The Etymology of Yazidi

[Isaac Fried]

Possibly, originally from the Hebrew יה-עז-היא-עד-היא YA-AZ-HI-AD-HI.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Yigal Levin]

Isaac,

While I am greatly saddened by what is happening to the Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq and in Syria, I fail to see the relevance of your comment to biblical Hebrew.

Yigal Levin

[Isaac Fried]

I find it exciting that an intimation survived up to this day, in a remote corner of the Middle East, to remind us of the ancient worship of the biblical יה-עז-עד YAH-AZ-AD.
The epithets עז AZ (often in the extended form E$ or I$) and עד AD comes to us from the depth of time. In Gen. 17:1 we read
אני אל שדי
where the ending AY of $AD-AY is, methinks, an archaic plural, as in ADON-AY. In Deut. 32:17 we read
יזבחו לשדים לא אלוה
where שד $ED is here a זד ZED.

A double עז AZ is found in עזאזל עז-עז-אל AZAZEL = AZ-AZ-EL of Lev. 16:8. Also, in names, from the Greek Zeus to our own דוד David.

Isaac Fried, Boston University