thorns

Distinctions

kotz (קוץ)

Twelve times in Tanach as thorn, the unmarked, general word. Ibn Janach and Radak read a triliteral ק-ו-צ; Menachem Ibn Saruk and Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, both biliteralists, read ק-צ, the end or edge of a thing (keitz, ketzeh, kayitz, yekitzah, katzin), so kotz is named for its many sharp ends.

dardar (דרדר)

Twice, both times in the fixed phrase kotz v'dardar and both times naming a second, different species alongside kotz (Bereishis 3:18, Hoshea 10:8). Pappenheim: from ד-ר, movement without hindrance, whence dror (freedom); the dardar is an edible thorn growing in open, ownerless ground. Rabbi Avraham ben Shlomo (to Shoftim 8:7): people would peel it and eat the inside. Targum renders it atad.

sneh (סנה)

Six times, all of the Burning Bush (Shemos 3:2-4, Devarim 33:16). Rashi (to Sukkah 13a, Bava Kamma 119b) uses sneh to define Aramaic words he elsewhere glosses "thorns," so for him it is a thorn bush; so too Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Tafsir to Shemos 3:2, cited by Ibn Ezra's long commentary. Pappenheim: from ס-נ, chaos and disorder (whence ason), a tangled bush in which thorns of every kind grow.

salon / silon (סלון)

Rashi and Mahari Kara: salonim (Yechezkel 2:6) are thorns, and Radak reads the pasuk as telling the navi not to fear the nation's jabs. Pappenheim splits the two vocalizations, both from ס-ל, repeated action: salonim are people who provoke again and again, silon the thistle whose spikes stab again and again.

sirim (סירים), atad (אטד), chedek (חדק)

Sirim, four times (Yeshayahu 34:13, Nachum 1:10, Koheles 7:6, Hoshea 2:8); Rashi (to Nachum 1:10) reports a view tying it to hasarah, removal, and Pappenheim traces it to ס-ר, the root of yissurin and mussar, thorns being named as instruments of affliction. Atad, four times (Tehillim 58:10, Shoftim 9:14-15) and the Aramaic for dardar; it gives Goren HaAtad (Bereishis 50:10-11), which Sotah 13a expounds from the custom of ringing a granary with a thorn fence, as the Canaanite kings ringed Yaakov's coffin with their crowns. Chedek, twice (Mishlei 15:19, Michah 7:4), a brier; Ohalei Yehuda: chad plus dak, or a metathesis of dochak, which Ramban (to Chullin 59a) follows.

shamir (שמיר), shayit (שית), barkan (ברקן)

Shamir is Yeshayahu's word, eight times, always paired there with shayit (5:6, 10:17); it also names a stone-cutting agent (Yirmiyahu 17:1, Zechariah 7:12, Yechezkel 3:9), a hard stone or the shamir worm of Gittin 68a. Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach and Radak file it under ש-מ-ר, guarding, without saying how; Shoresh Yesha (and Rav Hirsch to Bereishis 24:6): one guards oneself around thorns, and thorns are what one fences a field with. Pappenheim on shayit: from ש-א-ה, uniformity, the root of shoah, thorns that come up over ruined ground. Barkan twice, both alongside kotz (Shoftim 8:7, 8:16); the early lexicographers assign it to ב-ר-ק with barak and bareket without saying how a thorn belongs there, and Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg answers that a sword's worth is its sharpness, not its shine.

charul (חרול), kimosh (קימוש), akrav (עקרב), sikim (סיכים)

Charul three times (Tzefanyah 2:9, Mishlei 24:31, Iyov 30:7); Radak, a grass-like thorn, others nettle or thistle; Rabbi Aharon Marcus (Kesses HaSofer) takes ח-ר as strong, obstinate movement that bores a hole, Ohalei Yehuda as heat and dryness, or ח-ר-ל read through ע-ר-ל, covering. The Vilna Gaon (to Mishlei 24:31) draws the one explicit contrast in the field: kimosh grows along a field's perimeter, charul is the ordinary thorn one may touch and get burnt by. Akrav is a scorpion in Devarim 8:15 and Yechezkel 2:6; in Rechavam's threat (Melachim I 12:11, 12:14) the commentators take it as spiked flogging sticks resembling scorpions, so its thorn sense is borrowed, and Rav Hirsch (to Tehillim 140:2-4) makes its root ק-ר-ב, ever ready for krav. Sikim (Bamidbar 33:55) is the fence-thorn: Radak in Sefer HaShorashim derives mesuchah from its root ש-ו-כ, and in his father's name sakin too; Rav Hirsch links it to siyag, Pappenheim to ס-כ, to cover or protect.

the remainder

Choach: Radak and Pappenheim tie it to chach, a pin-fastened ornament. Tzninim (Bamidbar 33:55): Rav Hirsch (to Tehillim 91:4) reads ש-נ, sharpness, as in v'shinantam and shen; Pappenheim takes צ-נ as thorn outright, whence tzinah (spiked weapon) and tzinah (sharp cold). Bashah (Iyov 31:40), once, known as a thorn from its pairing with choach. Sirpad (Yeshayahu 55:13), once, the thorn standing for the wicked opposite the myrtle of the righteous (Megillah 10b). Sansan (Shir HaShirim 7:9): Ibn Ezra says it has no counterpart; Pappenheim and Malbim (to Yechezkel 17:4) tie it to sneh. Saravim (Yechezkel 2:6): most read it from siruv, refusal; Donash Ibn Labrat makes it a thorn, and Rashi cites him. Nahalol (Yeshayahu 7:19): a thorn for Ibn Saruk and Mahari Kara, a barren scrub tree for Radak and Metzudas Tzion.

Rendering guidance

• קוץ ודרדר (Bereishis 3:18): "thorn and thistle." Two species, and the pasuk is listing, not intensifying. Do not render it "thorns and thorns" or fold it into a single English word.
• סנה: leave it as sneh where it names the Burning Bush; the thorn-bush identification belongs in a note, since English "bush" loses the point.
• שמיר ושית: Yeshayahu's fixed pair needs two English words, "briers and thorns."
• Trap: English "thorn" will happily absorb kotz, sirim, silon, chedek, charul and sikim at once. Where a pasuk lists two side by side (kotz uvarkan, saravim v'salonim, shamir vashayit), give each its own English word; where one stands alone, plain "thorn" is right.
• עקרב: "scorpion" wherever it is the creature. Only in Rechavam's threat is a thorn-like implement meant, and there "scorpions" with a note is better.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Of Thorns and Thistles," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 9 Av 5782 (2022-08-06): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9809-of-thorns-and-thistles.md. The frame is Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino, Ohel Moed, with Rashi to Yechezkel 2:6 and Rabbi Saadia Gaon to Mishlei 15:19 for the count of twenty. Primary loci: Bereishis 3:18, 50:10-11; Shemos 3:2-4; Bamidbar 33:55; Devarim 8:15, 33:16; Shoftim 8:7, 8:16, 9:14-15; Mishlei 15:19, 24:31; Yeshayahu 5:6, 7:19, 34:13, 55:13; Yechezkel 2:6, 28:24; Iyov 30:7, 31:40; Shir HaShirim 2:2, 7:9; Sotah 13a; Gittin 68a; Megillah 10b. The article's Arabic cognates and its maskilic list-makers are omitted per house rule 9.