Roots
Every root the entries name, and the groups whose words come from it. Beside each root is what Radak gives it in Sefer HaShorashim; open the row for the rest of his entry, in English and in his own Hebrew. A root of two letters, which Radak does not treat, has Rav Pappenheim’s Cheshek Shlomo instead, in English, where it is written.
1,136 roots
א-ב-דunderworldTo be lost or to perish, a sense he calls known; where the verb takes an object, to destroy; and the nouns, a lost thing and destruction.
א-ב-הpovertyTo be willing, to desire; the very poor man is called אביון for lacking all and craving all. Filed here too, in a sense of its own, is אָב, father, also said of a chief.
א-ב-לplainTo mourn, and אֵבֶל is mourning. It also means to lie waste, and always does beside אֻמְלַל. The word אֲבָל, 'not only this but also' or 'truly', is of this root too.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ב-ל
א-ב-ןrockA stone. A weight and the builder's plummet are called אבן, being made of stone; the potter's implement; and הָֽאָבְנָיִם of a birth, which he takes as the womb itself.
א-ב-קdustFine dust; spices ground fine, אַבְקַת רוֹכֵל; and of two men striving together, raising dust with their feet.
א-ב-רwingTwo senses: might and strength, said of the mighty and of strong horses; and the wing, with a verb for flying.
א-ג-דgatheringGathering things and tying them together; so too a band of one agreement, and in Amos His counsel, or in Radak's own view the elements, bound one upon another.
א-ג-םhookאֲגַם, a pool, a place where water gathers; and אַגְמוֹן, the rush, and a fish hook named so because its head is bent like the rush.
א-ג-ףwingHis father takes the alef in אֲגַפָּיו as added and the word as his wings; that is, Radak explains, his troops, which are like wings.
א-ג-רbook · gathering · names of Shlomo HaMelechTo gather; and אִגֶּרֶת, a letter, is also from gathering. But in אֲגוֹרַת כֶּסֶף, a silver coin, the alef is added, and the word is like גרה, gerah.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ג-ר
א-ד-םland · man · redTo be red, with אָדוֹם, red, and אֲדַמְדָּם, very red or red mixed with white; אֲדָמָה, land, field or dust; and אָדָם, man, called after the ground he was taken from.
א-ד-ןmasterA lord or master, and the honoured Name אֲדֹנָי. In a second sense אֲדָנִים, the hollow sockets that the boards and the pillars were set into.
א-ד-רbeauty · outer garment · strengthGreatness and mighty strength, in all that comes from this root: אַדִּיר, mighty, the noun אֶדֶר, greatness, and אַדֶּרֶת, a mantle, for its worth.
א-ה-בloveTo love. He gives no gloss, since the sense of every word of this root is known. The noun is אַהֲבָה, love, and in the masculine אַהַב.
א-ו-הdesire · pleasureDesire and longing; another sense, beauty and comeliness, as נָאוָה, which may belong to the root נאה; and a third, a boundary.
א-ו-לmaybeA fool, אֱוִיל, whose sense he gives as שוטה; and אִוֶּלֶת, folly, read as a noun, though noun and adjective may share its pattern.
א-ו-רfireLight, and to shine or give light; light also stands for abundant good. Other senses: to set ablaze, greens, rain, mangers; and אוּר may be a valley.
א-ז-ןarmed · hearingThe ear, and to give ear; testing and understanding are ascribed to the ear, as it is where the act begins. Another sense: מֹאזְנַיִם, scales, dual for their two pans.
א-ז-רbeltTo gird and to brace; אֵזוֹר is a belt. Of מְאַזְּרֵי זִיקוֹת the authorities differ: kindlers of fire, bringers out of fire, or gatherers of firebrands.
א-ח-דeleven · oneOne. Since one is the least of number, a small quantity is called by it, as כְּיָמִים אֲחָדִים, like a few days. Also joined into one, and keeping alone in one place.
