Isac & Yaniv - Common etymology?

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DavidArgentina
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2014 9:10 pm

Isac & Yaniv - Common etymology?

Post by DavidArgentina »

Hi all,

I was wondering about the etymology of the names Isac & Yaniv.

I read that in ancient Hebrew, Isac means "he will speak, he will generate, he will prosper" and Yaniv means "he will laugh." These seems similar to me. Is there a common etymology?

Could a primarily Hebrew-speaking person translate their name in Hebrew to be alternately Isac and Yaniv or are they completely different? Are there other names like that?

I'm just starting to learn Hebrew but I think these kinds of questions are so interesting.

Thanks so much!
kwrandolph
Posts: 1531
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:51 am

Re: Isac & Yaniv - Common etymology?

Post by kwrandolph »

Dear David Argentina:

One of the rules of this forum is that you sign your posts with your first and last names. I hope I have your name correct above.
DavidArgentina wrote:Hi all,

I was wondering about the etymology of the names Isac & Yaniv.
Could you give those names in Hebrew—I’m guessing on the first name, and can’t find the second, so I can’t answer your question.

However a general statement on etymology is that words need not only to have similar meanings to share a similar etymology, but must also have similar forms. If they have similar meanings but very different forms, as in your example above, then they are synonyms that don’t share a common etymology.
DavidArgentina wrote:I read that in ancient Hebrew, Isac means "he will speak, he will generate, he will prosper" and Yaniv means "he will laugh." These seems similar to me. Is there a common etymology?
These don’t sound similar to me at all. Further, I find no words in Biblical Hebrew that have those forms and meanings.
DavidArgentina wrote:Could a primarily Hebrew-speaking person translate their name in Hebrew to be alternately Isac and Yaniv or are they completely different?
What we find is that people often had more than one name by which they were called. Apparently in the ancient world, it was common for a king to have a given name, and a royal name that was different (a practice that makes ancient Egyptian history a mess). An example in the Bible is Esau, who was often called “Red” (Edom) on account of his red hair, so much so that his descendants were called Edomites.
DavidArgentina wrote:Are there other names like that?
You mean where people were called by different names? Yes.
DavidArgentina wrote:I'm just starting to learn Hebrew but I think these kinds of questions are so interesting.
Yes they are interesting, especially for beginning students. But it is often a mistake, so common that it has a name, the “etymological error”.

In Biblical Hebrew many words show signs of a common etymology, so many in fact that older dictionaries often listed words according to their supposed etymologies. The older lexicographers believed that the verbs were the roots, and listed nouns and other words according to their supposed roots. But not all words have verbal roots attested in the Bible, so many “roots” were made up, and often homonyms were listed under roots to which they don’t belong.

In my practice, a word must share not only its form, but also its meaning must be recognizably similar, before I even question whether or not they may have an etymological relationship.

Not all “Hebrew” words in the Bible are Hebrew, some are loan words from other languages. Some of those loan words are obvious, but others may look like native Hebrew words, therefore not recognizable as loan words. Such words don’t have Hebrew etymologies. Some of them may be homonyms with Hebrew words that have Hebrew etymologies. Therefore, one needs to be very careful when looking for etymologies of Biblical Hebrew words.
DavidArgentina wrote:Thanks so much!
Karl W. Randolph.
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