other
boats
אניה · ספינה · רפסודה · דוברה · עברה · דוגית
Bottom line
Oniah is the general Biblical word, ship; sefinah is the ordinary Mishnaic word for the same thing, ship or boat, and appears only once in Tanach. Rafsodah and dovrah are both a raft of tied beams; avarah a ferry; dugit a small fishing skiff; tzi a large ship, usually a warship. In a pasuk sefinah is a rarity, in a Mishnah the default word.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| אניה | oniah | ship | the general Biblical term, qualified for type (oni Tarshish, oni shayit) |
| ספינה | sefinah | ship, boat | once in Tanach; the standard Mishnaic word (possibly a lesser, coastal vessel, per Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim) |
| רפסודה | rafsodah | raft | tied beams, same as dovrah (Rashi, Radak) |
| דוגית | dugit | fishing skiff | the fisherman's small boat, from dag (Rashi to Bava Basra 73a) |
| צי | tzi | large ship, warship | especially large (Rashi); a battleship (Malbim) |
Where the authorities disagree
What oniyos eiveh means (Iyov 9:26). Rashi: eivah is the name of a strong river, seemingly implying boats for waters with strong currents. Ibn Ezra: a place name, seemingly implying boats sturdy enough to make the journey to Eiveh; alternatively, that eivah is a fruit or other commodity, so these are the boats used to carry it. Ralbag: especially fast boats. Dr. Raphael Patai and Dr. Chaim Tawil argue instead that eiveh is related to the Akkadian abu/apu, reeds, so that these are boats made of reeds, typically insulated with tar and pitch. Nothing settles it; render by what the argument needs, footnote the rest.
Where sefinah comes from. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim gives four derivations pulling in different directions: from saf, a liquid receptacle it resembles in shape (Shemos 12:22; Shmuel II 17:28); from safah, "edge," since when not in use it is housed at a port along the sea's edge; from its being less seaworthy than an oniah, so that it must be kept closer to shore and is unsuitable for deep-sea work; or from tzafun/safun, "hidden" or "embedded," since goods were packed away and carried on it (Devarim 33:19 with Abarbanel there). Only the third has a translation consequence, and Pappenheim himself only suggests it; the Bottom line keeps sefinah and oniah equivalent. Rabbi Klein adds that he seems to recall commentators explaining safun of the hull being immersed, and so hidden, in the sea while only the upper part shows, but reports that he could not locate the source.
Whether a dugit is sold with the ship it is tied to. Sumchos (Tosefta Bava Basra 4:1): yes, since it was attached to the sefinah and typically towed by the mother ship out at sea. Others seem to disagree, holding that the sale of the larger ship cannot be assumed to include the smaller boat (Yerushalmi Bava Basra 5:1; Tosefta Succah 3:2), and those sources call the small boat iskupah instead. Iskupah, the column notes, is from the Greek skaphe, literally a bowl, hence a bowl-shaped boat, and is the ancestor of the Germanic scif, from which the English "ship," "skiff" and "skipper" come.
Distinctions
oniah (אניה)
First in Yaakov's berachah to Zevulun, who will settle the coast and live from sea trade (Bereishis 49:13). Dr. Raphael Patai calls it the most basic, general term for boats in Biblical Hebrew, and it takes modifiers for type: oni Tarshish or oniyos Tarshish, ships able to travel as far as Tarshish, possibly Tarsus or Tunis (Melachim I 10:22, 22:49; Yeshayahu 2:16; Tehillim 48:8); oniyos socher, merchant ships equipped for long journeys (Mishlei 31:14); oni shayit (Yeshayahu 33:21), either rowboats, since shotim are sticks or paddle-rods (Radak), or a general term for boats that "swim," shat, on the surface (Rashi). Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces it to the biliteral א-נ, "where," since a ship goes where the water pushes it, so a watcher asks where it is bound; Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 16:8) says only that the oniah brings a person to a "where."
sefinah (ספינה)
Once in Tanach, of Yonah's ship (Yonah 1:5), and thereafter the ordinary word, across the Mishnah (Berachos 4:1, Shabbos 9:2, Bava Basra 5:1, Keilim 15:1, Ohalos 8:1, and many more). It takes modifiers as oniah does: sefinah Alexandris, the deep-sea ships out of Alexandria (Rambam to Keilim 15:1); sefinas haYarden, the ferry across the Yarden (Shabbos 83b); sefinos shel piraton, pirate ships (Shemos Rabbah 17:5). Why Yonah's vessel is called both words in one perek is an open question: Rabbi Mordechai Koster put it to Rabbi Klein, who reports that he failed to find a good answer.