א-ח-וmarshאָח, a brother, and אָחוֹת, a sister, with the noun אַחֲוָה, brotherhood. In a second sense of the root, אָחוּ, a plant that cattle graze on.
א-ח-זinheritanceTo take hold, to grasp. From this sense an inheritance is called אֲחֻזָּה, because a man takes hold in the place and is held secure there on its account.
א-ח-רcompass directions · delayBehind and after: אָחוֹר, the back, and also the west; אַֽחֲרִית, the end, and so a deed's reward; also those who remain after a man; אַחֵר, another; the verb, to tarry.
א-ח-ש-ת-ר-ןhorse
א-ט-דthornsA kind of thorn, cardon in the vernacular: גֹּרֶן הָאָטָד (Bereishis 50:10), the threshing floor of the atad.
א-י-לsheep and goatsStrength, and the mighty. Under the same letters: the hart and the hind, the ram, a plain, as the Targum renders אֵלוֹן, and a doorpost.
א-י-ל-ןtree
א-י-םfearFear and dread, which he says is the sense of all of them: dreadful, dread and terrors, the Eimim who are the giants, and graven images called eimim.
א-י-שangel classes · husband · manA man, a word that can take in women too; said even of what is not human; of the great man, the head and master of a thing; and of a husband.
א-כ-לfood · sword and knifeTo eat; and fire consuming, destroying, the sword cutting down, and מַאֲכֶלֶת, the knife: all one sense, since eating any food is itself consuming and destroying it.
א-ל-הcurseAn oath, a curse included, since a curse is made with an oath and Hashem's name. Also a lament; the fat tail; a kind of tree; אוּלַי, perhaps; אֶל, to; אֵלֶּה, these.
א-ל-לidolsEmptiness, a thing of no use, the sense he gives for אֱלִיל and for הָאֱלִילִם; and אַלְלַי, woe, whose sense he likens to אבוי, alas.
א-ל-םwidowTo bind sheaves; to be dumb, from which, Rabbi Yonah explains and Radak approves, the widow is named; and אוּלָם, truly, and a building like a side chamber.
א-ל-נ-קspear
א-ל-ףcattle · teachingA thousand. In other senses, an אַלּוּף, a chief and a great man; learning and teaching; and אֲלָפִים, oxen.
א-מ-הhandmaidA maidservant; but at וַתִּשְׁלַח אֶת־ אֲמָתָהּ, which he reads as she sent her maid, some read אַמָּתָהּ with a dagesh, her arm, as Rav Saadiah Gaon explained it.
א-מ-םnationMostly if, setting a condition; also a question, when, truly, and an oath. On the same letters, אֵם, a mother, אוּמָּה, a family or nation, and אַמָּה, a cubit.
א-מ-ןartisan · circumciser · moneyTo believe and trust; אֱמֶת, truth, of this root in his view; אָמֵן, it shall be true; to be firm and endure; to rear a child; the אָמָּן, one who excels at a craft.
א-מ-ץred · strengthTo be strong, and to strengthen; in another sense אֲמֻצִּים, red, a second shade of red beside the reds already named.
א-מ-צ-עmiddle
א-מ-רspeech · synonymsTo say, with אֹמֶר and אִמְרָה for what is said, and at times saying in the heart, that is, thinking; in another sense אָמִיר, the topmost bough, and from it, to exalt.
א-נ-הboats · chanceMourning; in another sense, the causing and bringing about of a thing; and in a third, אֳנִי, a ship.
א-נ-ךfirst personTin, and the tin plummet a builder weighs with; also אָנֹכִי, which is like אני, I.
א-נ-ףanger · noseTo be angry, ענין כעס; אף, anger, is of this root and sense, the dagesh in אַפּוֹ, his anger, standing for its missing nun; and the אֲנָפָה is a bird.
א-נ-שmanאֱנוֹשׁ, man, a name that takes in all people; and אָנוּשׁ, pain, breaking and grievous sickness, which may be why man is called אֱנוֹשׁ, all his days being pains.
