Philologos
By Philologos
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News A Long Linguistic Chase
Sometimes a seemingly trivial etymological question can lead to a long linguistic chase. Such a query was recently sent to me by Raymond Henkin, who asked: “In Uriel Weinreich’s Yiddish dictionary, the Yiddish word shmergl is translated as ‘emery.’ A search shows the origins of ‘emery’ to be either Greek or Latin. How say you?”…
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News Slavs, Slovaks, et al.
The Slovenes of Slovenia, the northwest corner of the former Yugoslavia, have, according to an April 17 New York Times article, a problem — which is why they’re about to change their flag. People confuse them with the Slovaks of Slovakia, the eastern half of the former Czechoslovakia, who have a similar flag. And if…
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News The Adorable Moses Cow
Yosi Gordon writes from St. Paul, Minn.: That most adorable of insects, the ladybird or ladybug, is in Hebrew parat Moshe rabbenu, ‘Moses’ cow.’ A myth or legend must be lurking behind that name, but I have been unable to find it. Can you help? Indeed I can. It is not only Mr. Gordon who…
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News Flamenco’s Deep Roots
In the April issue of the magazine Moment there is a short item about the possible Jewish roots of flamenco or Spanish gypsy music. “Although not everybody finds Jewish overtones in the rhythmic dancing, the wailing style of songs, and the lush, intricate guitar playing,” writes Moment contributor Debra Bruno, “many believe that flamenco is…
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News The Three ‘R’s
An e-mailer identified only as “Owen” writes: “I have a question that no one has been able to answer for me – even my rabbi. It is, why is the Israeli resh or ‘r’ pronounced in the uvula or back of the throat? The French and German ‘r’ is pronounced there too, but it is…
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News Algebra for Rebbes
Algebra, like other branches of mathematics, was not something our ancient rabbis took an interest in. It was the Greeks and Arabs who developed it and the Arabs who gave us our name for it, which derives from the Arabic noun jabr. The root meaning of jabr is, curiously, the repair of a broken bone,…
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News Ghostly
Ira Epstein writes: “In several recent news reports in the English media, the Jerusalem street ‘Emek Refa’im’ was referred to as the ‘Vale of Ghosts’ or ‘Valley of Ghosts.’ While I know that the Hebrew word refa’im in the Bible can be translated as ‘ghosts,’ is there any special significance to the association of ghosts…
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News Blood Lines
‘No one,” recently wrote political commentator Yosi Verter in the Hebrew newspaper Ha’aretz, in an article on the attitude of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s fellow Likud politicians to the financial scandals threatening him, “wants to appear to be dancing on the blood.” By “dancing on the blood” — roked al ha-dam — Verter meant taking…
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