GD 1096          SCHOFT

H 0945                 ב ב ו ש                

Concept of root : unreliable person

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ב ב ו ש

showev, showav

unreliable, unfaithful person

Related English words

none

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ב ב ו ש

showev, showav

unreliable, unfaithful person

sh (o) w . v

German

Schuft

shuft

scamp

sh (u) f t

Dutch

schoft ;

schavuit

sghoft ;

sghav(ui)t

scamp

sch (o) f t

 

 

Hebrew "SHOWEV < Proto-Semitic *SHOB/V --- *SKŌFT- < *SKŌW- Proto-Germanic

 

 

This word is in all probability narrowly related to the root of the entry GD 1098 (Hebrew 0944), of which it should be a lengthened form, created by doubling the second consonant. . He who goes off, goes about, returns, goes again, is not always dependable and may quite be unfaithful . In modern language, in a society that has changed much, a "showav" is a rebel. It is not clear if the meaning "to be rebellious" can be ascribed to the root "SH W B, shov" in Biblical Habrew.

 

The German and Dutch words have the same origin as the Hebrew one. Armed "knights" , in English "robber knights" (the word "robber" is related to "roving"), wandering about and often avoiding the daylight, received the ugly title of "schuft" and "schoft", based on their wandering habits. Later also such people that had not descended from noble circles, but practised the same activity, became the same "title". We have not yet mentioned that the German word is believed to have been loaned from Dutch, also because we are not so certain of that.

 

English "scamp" meant originally "highway robber" and that is not too far off the development in Dutch towards "schoft". Naturally this today can be translated also as "scoundrel " or "rascal".

 

The difference between Hebrew and Germanic lies in the final T, that is so much liked also as a simple emphasis of pronunciation in the latter.

 

Note:
  • Dutch and Hebrew. We would like to look further into the Dutch couple of words "schoft" and "schavuit". These two words have the same meaning and their predecessors in Middle Dutch were not far off. Here a "schavuut" was also a "schovuut (schofuut, scuvuut, scavuut )" and he was a person that went around begging or robbing. But the same word also was used for a "screech-owl ". Naturally people considered the word "schavuit" = beggar, scamp" to have been derived from the identical one for "screech owl". We would say it has easier been the other way around.

     

    But if we look at the Hebrew three-consonant root " SHIN ש – WAW ו – BETH ב", we can see this as "SH (O) V "or as " SH W V ". This last version needs to have vowels inserted, and in the standard presentation these would easily be, for a participle or noun, an A and an U. That would give us "SHAWUV". With a final T, how near this would have comes to "scavuut" !

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic . We lack evidence from other Semitic languages for a specific hypothesis regarding the meaning of this entry. But the original root without doubled " Beth" , seen in Entry GD 1098 (Hebrew 0944), was there in Proto-Semitic : "*ש ו ב , SH W B" .

     

    Proto-Semitic in that root certainly had the original pronunciation of the final consonant " B " as such, but a change into " V " may have begun already in the old language.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic and Indo-European . Like Proto-Semitic, also here we look into the Notes in entry GD 1098 (Hebrew 0944):

     

    "Once more we find Dutch rather isolated in its conservation of old Root/Meaning combinations. It is hard to find cousins for "schooien". We see Gothic "skewjan" for "to wander about" and Old Norse " skǽva " for "to go away". The evidence remains small. A Proto-Germanic "*SK Ō W- may have existed." In the word "schoft" we find an added final " T " that has shaped the substantive.

     

  • Indo-European. " Evidence for cognates in other branches of Indo-European seems to lack. As so often the comparison remains between Semitic and Germanic. Some see possible cognates in Lithuanian "šuolieis = to gallop", Avestan " sačaitē = may it pass" and Old Slavic "skočiti = to jump", with meanings that might be far related, but too far to justify conclusions. Remains Old Irish "scochim = I go away", that indeed may be a cognate. Indo European may have had a form "*SH Ŏ Y-" but this is too uncertain to use it here."

 

 

 

 
"...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: 07/02/2013 at 13.19.32