א-ס-ףgatheringTo gather: the harvest brought in, a man gathered to his fathers at death, the metzora taken back among people; and a second sense, removal and making an end.
א-ס-רprohibition · tyingTo bind; all of it is the sense of binding: אָסִיר, one bound, a prisoner; בֵּית הָאֵסוּר, the prison; and the harnessing of a chariot.
א-ףnoseRav PappenheimThe face, its whole surface; then the nose, the face's chief feature, and anger, which marks both; from these come baking, the eifah, af "even", and adultery
א-פ-הwhereTo bake. Baking is always said of bread; of other foods, he says, the word is cooking.Rav Pappenheim takes it from א-ף
א-פ-לdarknessDarkness; since the pasuk says חשֶׁךְ וַֽאֲפֵלָה, darkness and gloom, the אֲפֵלָה seems more than the darkness. אֲפִילֹת: dark and hidden underground, or late.
א-פ-ןangel classesA wheel. A word spoken עַל־אָפְנָיו, on its wheels, is a figure for a word settled in its place; Rabbi Yonah reads it as על פניו, upon its face.
א-פ-סnothingTo come to an end; the noun is the want of a thing, and it stands for 'except'; אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ, the ends of the earth. All are close to one sense, ending and what is not.
א-פ-עsnakeאֶפְעֶה, a kind of snake, said to be the female of the saraf; and מֵאָפַע in one pasuk (Yeshayahu 41:24), which he reads as from nothing.
א-פ-רdustAsh; אֲפֵר, a veil, its letters turned about from the פאר of headgear; and Ofir, a man's name given to his place, one of the places of gold.
א-ר-חguest · moon · pathאֹרַח, a way, the noun the verb is taken from; also a custom or manner, a wayfarer, a caravan, named for the ways it travels, and a man's meal and upkeep.
א-ר-יlionTo gather; feeding troughs for beasts; and the lion, אַרְיֵה, which joined to אֵל, force, gives אֲרִיאֵל, a name for the mizbeach and for great warriors.
א-ר-לangel classesאֶרְאֶלָּם, their angel, אראל being a name of greatness, as Chazal call the angels; others read it as I will show them, or as Yerushalayim.
א-ר-םpalaceאַרְמוֹן, the great and high house, a palace; its alef may be an added letter, and he takes the word up again at the root רום.
א-ר-מ-לwidow
א-ר-ןarkאֹרֶן, the name of a tree; and אָרוֹן, a chest, like a תיבה, a box, used as both masculine and feminine, mostly masculine.
א-ר-עchance
א-ר-ץlandEarth, a name for the whole world or a part of it; wider than תֵּבֵל, the settled lands, since ארץ takes in the wilderness too; and, as the earth is low, a low place.
א-ר-רcurseTo curse; מְאֵרָה, a curse, is a lack of good, the opposite of blessing, which is an addition of good.
א-ר-שbetrothalTo betroth; of אֲשֶׁר אֵרַשׂ אִשָּׁה, who has betrothed a woman, and its passive he says only ענינו ידוע, its sense is known. The utterance of the lips: אֲרֶשֶׁת, which he glosses מבטא שפתיו, the utterance of his lips.
א-ש-כ-לhebronTo be bereaved of children, and where the verb takes an object, to bereave; and in another sense אֶשְׁכּוֹל, a cluster.
א-ש-כ-רgiftTo be drunk, with שִׁכָּרוֹן, drunkenness, and שִׁכּוֹר, a drunkard; שֵׁכָר, wine, called so because it makes drunk, and any drink that does; and אֶשְׁכָּר, a gift.
א-ש-רidols · placeאֲשֶׁר, whose sense he calls known, standing also for if, so, in order that, and for and; אֲשֵׁרָה, a worshipped tree; אַשְׁרֵי, happy; and אֲשֻׁרַי, ways or feet.
א-ת-הcoming · synonymsTo come. The sense of every form is coming, as the Targum renders ויבא, and he came, as וַאֲתָא.