rafsodah (רפסודה) and dovrah (דוברה)
Rashi and Radak: both are seagoing rafts, beams lashed together (dovros, Melachim I 5:23; rafsodos, Divrei HaYamim II 2:15). Even-Shoshan's dictionary cites some scholars tying rafsodah to the Akkadian rakasu, tying or knotting. In later Hebrew rafsodah is a footstool or ottoman (Midrash Tanchuma, Bereishis 5), and in modern Hebrew it has been redefined as the wooden pallet used for transporting goods. Rabbi Klein wonders aloud, without deciding, whether the English "rhapsody" is related, its etymon being the ancient Greek rhapsoidein, to weave or sew songs, which is not far from beams tied together; the English "raft," he adds, does not seem to be related, being apparently from the Old Danish rafft, a stick or beam.
the smaller and Aramaic craft
Avarah, the ferry (Shmuel II 19:19), from l'avor, appears in the Gemara as ma'abara or mavra (Shabbos 32a, Bava Kama 116a). Siros dugah are fishing boats (Rashi and Radak to Amos 4:2), the Mishnaic equivalent being dugit (Bava Basra 73a); Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber derives dugit from dag, fish, and identifies it with the fisherman's boat the Greeks called a lembus. Tzi and tzim are the large ships (Rashi to Bamidbar 24:24, Yeshayahu 23:13, and Sanhedrin 106a), which Malbim adds are typically warships, built big and strong. In Aramaic the Targumim render oniah sometimes ilfa (Yonah 1:3; Tehillim 48:8, 104:26) and sometimes sefinah/sefinta (Bereishis 49:13; Devarim 28:68; Melachim I 9:26), and Rashi glosses ilfa as sefinah in one place (Avodah Zarah 10b) and as oniah in another (Eruvin 53b); Ilfa is also the name of a sage (Kesuvos 69b). Arva, a small boat or yacht in Aramaic, is spelled sometimes with an ayin and sometimes with an aleph, which Rabbi Yaakov ben Yehudah Chazzan of London (Eitz Chaim) gives as an example of Rashi's remark (to Shabbos 103b) that people sometimes write the one letter for the other, the two sounds being close. Borni is a further Talmudic word for a boat (Rosh HaShanah 23a; Bava Metzia 80b), and Rashi (to Shabbos 19b, 156b) writes in the name of the Geonim that Aramaic zuzi means boat, possibly related to la'zuz, to move.
Rendering guidance
- Default: אניה "ship," ספינה "ship" in a Mishnah and "boat" where a smaller vessel is meant. Do not manufacture a size difference the sources do not fix.
- Trap: English "boat" covers oniah, sefinah, dugit, and arva at once. Where a sugya turns on two together, as in whether the dugit goes with the sale of the sefinah, keep "ship" for the large and "skiff" for the small.
- צי is "warship" only where Malbim is being followed; otherwise "great ship."
- Aramaic in a Gemara: אילפא is "ship," ערבא "small boat"; do not import the Hebrew distinctions into them.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Vayechi: Boats, Ships and Nautical Rhapsody," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 18 Teves 5781 (2021-01-02): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8991-vayechi-boats-ships-and-nautical-rhapsody.md. Primary loci: Bereishis 49:13; Yonah 1:5, 1:3; Iyov 9:26 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Ralbag; Melachim I 5:23, 9:26, 10:22, 22:49; Divrei HaYamim II 2:15; Amos 4:2 with Rashi and Radak; Shmuel II 17:28, 19:19; Mishlei 31:14; Tehillim 48:8, 104:26; Yeshayahu 2:16, 23:13, 33:21; Devarim 28:68, 33:19 with Abarbanel; Bamidbar 24:24; Shemos 12:22; Bava Basra 73a; Sanhedrin 106a; Kesuvos 69b; Rosh HaShanah 23a; Bava Metzia 80b; Shabbos 19b, 32a, 103b, 156b; Bava Kama 116a; Tosefta Bava Basra 4:1 and Succah 3:2; Yerushalmi Bava Basra 5:1; Rambam to Keilim 15:1; Eitz Chaim; Rav Hirsch to Bereishis 16:8. The Mishnah loci for sefinah given here are a sample of the article's much longer list. Two corrections to the article's citations: it prints the Zevulun berachah as Devarim 49:13 (read Bereishis 49:13), and it places rafsodos at Divrei HaYamim II 3:15, whereas the word stands at Divrei HaYamim II 2:15 in the Hebrew numbering (2:16 in the English), 3:15 being the pillars of the Beis HaMikdash. The words: block still carries the article's 3:15 and wants correcting at a later pass.