E 0992         WEORPAN

The Old English verb " weorpan " is of Germanic origin .

H 1064            ה ר י                    

Concept of root : to throw

 Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ה ר י

yarà

to throw

Related English words

Old English weorpan

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ה ר י

yarà

to throw

y . r . >

*w . r .

Old English

weorpan

to throw

w . r p

German

werfen

wèrfen

to throw

w . r f

Dutch

werpen

wèrpen

to throw

w . r p

 

 

Proto-Semitic *YARÀ < *WARÀ --- *WÈRP- Proto-Germanic

 

 

The difference, with identical meanings, between Old English ( with its sisters ) and Hebrew is that a P (or F ) has been added as a third consonant. This is probably due to the problem mentioned in more entries, that both groups, Germanic and Hebrew had a considerable number of different messages served by roots " W + R ". Diversification sooner or later is felt necessary in such a situation, and consonants usually are added at the end or also at the beginning of the existing root.

 

If this addition takes place before the split or drifting apart between Hebrew and Germanic , as seen in some entries, both will have the same or comparable third consonants. If the additions occur later, they will normally be different .

 

There are some interesting explanations for the etymology of "weorpan" etcetera. One links them to English " to warp" and says that the original meaning lies in a root meaning " to curve ", because when throwing the human arm makes a curve. One should just imagine that an ancient hunter upon intending "to throw" a stone-pointed javelin thought and said : " I am going to curve my arm, I am curving " ! Yet this seems to be a very common opinion. Luckily the similarity with Hebrew helps us out of this etymological predicament.

 

Another theory sees an original root meaning " to plait". In old times housewalls were (also) made of plaited material from plants. Then clay or mud was thrown against such fabrics . Once more "to warp" is called in, now to mean "to shrink, curve dry". Thus the root of " to warp" acquired the new message of " to throw", in the process for some reason ( diversification ?) changing the used vowel A into E. In Middle English "werpen" has both meanings, " to warp" and "to throw" . One might consider that throwing was a daily activity for early man. He certainly needed and had very soon one or even more specific words to express this action, long before someone began to invent a mud-covered plaited wall.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. In the various verbal forms of this verb "yara" one often sees appear the vowel I, for example " I threw "
    is " י ר י ת י , yariti ". For that reason the root of this verb is sometimes considered to be " Y . R . Y ". In reality an " I " in this position is found in many verbs and in our view is not part of the root but is either an infix or part of the suffix.

     

    This finds support in other verbal forms that have a vowel "O" directly after the R, such as the modern infinite
    form " ל י ר ו ת , lirot = to throw ". But others have neither an " I " nor an " O " after the R , as in : " י ו ר ה , yoré = throwing " and " ת י ר ה , tiré = you will throw ".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic is seen with a word " *wur-", that would mean a root " *W . R ." , as we supposed at the origin of our Hebrew word of this entry. As to the use of the vowel "U" in Proto-Semitic we must note that in the Germanic languages German and Dutch we find its kin "O" in verbal forms such as "geworfen" and "geworpen". The evidence is as follows: Ugaritic has a root "Y R Y" for "to throw, shoot", OS Arabic has " ו ר ו , W R W". Ethiopian "warawa" and Arabic "warra" all for " to shoot". Proto-Semitic probably had indeed "* ו ר , W R + accentuated vowel". It remains uncertain if also an extended root "W R W" was used in Proto-Semitic, but seen the information just recalled this may well have been the case.

 

Note:
  • Germanic and Hebrew. If the ancient Semitic root has been "*W R W" (as found in Ethiopian), this becomes more similar to Germanic "W R F" or W R P", with both having a final labial. We know that especially a final Waw or W may easily shift into F. F and P are related and often interchange according to the position in which the consonant has to be pronounced. But this remains uncertain.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. The information from older languages is the following. Gothic "wairpan", Old Saxon and Old North Franconian "werpan", Old Frisian "werpa", Old English "weorpan", Old Norse "verpa" and as an exception Old High German "werfan" with the "P" changed into "F". Proto-Germanic probably had "*W È RP-". In other forms vowels like " Ŏ" and "Ī" probably were used".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. Indications for cognates in other branches of Indo-European are not available. It has been proposed, following the earlier mentioned theory of "curving ( the arm ) = to throw", to link Old English "werpan" to "worm" because that animal makes such a lot of curves. The comparison remains between Semitic and Germanic.

 

 

 

 
"...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: 17/12/2012 at 17.52.19