א-ת-ןdonkey · strengthאָתוֹן, the she-donkey, in two pesukim and with no gloss; the entry breaks off as it turns to the words of four letters.
א-ת-רimmediately · place
ב-אcoming · food · prophetRav PappenheimComing: joining the fixed goal one moves toward, the opposite of going out. From ב, the letter of attachment, it holds both the motion to a place and the arrival in it.
ב-א-רexplanationTo explain, as in explaining this Torah and explaining it well; and in another sense a well, one whose waters spring up.
ב-ג-דclothingTo betray: to transgress a fellow's covenant and deal falsely with him while he trusts you. In another sense, בֶּגֶד, a garment.
ב-ד-דpoleAlone, solitary: a noun of solitude, not an adjective, used too where security is meant; with a lamed, לְבַד, apart or besides; and as a verb, to keep apart.
ב-ה-םanimal · beast and boorA beast: a word for the whole kind and at times for one animal; בְהֵמוֹת (Iyov 40:15) is a single beast whose name is Behemos.
ב-ה-ןthumbThe thumb, which he glosses גודל, the thumb; the plural takes in the thumbs of the hands and the big toes of the feet.
ב-ו-אfood · synonymsTo come, and where it takes an object, to bring. Of the sun, its setting; a respectful term for marital relations; and תְּבוּאָה, produce, named for the coming year.
ב-ו-סtramplingTo trample and to befoul, as in mire or in blood; some of its forms he reads as though they were the word for despising.
ב-ו-ץlinenButz is linen: וְתַכְרִיךְ בּוּץ (Esther 8:15), a robe of butz; and the Targum renders מִֽכְנְסֵי־בַד (Vayikra 6:3), linen breeches, with this word.
ב-ו-שdelay · shameTo be ashamed, with בוּשָׁה and בֹשֶׁת, shame; and another sense, lateness, being long in coming.
ב-ז-הdisgraceTo despise, and בִּזָּיוֹן, contempt; in another sense, which he holds is of this root too, with an alef in place of the final heh, to plunder.
ב-ז-זspoils of warTo plunder, and the plunder taken; all of it, he says, is the sense of שלל, spoil.
ב-ח-רunmarried manTo choose; נִבְחָר, choice; and בָּחוּר, a young man, so called because he is chosen for any work or for war more than an old man is.
ב-ט-חtrustTo trust and be secure, whether in Hashem, in wealth, in a mountain or in a brother; to make another trust; and the noun, confidence, in many patterns.
ב-ט-לnullifyOf the grinders in Koheles 12:3, with a one-word gloss printed ושבחו, and they praised, that does not fit the pasuk; Chazal use the word a great deal.
ב-י-ןwisdomTo understand, to look into, to sense a thing, all one sense; תְּבוּנָֽה and בִּינָה, understanding. The same letters carry בֵּין, between.
ב-י-תfamilyA house; a bird's nest, the grave and the prison are called so too; the people of a house; the inside of a thing; and a place, as a place of stones.
ב-כ-רcamel · names of ShavuosFirstborn, and the firstborn's right; the first fruit, בִּכּוּרִים; a woman bearing her first child; and the firstborn of camels, the young ones.
ב-לearth (the seven names) · food · negation · nothing · the eighth monthRav PappenheimThe loss of a thing's form, not of the thing itself: from within, as it wears out and rots (בלה), or from without, as it is mixed into other things (בלל).
ב-ל-הcorpseTo wear out, and to wear down; בְּלוֹיֵ, worn rags; and בַּלָּהוֹת, terrors, like בהלות, panics, with the letters turned about.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ב-ל
ב-ל-םnothingTo muzzle, לחסום; Chazal read בְּלִימָה of one who muzzles himself in strife, and by the plain sense it is two words, the earth hung on nothing.
ב-מ-הaltar · platformIts sense, he says, is known. He files it as weak in its last letter, after Rabbi Yonah, but holds it right to count it weak in its middle letter.
