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E 0903 TĒON
The Old English verb " tēon
" is of Germanic origin .
H 0958 ה ע ת
Concept of root : to travel and wander
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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ה ע ת
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ta‛à
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to
wander, travel (off)
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Related English words
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Old English tēon
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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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ה ע ת
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ta‛à
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to wander, travel(off)
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t . (‛) .
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Old English
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tēon
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to travel, wander
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t . (o)
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German
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ziehen
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tsìyen
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to pull, draw
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ts . (h) .
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Middle Dutch
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tien, tiehen
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tìyen,
tìhen
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to travel, wander (off) ;
pull, draw
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t . (‘) .;
t . (h) .
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Dutch
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tijgen
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t(ei)ghen
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to travel, wander
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t . gh
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Proto-Semitic *TE'Ī --- *TĪ- Proto-Germanic
"To trek" in English has acquired the meaning of "to make a slow and arduous journey". The word has been acquired from Dutch, via Afrikaans. The Afrikaanders used this word and the noun "trek" when they departed from the Kaap Colony further inward under the pressure of the English empire that had come to occupy their lands for gold and diamonds. Their journey was arduous and slow on account of the terrain and the fact that the whole population with elderly, women and children had to come along. Later on to this was added the, very succesful, clash with the Zulu. Thus this meaning was established in English when this word was loaned.
In reality "trekken" meant just "to travel, wander ", especially if the destination has not been defined with precision or even has to be established still. This is in line with the Hebrew root of this entry, but the roots are still very different. Therefore we now must look into the complications.
Two concepts and two roots risk to get mixed up here. One concept is that of "wandering, travelling" we just mentioned. The other one is "to draw, pull". Both concepts are expressed by Dutch "trekken", and it is not easy to state how they can be linked culturally and semantically. Of the two roots one is that of "trekken", "T R : K", the other that of Hebrew "ta‛à" . But this last one also has more direct Germanic cousins, as mentioned in our table. This second root serves as well both concepts we mentioned. A really confusing situation.
We will have to note that some confusion will remain, but that the common origin of the roots of our table stands out clearly .
Note:
- English has the verb "to tow" that refers to drawing or pulling by a chain or line. This is not immediately linked to the words of our entry. We see that Old English has a special verb as a predecessor of "to tow", that was "togian", quite different from the above-mentioned "tēon".
Note:
- Italian, Spanish and French have verbs "tirare" respectively "tirar" and "tirer", that
combine the same two concepts. The first one, "to travel", principally in certain expressions.
The second one in general use. To this a third one is added, that of "to throw, shoot". These words, though certainly not of Latin origin, are wrongly considered as derived from the Gothic verb "gatairan". First "tirare" is in use since the thirteenth century and Gothic had disappeared a long time ago. Second, "gatairan" is related to English "to tear" with the same meaning. This has nothing to do with the two ideas we are dealing with.
To us is interesting their combining of the same concepts, but their origin remains unclear.
Note:
- Middle Dutch has as it seems three independent identical verbs "tien". The messages are :
1. to draw, obtain, take, bring. The action can be figurative, like that of "to seduce".
2. to accuse, make responsable. Some see this as a version of 1.
3. to travel, wander (off). This is the verb and meaning considered in this entry.
Note:
- Hebrew and Dutch, once more the nearest to each other, both use a guttural as a second consonant after the T. In Hebrew this is the famous guttural Ayin,
"ע". In Dutch it has started out with in the middle of the word that neutral soundless consonant that the Jews call " Aleph . This is seen in the Middle Dutch verb " tien ( tijen ) ", that better had be spelled " tiën ( tijën ). Then the soundless guttural Aleph became a blown guttural, " H ", in " tihen " . Finally in Modern Dutch we find a full-fletched strong guttural " GH " in " tijgen " . This same verb has in the past tense " togen , toghen" . This last form is comparable to the Hebrew verbal form "
ת
ו
ע
ה , to‛é.
Note:
- Hebrew. In modern language the meaning of this root and verb has shifted some, to that of
"to err" and "to go astray".
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. This root is also used in Aramaic "ת ע א, te‛à
" and "ת ע י , te‛ì". This last form is presented in the comparison.
" he erred, wandered" and may well have been present in Proto-Semitic "*ת ע , T Ayin + accentuated vowel".
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. Besides the words mentioned in the table we see in older languages the following. Gothic "tiuhan", Old Saxon "tiohan", but Old North Franconian "tian, tion" . Old Frisian had "tīa(n)", Old High German in a common change showed "ziohan". Proto-Germanic probably had "*T Ī-".
Note:
- Indo-European. We have found no link to cognates in other Indo-European branches. Sometimes Latin "dicere = to say " and Greek "deiknumi = to show" are seen as cognates, but this seems semantically rather off the track. Consequently the comparison remains between Semitic and Germanic.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 07/12/2012 at 15.59.48 |
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