Lexigraphic note: neshama
Sep. 16th, 2009 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidAs I drifted off to sleep last night, I started thinking about the Hebrew word neshama (soul), wondering what it's related to. In my sleep-fogged state, all I could come up with was a weak nun at the beginning and hey at the end, re-nouning off the two-letter root shem (name), tying together one's self rather neatly, I thought.
This morning I pulled out the dictionary and found that neshem is respiration, which works well with the wording in Genesis 2:7, about the Deity forming a person of clay, then breathing life in. I still wonder whether neshem is related to shem, though; I'd like it to be.
This morning I pulled out the dictionary and found that neshem is respiration, which works well with the wording in Genesis 2:7, about the Deity forming a person of clay, then breathing life in. I still wonder whether neshem is related to shem, though; I'd like it to be.
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Date: 2009-09-16 11:51 pm (UTC)Interestingly, it appears that משם means inhaling, and נשף means exhaling. Which in turn causes me to wonder if there's an indirect relationship between nashaf and shofar. (Mmm, linguistics.)
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Date: 2009-09-17 02:15 pm (UTC)Mem-nun switches feel pretty close. Exhaling seems to be very much the ousider, here (and I definitely like your thought of linking it to shofar; more drash....).
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Date: 2009-09-17 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-17 02:56 pm (UTC)(Or just that nun-shin-mem is a root? Which you typed just fine the first time.)
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Date: 2009-09-17 06:38 pm (UTC)"My Maskilon tells me נשם is a root. Sorry. (Which doesn't mean it isn't related, just that it's not a direct relationship.)
Interestingly, it appears that נשם* means inhaling, and נשף means exhaling. Which in turn causes me to wonder if there's an indirect relationship between nashaf and shofar. (Mmm, linguistics.)"
* typo was here
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Date: 2009-09-17 08:00 pm (UTC)Interesting how neshem and neshef are similar, except how the lips are more inward for m and outward for f, mimicking the actions.