ב-נ-תhair
ב-ע-לhusbandTo take a wife, and marriage; from this, whoever is master of a thing is its בַּעַל, idols too, as masters to those who serve them. In Baal Gad, a plain.
ב-ע-רbeast and boorTo burn, said of the fire itself even where nothing else is burnt; to cut off and remove; to graze a field. בְּעִיר, a beast, and near it בַּעַר, the brutish man.
ב-צ-קdoughDough (עיסה); and of the foot, going bare without a shoe, which is from the sense of dough, since when the shoe wears out the foot grows doughy with mud.
ב-צ-רfamine · goldPlucking, of the grape harvest; another sense is strength, of the fortified city; another is being withheld, as rain is in a drought. בָּצֶר is gold.
ב-ק-עcoins · cuttingTo split or cleave open. From this sense בֶּקַע, the half shekel, split from the shekel; and בִּקְעָה, level ground as against the mountains, is of the same sense.
ב-ק-רcattle · morningTo seek out and examine; from this בֹּקֶר, morning, when every thing is made out by daylight; and a second sense, בָּקָר, cattle.
ב-ק-שprayerTo seek, and to require at someone's hand; the noun is a request. He gives no gloss: the sense of them all, he says, is known.
ב-ר-חfleeingTo flee, and to make another flee. In another sense, to pass through from end to end, as the bar, הַבְּרִיחַ, passes through the boards.
ב-ר-ךnames of Yosef · praiseTo bless, and a blessing; the word can mean a gift or a greeting of peace, and stands in place of a curse. Other senses: kneeling, and the knee; and בְּרֵכָה, a pool.
ב-ר-קthornsLightning; a yellow gem, named for its lightning-like gleam; great brightness, and a spear's blade, which looks like lightning; and the barkanim, a kind of thorn.
ב-ש-םbalsamSpice. His entry gives no gloss, only the word's three vowel patterns and a plural formed from one of them.
ב-ת-רcuttingDividing into parts, and the part itself; his sense for it is חלק: the bird he did not divide, and the parts they passed between.
ג-א-לdirt · redemptionTo redeem, the near kinsman being called גואל because the right of redemption is his; and a second sense, of filth and soiling, to defile and be defiled.
ג-ב-לborderA border; to border on, and where the verb takes an object, to set a bound; the גִּבְלִים, who cut stone to a set measure, or, as others explain, men of Geval.
ג-ב-ןcheese · Mount SinaiCheese, גְּבִנָּה, whose sense he calls known; two words Rabbi Yonah brought under this root, Radak files under גב, holding that correct.
ג-ב-עhat · mountainA hill, which is like a mountain but not as high; other senses are the hats set on the head for splendour, and the goblet, like a cup but made differently.
ג-ב-רman · rooster · strengthStrength, firmness and victory: to prevail; גְּבוּרָה, might; גִּבּוֹר, a mighty man; גְּבִיר, a lord; and גֶּבֶר, a man, so called for his strength over the woman.
ג-ד-יsheep and goatsגְּדִי, the young of the flock: he holds it names the young of sheep as well as of goats, where Ibn Ezra keeps it to goats. A second sense, גְּדוֹתָיו, a river's banks.
ג-ד-לfringes · thumbTo be great: in honour and standing, in years, or in any increase, of quality or of quantity; to grow, and to make grow; מִגְדָּל, a tower; and גְּדִלִים, fringes.
ג-ד-עcuttingCutting off, which is his sense for every form of it: of an arm, of horns, of sycamores and asheiros, and of the tall of stature.
ג-ד-רnames of MosheTo fence in, and the fence: any wall that is not strong building, as for gardens and vineyards, and the sheepfold; all of it is stopping up and closing off.
ג-ד-שpileגָּדִישׁ, a stack: the grain once reaped, while it lies heaped on the threshing floor; from it Chazal speak of a measure heaped above its rim.
ג-ו-חspringTo bring out, and to go out. Groaning belongs here, a groan being breath brought out, and the river גִיחוֹן may be named for going out.
