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E 0250 DEN
The word " den " is of
Germanic origin .
H 0972 ת ו
נ
ת
Concept of root : lair
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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ת ו נ ת, ה נ ת
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tanà , tannot
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lair,
lairs
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Related English words
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den
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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 נ ת ;
ת ו נ ת
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tannà,
tannot
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den, lair ;
lairs
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t . n .
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Italian
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tana
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tana
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lair
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t . n .
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French
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tanière
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tanièr
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lair
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t . n .
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English
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den
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den, lair
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d . n
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Middle Dutch
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dan
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dan
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den, lair
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d . n
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Old High German
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tan
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tan
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refuge
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t . n
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Hebrew TANNÀ --- *TĂN Proto-Germanic
We have also mentioned the Hebrew plural "tannot" because that is the word found in the Bible to indicate "lairs" in the desert. There is some difference in view if the lairs in question would be of jackals or dragons or perhaps just quiet lairs in the desert. The text in Malachi 1, 3 just says "desert lairs". It refers to the territory of Esau, where he lived and hunted.
The Italian word "tana" has a probable cousin in French "tanière" that has the same meaning and as we think the same root with a common French suffix "-ière". Old French had "taisnière" or "tesnière" and some people think these were contractions of an inexisting word "*taissoniére", that would be the lair of a badger. Others say the S has been introduced out of confusion with "taisson", so that the origin would be in an unknown Latin word "*subtanaria" for "subterranean". Badgers dig indeed holes, but far from all lairs are underground.
Possible but decidedly not certain is that both Italian "tana" and French "tanière" are of Germanic origin. There we find English "den" with identical meaning and Old High German "tan" for "refuge" more in general.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. We lack information from other Semitic languages for a hypothesis different from Hebrew.
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. As more often, High German and its identical predecessor have an initial "T" , whereas the other West Germanic languages begin with a "D". These are English and Old English (den), Frisian, Dutch(den) and Middle Dutch(dan) and Middle Low German. The Nordic tongues offer no information and a hypothesis for Proto-Germanic is not too easy to make in this balanced situation. The fact that we see in Neo-Latin languages an initial T is no decisive help as Italian "tana" according to some comes from Germanic, while the origin of the French word "tanière" is rather uncertain. Latin does not offer a predecessor. So there remains the similarity with Hebrew, that may lead us to presume that the initial "T" was present in Proto-Germanic, with the "D" being a later development in a part of several of the languages. Thus we prefer to suppose a Proto-Germanic "*T Ă N-". But "*D Ă N-" and "D È N-" remain possible.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. We have no information about possible cognates in other Indo-European languages and the comparison stays between Semitic and Germanic.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 10/12/2012 at 17.58.01 |
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