action
trampling
רומס · דורך · בוס · רמש
Bottom line
Dorech is neutral: tread, step on, and in a winepress or olive press press. Romes is destructive: trample, treading meant to smash what lies under the foot. Boss is contemptuous: trample down, treading on what had no business being trodden on, so that the act itself says the thing is worth nothing. When the three are close together, keep "tread" for dorech and do not spend "trample" on it; Tehillim 91:13 pairs tidroch and tirmos in one pasuk and the English has to hold them apart.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| רומס | romes | trample | destructive treading, walking so as to damage (Malbim); the full weight of the body (Rav Hirsch) |
| דורך | dorech | tread, step, press | neutral; kin to derech, a path; can be constructive, as in pressing olives or grapes (Malbim) |
| בוס | boss | trample down, crush underfoot | treading on what was not meant to be trodden on, an expression of contempt (Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim); linked to boz, disgrace (Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi Ashkenazi) |
| רמש | remes | creeping creature | the lightest tread, of small creatures that move over the ground with the whole body (Ramban; Rav Hirsch) |
Where the authorities disagree
Whether ר-מ-ס and ר-מ-ש are one root. Rabbi Yosef Kimchi (Sefer HaGalui) and Radak (Sefer HaShorashim) treat them as one, samech and sin interchanging, without saying how the senses meet. Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach and Ibn Parchon list them as two separate roots. Ramban (to Bereishis 1:25) supplies the link the Kimchis left open: creeping creatures tread the ground with their whole body, so treading is their essence. Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 1:21) accepts a connection but grades it: ר-מ-ס is trampling with full force to smash, ר-מ-ש the light tread of small creatures that does no damage, and ר-מ-ז, the root of remez, the eyelid meeting the lower lid in a wink, the same motion at its faintest.
What separates romes from dorech. Malbim: dorech is neutral treading over a threshold, romes treading that damages. So he reads Yeshayahu 1:12, that those who came to the Mikdash for an experience without willingness to learn yiras Hashem were trampling the courtyard, their presence emptying it of purpose. Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi Ashkenazi (Otzar Nirdafim) instead makes both words describe the ground: derech from rach, soft ground that yields a path, romes from ram, ground raised enough that a man must stomp it flat. The Bottom line follows Malbim, whose distinction bears on translation; each of Tedeschi's readings sets aside a root letter.
Whether boss is a distinct word. Rashi equates boss with romes (to Tehillim 60:14; see also Tehillim 44:6, Yeshayahu 14:25, Mishlei 27:7). Pappenheim and Tedeschi keep them apart, Pappenheim on what is trodden (something not destined to be trodden on), Tedeschi on the attitude (boss as kin to boz and bizayon). The dissenters agree in substance, so the Bottom line gives boss its own English, noting that one following Rashi will simply write "trample." On its root: Ibn Chayyuj, Ibn Janach and Radak give ב-ו-ס, Ibn Saruk and Pappenheim the biliteral ב-ס; nothing in rendering turns on it.
Distinctions
romes (רומס)
Nineteen occurrences in Tanach, none in Chumash, all of treading or stomping with the feet. It carries into Chazal: Kiddushin 66a, where Yannai is advised to romsem the Torah scholars, which Rashi glosses as killing them, the word having gone all the way to destruction. Yeshayahu 1:12, in the haftarah of Shabbos Chazon, is the locus classicus: remos chatzeirai, the trampling of My courtyard.
dorech (דורך)
From ד-ר-כ, whose derivatives run past seven hundred and fifty in Tanach, and which also yields derech, a path; dorech is the footfall of one walking a route. Devarim 11:24 (cited again at Yehoshua 1:3), "wherever the sole of your foot treads," and Devarim 33:29, "you shall tread upon their high places," both use it for conquest, treading on an enemy figuratively. Malbim's proof that it is neutral is that the same verb does the presses: olives at Michah 6:15, grapes at Amos 9:13, Yeshayahu 16:10 and 63:2, Yirmiyahu 48:33 and Nechemiah 13:15.
boss (בוס)
A little over ten occurrences: Yeshayahu 14:19, 14:25, 63:6, 63:18; Yirmiyahu 12:10; Yechezkel 16:6, 16:22; Zechariah 10:5; Tehillim 44:6, 60:14, 105:14; Mishlei 27:7. (The article's list prints "Ezek. 16:6, 16:22, 14:25," repeating Yeshayahu 14:25 among the Yechezkel loci.) Pappenheim: boss is treading on what is not already destined to be walked over, so the tread registers the walker's estimate of it. He builds two other words on the root: eivus, a feeding trough, since an animal given more than it can eat ends by standing on the leftovers; and Rabbinic basis, a base or pedestal (Shabbos 47a and elsewhere), the bottom part with something weightier resting on it. Rabbi Yisroel Zev Horowitz suggests the name of the Yevusi, who held Yerushalayim before the conquest, may come from this root, they being conquerors who trampled their way through.
Rendering guidance
- Tehillim 91:13 is the test case: tidroch on the lion and the snake, tirmos on the cub and the serpent. "You shall tread upon the lion and the adder; you shall trample the young lion and the serpent." Letting "trample" cover both loses the pasuk's escalation.
- The trap is English "trample," which absorbs all three. Reserve it for romes; give dorech "tread" or "step on," boss "trample down" or "crush underfoot."
- A dorech in a press is press or tread out, never "trample": Michah 6:15 and Amos 9:13 are constructive work, and that is Malbim's whole proof.
- Remes is a noun for the creature, not a verb: creeping things, with no trampling carried into it. Where a mefaresh equates boss with romes (Rashi does), follow him inside the quotation and keep the distinction for the running text.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Don't Trample On Me," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 4 Av 5783 (2023-07-22): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/11024-dont-trample-on-me.md. Primary loci cited: Yeshayahu 1:12, 14:19, 14:25, 16:10, 63:2, 63:6, 63:18; Bereishis 1:21, 1:25; Devarim 11:24, 33:29; Yehoshua 1:3; Michah 6:15; Amos 9:13; Yirmiyahu 12:10, 48:33; Yechezkel 16:6, 16:22; Zechariah 10:5; Tehillim 44:6, 60:14, 91:13, 105:14; Mishlei 27:7; Nechemiah 13:15; Kiddushin 66a with Rashi; Shabbos 47a, 117a, 120b, 125b, 142a; Pesachim 83a; Avodah Zarah 8b; Chullin 125a; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Sefer HaGalui; Machberes HeAruch; Otzar Nirdafim. The article's closing paragraphs on the Greek and Latin derivation of basis, on Modern Hebrew usage, and on the Dutch and Arabic origins of English boss and Israeli basa, are omitted under house rule 9.