ג-ו-יnationA nation, said also of a swarm of locusts; Chazal call a man who is not of Israel a goy. Rabbi Yonah holds it is said of one man too; Radak reads his proof otherwise.
ג-ו-ןcolor
ג-ו-ץshortness of stature
ג-ו-רlionTo dwell, with גֵּר the one who comes to dwell; other senses are to fear, and to gather, with מְגוּרָה the granary; and גּוּר is the young of beasts while small.
ג-זexaggeration · theftRav PappenheimShearing: a cut that takes off the upper or outer part while the main body remains; unlike shaving, which is of hair alone and cuts close to the skin.
ג-ז-זhaircutTo shear or cut off: the wool of the flock, the hair of the head, the grass that is mown, and hewn stone.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ג-ז
ג-ז-לchick · theftTo rob, a sense he calls known, with גֵּזֶל, robbery; and in another sense גּוֹזָל, the small bird, which beside the turtledove is the young of the dove.
ג-ז-רcircumciser · cutting · cutting toolsTo cut and to cut off; and it is said of a firm matter that will not turn back, the matter being cut through.
ג-י-לjoyLikeness: מִן־הַֽיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר כְּגִֽילְכֶם (Daniel 1:10), than the youths who are like you, is כדמותכם, in your likeness.
ג-ל-בhaircutתַּעַר הַגַּלָּבִים (Yechezkel 5:1), the razor of the גלבים, who are הסופרים, the men who cut hair; the Targum uses the word for a shorn beard and for knives.
ג-ל-לbecause · excrement · idols · teethTo roll and go round, all one sense, he says: גַּלְגַּל, a wheel; מְגִלָּה, a rolled letter; גַּל, a heap; גָּלָל, dung; גְּלִילוֹת, districts; בִּגְלַל, because of.
ג-ל-םouter garmentTo fold over and wrap up, and a garment a man wraps himself in. In another sense גולם, a thing not yet finished into its form, and a man empty of wisdom.
ג-ל-ףwriting
ג-מ-אdrinkingTo give to drink; likewise drinking up the ground, said of great lightness and speed; and גֹּמֶא, a very light wood, which may also be explained from Chazal's גמי.
ג-מ-דshortness of statureA measure: גֹּמֶד אָרְכָּהּ (Shoftim 3:16), a gomed its length, the gomed being אמה הזרוע, the cubit of the arm; and גַמָּדִים, men of short measure.
ג-מ-לcamelTo deal out good or ill, in his words the beginning of good or of evil; to wean, the nursing complete, and of fruit, to finish ripening; and the camel, which is known.
ג-נ-בtheftTo steal, with the theft and the thief; and to steal a heart, which is to steal a man's knowledge: Lavan thought Yaakov was with his flock, and he had fled.
ג-נ-הdisgrace
ג-נ-זhiddenגִּנְזֵי, like אוצרות, treasuries: a place, or vessels, into which gold and silver and precious garments are put.
ג-נ-ןgardenTo shield; the magen, so called because it shields its bearer, and great men, called shields because they shield the people; a separate sense, sorrow of heart.
ג-ע-שtremblingTossing and movement, which he gives as the sense of all of it: the earth that tossed, rivers whose waters toss, a people tossed, men who drink and toss about.
ג-פ-ןgrapevineגֶּפֶן, the vine; and גֶּפֶן שָׂדֶה, a vine of the field, which some take for a tree like a vine that the gourds grow on.
ג-רbone · book · gathering · resident · throatRav PappenheimDragging (גרירה): a thing drawn along from place to place, not rolled; of the living, one with no fixed home who moves from place to place, a גר, sojourner.
ג-ר-בboilsThe גָּרָב, one of the diseases of itching: וּבַגָּרָב וּבֶחָרֶס (Devarim 28:27), with the garav and with the cheres.
