What’s in a Word?

society

crown

כתר · עטרה · נזר · זר · כליל · תג

Bottom line

Keter is the royal crown: all three appearances in Tanach are in the phrase keser malchus (Esther 1:11, 2:17, 6:8), and by the Malbim it sits around the head without rising above it, a coronet. Atarah is the general crown or wreath, of any wearer, and it encircles the head and rises above it. Nezer is the crown of consecration and separation, worn by the nazir and the Kohen Gadol, which is why the word marks a man off as set apart, not merely as honored. Some hold keter is the general word and the other two are particular kinds, but most read all three as distinct kinds; the trap is rendering nezer "crown" where it means the state of being set apart.

Distinctions

keter (כתר)

The Malbim: physically, a crown that encircles the head but does not rise above its height, a coronet; thematically, specifically the crown of royalty. Every occurrence in Tanach is in the construct keser malchus, the royal crown, and all three are in Megillas Esther (1:11, 2:17, 6:8).

atarah (עטרה)

The Malbim: a crown that goes all the way around the head and rises above it, and which need not belong to a king; atarah can name any sort of crown. Others hold that the mark of an atarah is that it is covered on top, while the others need not be. Because keter and atarah both name what surrounds the head, Tanach uses them for surrounding of any kind, much as English "circlet" carries the circle in it.

nezer (נזר)

Related to zer, the golden band that ran around several of the kelim of the Mishkan, a word that appears ten times in Shemos. But nezer carries more than ornament. It is the root of nazir: the Torah calls the man who has forsworn wine, cutting his hair, and tumah especially holy "because the nezer of his God is upon his head" (Bamidbar 6:7), which shows itself physically in his long hair and spiritually in his separating himself from the common folk. The same word explains the stringencies of the Kohen Gadol, "for the nezer, the anointing oil of his God, is upon him" (Vayikra 21:12), and he too is set apart from the nation in dress and in avodah. So nezer is the crown that marks off and separates, showing a man's standing above the rest. The Malbim adds that physically the nezer encircles only half the head, a tiara.

klil (כליל) and tag (תג)

Klil is the Aramaic for crown, and likewise means what encompasses something. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg derives kallah, a bride, from it: as a crown wholly surrounds the head, a kallah is wholly surrounded by her ornaments and jewelry. Tag or taga is a fifth word for crown, the one used in rabbinic idiom, and is the word for the tagin, the crownlets drawn atop certain letters in a sefer Torah. The article reports that linguists claim tag to be a Persian loanword later taken into Aramaic, and adds an aside of its own: given that a crown marks its wearer out as special, one can easily see how the Aramaic tag became the English "tag," which also serves as a marker of sorts.

Rendering guidance

  • Keser malchus in Esther: "the royal crown." Do not drop malchus; the Hebrew never uses keter without it.
  • Atarah: "crown," or "wreath" where the context is festive or honorific rather than royal (a chasan's atarah, a crown of praise).
  • Nezer on the nazir or the Kohen Gadol: "crown" works only if the separation is glossed. Better "the crown of consecration," or render the sense outright, "the consecration of his God is upon his head," and note the crown image.
  • Tagin: "crownlets" or "crowns" of the letters, never "tags."
  • Trap: English "crown" will take keter, atarah, and nezer together, and the three differ in shape and in who wears them. Where a passage lists two of them, or darshens the difference, use "royal crown," "crown," and "diadem" and say which authority you followed, since the Malbim's shapes are one reading among others.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "A Crown is a Crown," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 24 Tammuz 5776 (2016-07-30): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/a-crown-is-a-crown; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/6876-a-crown-is-a-crown.md. Primary loci: Esther 1:11, 2:17, 6:8; Bamidbar 6:7; Vayikra 21:12; the zer zahav of the Mishkan kelim in Shemos. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg writes in HaKesav VeHaKabbalah; the Malbim is cited by the article without a locus. The article's report that linguists take tag for a Persian loanword, and its own aside on the English word "tag," are reported above as the article reports them.