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The Etymology of Yazidi
Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:47 pm
by Isaac Fried
Possibly, originally from the Hebrew יה-עז-היא-עד-היא YA-AZ-HI-AD-HI.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
Re: The Etymology of Yazidi
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:23 am
by 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
Re: The Etymology of Yazidi
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:10 pm
by 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