ג-ר-םboneA bone, as the Targum renders עֶצֶם, bone, גַּרְמָא; the verb, to break the bones; and גֶּרֶם הַֽמַּֽעֲלוֹת, the steps themselves or a step.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ג-ר
ג-ר-ןthroatThe threshing floor; its sense, he says, is known, and he gives three pesukim for it and nothing more.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ג-ר
ג-ר-סflourTo break and pound: a soul broken with longing, teeth broken on gravel; and גֶּרֶשׂ, the wheat broken and crumbled.
ג-ר-שflourWheat broken and crumbled, as he explains at the root גרס: גֶּרֶשׂ כַּרְמֶל (Vayikra 2:14), fresh ears broken small, and מִגִּרְשָׂהּ (Vayikra 2:16), its broken wheat. To drive out and send away, as a wife from her husband; of the sea, to toss and cast up mire. The open land outside a city is named as though driven out of it.
ג-ש-םrain · the eighth monthRain, and it is the strong rain. At one pasuk some take it for the name of a tree or for a body; he holds it is rain there too.
ד-ב-רboats · plague · speech · synonyms · wilderness · wordTo speak, like saying in sense but not in usage; a דָּבָר is a word or matter. Also דֶּבֶר, plague; מִדְבָּר, wilderness or pasture; a bee; and the inner house.
ד-ג-הfishTo increase as fish do. דָּג, a fish, may come from this root, but other forms point to דוג, and he holds the word was used in both roots.
ד-ג-לtigrisThe דֶּגֶל, the standard that the heads of the troops raise; and a verb comes from it, which he gives without a gloss.
ד-ג-ןfish · foodGrain: the name of wheat, barley, or another of the five kinds, once its heap has been smoothed.
ד-ו-גboatsThe fisher and the fish: דַּוָּגִים, a word describing those who catch fish, and דָּג, the fish, in its several forms.
ד-ו-דbasket · uncleAn uncle, the father's brother; a beloved, and love; a pot; a basket; and perhaps the דּוּדָאִים, a plant's root in the likeness of a man.
ד-ו-חwashingTo be thrust away, read as נדחו; and in another sense, washing, a word Chazal use often.
ד-ו-ךplace · platformTo pound in a mortar; pounding is not as fine as grinding, and from this sense the poor man is called דַּךְ.
ד-ו-םsilenceSilence: being silenced or cut off, and stilling oneself; and דּוּמָה is also the name of a nation, one of the sons of Yishmael.
ד-ו-ץjoyGladness and joy: וּלְפָנָיו תָּדוּץ דְּאָבָֽה (Iyov 41:14), and before him sorrow rejoices.
ד-ו-רresidentDwelling, like מגור; in another sense, a great burning; and דּוֹר, a generation, a word from the span of a man's life.
ד-ח-הpushingTo push and thrust away: pushed hard, a wall pushed over, the wicked thrust down, the outcasts of Yisrael; and the nouns, a stumbling and a ruin.
ד-ח-לtrembling
ד-ח-ףpushingPushing, the one sense he gives all its forms: the runners went out pushed on, Haman was pushed, and the noun מַדְחֵפֹת, pushes.
ד-י-ןdivine judgment · lawTo judge; דִּין is a judgment and דַּיָּן a judge. The noun of strife, מָדוֹן, is of the root as well.
ד-כ-ךpoverty
ד-ל-גjumpingTo leap; its sense is like מקפץ, springing: the lame man leaping like a deer, one leaping over the mountains or over the threshold.
ד-ל-הdrawing waterTo draw water; the דְּלִי is the bucket one draws with. Also to lift up, and דָּלִיּוֹת are boughs, branches raised and high.
ד-ל-לpovertyTo dry up; דַּל is poor, and also sick. Another sense is to be raised, as eyes lifted on high; and דַּלַּת of the head is its locks.
ד-מ-הman · moneyTo be like, and to liken one thing to another; to be cut off and brought to an end; to think; and silence.
ד-מ-עmixingTears, and to shed them, a sense he calls known; and וְדִמְעֲךָ, a byname for the oil or the wine running from the press like a tear, drop by drop.
