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Article
#4
Animal Names From Eden
"..And Adam called
out names to for all the beasts, for the birds of the sky and all
the living things of the field..." Genesis 2:20
The
bible places a profound emphasis on the naming of every person,
place or thing. What's in a name? Everything, apparently. Semites
are named for the son of Noah named SHeM (name). The name is the
essence of the thing, its SHAY-Ma or reputation. Commentaries
have much to say about each unknown person in a list of begats
and begots or each unknown, one camel town on the journey to
somewhere else. Reputation - or name - is something to live for
or die for to a Semite. No less than the supreme deity is
referred to by the Jews as HaShem, The Name. The name of an
animal is therefore far more than an echoic device for
identification. If the Chinese call a cat something like a meow
(it sounds much like it) and if we've named a bird a Chickadee
(after its call) --these are sure signs that the creature was not
named at Eden by our first human ancestors.
None of the
animals are so specialized that a sub-species is named in the
bible. All primordial animal names are generic: Bird or Raven,
and even the "children of the raven" (Psalms ) --but
never Crow, Blackbird or Grackle. Gen 2:19-20 Seals in Middle
East? SEECATCH. Otherwise, general terms like /TSAKHAN so the
Algonquin Indians could name their stinker (the skunk).
"Who
Named the Animals?" Where did animal names come from?
According to the bow-wow theory, all words are echoic, some
grunting caveman's attempt to capture the essence of a thing by
its sound. Among the many thousands of animal names, however,
only a few creatures like the chickadee have an echoic name. Even
in Chinese, where the cat word sounds like "meow meow,"
echoic names are the exception. A larger set of animal names are
clearly descriptive, like the grasshopper or hippopotamus (Greek
for river horse). Most of the older, more generic animal names
have unknown origins, suggesting that the bow-wow theory is for
the dogs. Now the world's oldest etymological text is the last
place that an academic would look, but Genesis 2:20 relates that
"Adam called out names for all the beasts, for the birds of
the sky and all the living things of the field..." Let us
see if Biblical Hebrew offers any insights into animal names of
unknown origin and meaning.
The carrion-eating BUZZARD is
traced only as far back as Old French busart, a word without
apparent cognate or meaning. In Hebrew, BuZ means a hawk and
BeeZa spoils (of war). BoZeZ would mean the plunderer or looter,
while a BuZiaR is a falconer. Unlike the EAGLE (from oKHeL, to
eat or destroy), the BUZZARD is merely a scavenger who emBeZZles
WaSte or BooTy. (These BZ, BT and W-ST words are related to our
Bet-Zayin family of words of plunder).
The Kiowa plains
Indians named this same bird a bosen for good reason. If you
think the GIRAFFE is a strange animal, check out its wierd
(given) etymology. French girafe and Italian giraffa is said to
be a corruption of Arabic zirafah, although the term is
meaningless is Arabic too, and a G from a Z corruption is
unnatural.. Using Emetology instead of etymology, one could
suppose that zirafah is a common jumble (called metathesis in
linguistics and related to the neurological disorder called
dyslexia) of Hebrew [T]ZaVaR (neck). While Adam or any ancient
human would do well to call the GIRAFFE a "neck"
creature, the Hebrew term stresses the throat or front of the
neck rather than the GIRAFFE's prominent back or scruff of the
neck. The Hebrew for this part of the anatomy is OReF, more
correctly pronounced by Sephardim as KHoReF or GHoReF. Now we've
got the perfect sound and sense for GIRAFFE, since GHoReF means
the scruff of the neck. Like SCARF, SCRUFF is a neck word whose
initial S is non-historic.
Any word with more than 3 root
letters in Hebrew or any language is carrying extra baggage
around the root or roots. These CRF neck words come from Biblical
Hebrew KHoReF (neck) just like the CRAVat (necktie). A related
Gimel-Resh term, GaRoN (throat, neck) gives us other long-necked
animals, like the CRANE, EGRET and HERON, along with neckwear
like the GORGEOUS GORGET, the throaty GROAN of a CROONer and the
GARGLING of a GOURMAND GARGOYLE.
Returning to animals and
addressing the interchangeable C/G/H/K sounds above, both the
Hebrew Ayin and the Gimel are gutturals that can harden to make
the hard C of Latin corvus (raven) and French corbeau (raven) or
soften to make the soft H of Anglo-Saxon hraefn (raven). Do these
disparate Indo-European cousins meet when linked to a common
Semitic ancestor? The Hebrew raven is an OReV or KHoReBH
(Ayin-Resh-Bet). Etymologists don't have to dig far to get true
word origins, but they refuse to consider Hebrew. The prolific
digger among American rodents (and net surfers) is the GOPHER.
The given guess in our dictionaries is an attribution to French
gaufre (a honeycomb or waffle). Those who dig for a true source
will consider Hebrew KHoPHeR (digger).
Now a HORSE is a
horse of course, and of course there is no known meaning for this
term. It doesn't relate to the German horse (Pferd, a knock-off
of the Hebrew PHeReD or mule) or the Latin equus (an echo of
Hebrew AQeV--heel or HooF). The mystery unraveled when I noticed
the similarity of HORSE and HEARSE (a funeral wagon named for an
elaborate plow). Unlike their Continental forebears, the British
plowed with horses instead of oxen. The horse was the plower, and
plower in Hebrew is HoReS[H]. The Americans continued the awkward
tradition of plowing with a horse, which needs blinders and
constant attention. The God-given plowing animal is clearly the
SHoRe (ox), witch innately knows how to plow a SHuRa [Ya]SHaR
(straight row or SuRe SeRies). True, the ox doesn't sound like
the ShoRe at all, but Aramaic constantly corrupted the Hebrew
Shin to a T, later giving us the Latin taurus (bull) and Spanish
toro. Reject the bull and discover a world of meaning-- with the
majesty and science of! Hebrew.
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