt".

 

Note:
  • Hebrew expresses the concept of calm also in two not completely unsimilar words. In the Bible we find the composite verb " ה ס כ י ת , hiskit = to remain calm" and " ש ק ת , sheqet = calm ". But "softness" is communicated with quite different roots.

     

    The root "sh kh kh" in the Bible also is used for "to reduce" and "to bend down". These are not served by the Dutch root.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew and Dutch. The shared ground is clear, but not very wide, and perhaps each language had similar roots for the non-shared meanings.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. We have little evidence for a hypothesis. A shortened version "S K" is seen in Arabic "sakka = he humbled himself", with its typically different cultural approach. So Proto-Semitic may well have used the shorter two consonant version of the root as seen in Hebrew : ש ך , SH K ".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. We have insufficient information from other Germanic languages regarding this root with this particular meaning. A hypothesis for Proto-Germanic with the specific meaning of this entry is difficult to make.

 

 

 

 
"...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: Saturday 2 February 2013 at 9.45.27