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E 0779 SCREEN
The word " screen " is,
via French and Middle Dutch , of
Germanic origin .
H 0917 ר מ
ש
Concept of root : guard and protect
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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ר מ ש
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shamar
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to
protect, guard
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Related English words
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screen,
from Dutch
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Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
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Languages
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Words
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Pronunciation
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English meanings
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Similarity in roots
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Hebrew
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ר מ ש
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shamar
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to protect, guard
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sh . m . r
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English
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screen
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screen
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sc r . n
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German
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Schirm
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shirm
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screen
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sh . r m
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Middle Dutch
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schermen
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sghèrmen
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to protect
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sch . r m
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Dutch
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scherm;
beschermen
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scherm;
beschermen
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screen;
to protect
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sch . r m
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Proto-Semitic *SHAMAR --- *SKÈRM- Proto-Germanic
The French say "à la guarde" when it is necessary to fight with sword or foil, be it a real fight or sportslike fencing. This "guard" and "protect" we find also in the two Dutch verbs "schermen" that today mean "to fence" and "beschermen " that stands for "to protect". There can be not much doubt about the identicity of the meanings of these Hebrew and Dutch words.
But the roots are not identical, as the R and M have exchanged place. That is what we suppose, a metathesis somewhere along the road. The R is easily subject to metathesis. This may regard the position where a single vowel is inserted, so as between English "burn" and German "brennen". And it occurs also between two consonants.
A further difference would be that between Hebrew "SH" and Dutch SCH, pronounced "SGH". But German "SCH" sounds "SH" and is identical to Hebrew.
In this case the metathesis may be an internal Hebrew development, because there is another root, "
ס
ר
ן , S . R . N", that in Biblical language deals with the subject of "to protect", as it gives us words for protecting armaments, such as "siren" and "serion" = armour". These words have a cognate in Aramaic sirean'à = armour". The fact that we have in this root an N instead of an M should not disturb us, as also in Germanic with English "screen" we find a root with an N : "SC R . N". But things are even better, if we know English scholars explain how "screen", via Old French "escren", has come exactly from Middle Dutch "scherm". And there we have again, within Indo-European itself, both events : a metathesis of the " r"around the position of the vowel and an N instead of an M.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. This root is found in Phoenician "ש מ ר , SH M R = watchman". Ugaritic uses the same root for the meaning "to guard". Akkadian "sham&#ru = to attend, wait upon". This root was probably present in Proto-Semitic "*ש מ ר , SH M R". Arabic "thamala = he protected " is a cognate, with two changes, from "SH" into "TH" and from "R" into "L". .
Note:
- English " screen " comes from older French " escren" , a word that had been loaned by the
French from Middle Dutch " scherm " , but with two adaptations. First they felt , as usual, the
need to place a vowel E in front of the impure S ( S immediately followed by another
consonant ) at the beginning of the word. Secondly they did not like the final M and changed it
into an N . Modern French now is " écran " .
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. As stated, English "screen" is a loanword, via older French, from Middle Dutch. Therefore this root seems to be present only in German and Dutch, with their predecessors, as Old High German "skerm", Middle High German "schirm, scherm", Middle Low German "scherm" and Middle Dutch "scerm, sceerm". On the basis of this information a Proto-Germanic "*SK È RM" may be hypothesized.
Note:
- Indo-European. Some words from other Indo-European branches have been proposed as cognates of the Germanic words of this entry. Latin "chorium = heavy leather". This presumably has been loaned from Greek "χοριον, khorion", but that word has quite a different meaning : "placenta, membrane", and also "sausage". These have a protecting function within the body, or for the contents of the sausage.
With a meaning of "skin" there is Old Indian " kŗtih", in which the " Ŗ " has the function of a vowel". Further Avestan "carĕman". This combination of words with their meanings is not sufficient to hypothesize a common origin with Germanic "SKÈRM".
The comparison remains between Semitic and Germanic.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 03/12/2012 at 15.41.41 |
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