ד-נ-גwaxWax: כַּדּוֹנַג מִפְּנֵי הָאֵשׁ (Michah 1:4), like wax before the fire; דונג, he says, is השעוה, wax.
ד-פ-קpushingPushing: flocks pushed on for a single day; and pushing and striking on a door, of men at the door and of the beloved knocking.
ד-ק-לtigris
ד-ר-גlevelSteps, by way of the Targum, which renders going up בְמַעֲלֹת, by steps, as בְּדַרְגִּין; he gives no gloss of his own.
ד-ר-ךpath · teaching · tramplingTo tread, on the ground or in a winepress, and to draw a bow. דֶּרֶךְ is a way; a man's custom, dealings and desires, and the mitzvos and aveiros, are all called so.
ד-ר-םcompass directionsThe south: it is התימן, Teiman, and it is הנגב, Negev, for it is called by these names.
ד-ר-רfreedomFreedom: freedom proclaimed, the good myrrh free of counterfeit and mixture, and the bird דְּרוֹר, named for nesting in houses without fear, as though free of men.
ד-ש-ןdustTo be fat and rich, and to make fat; the noun דֶּשֶׁן is fatness. In another sense דֶּשֶׁן is ash, and the verb is to clear away the ash, or to turn a thing to ash.
ה-ב-לnothingA thing that is nothing at all; the verb, to become empty or to make others so; and in Chazal, the breath of the mouth, a thing soon gone.
ה-ג-הanimal soundsSpeech and the chirping sound of the mouth, said also of a lion and of doves; his father holds it all mumbling, not speech. In another sense, removing.
ה-ד-ףpushingPushing, the sense he gives for every use: a man pushed without enmity, pushing with side and shoulder, one pushed from his post, enemies pushed out.
ה-ד-רbeauty · citron · praiseTo honour; הָדָר, splendour; to make oneself fine and show a pleasant face; and הֲדוּרִים, crooked and winding ways.
ה-ו-הexaggerationTo be, one in sense with הָיָה. A second sense, as in הוָֹה עַל־הוָֹה, ruin upon ruin, is breaking and evil things.
ה-ל-ךcoming · leading · povertyTo go and to walk, the sense of every form, he says, being known; its nouns include הֲלִיכָה, a going, מַהֲלַךְ יוֹם, a day's walk, and הֵלֶךְ, a traveller.
ה-ל-לpraisePraise, lauding and thanks, with rejoicing close to it; a second sense, madness, going out from the mind's understanding; and a third, shining and light.
ה-ל-םhammer · hereTo be broken and crushed, or to strike; the הַלְמוּת is a hammer. A second sense is הֲלֹם, here.
ה-מ-הbeast and boorTo make a noise: nations in tumult, innards moaning, bears and dogs and doves, the sound of a harp, and a city loud with it.
ה-נ-הhereהֵן and הִנֵּה point to what is ready at hand; הֵן can stand for אִם, if; עַד־ הֵֽנָּה is until now and הֵנָּה here; and הֵן, הֵנָּה are they, of women.
ה-נ-יpleasure
ה-ר-רmountain · thoughtA mountain: the full form of the word is הֶרֶר, and the common הַר is that same word with the doubled letter fallen away.
ו-ר-דrose
ו-ש-טthroat
ו-ת-קold age
ז-ב-חaltar · slaughterTo sacrifice, with זֶבַח, a sacrifice, and מִזְבֵּחַ, the place on which the sacrifices are offered.
ז-ב-לexcrement · palaceTo dwell with, for a dwelling is called זבול, as in בֵּית זְבֻל, a house of dwelling.
ז-ה-בgoldGold, a known word; since gold is clear and clean, what is clear and clean is called זָהָב too: wind, wine, oil, though in Iyov Ibn Ezra reads the sky's brightness.
ז-ה-םdirtFilth, זוהמא, the loathsome sweat of a man's body or of food, as when a man's soul reckons his bread filth; Chazal use the word of food and of the body.
ז-ה-רprohibition · redTo warn and to take warning; and in another sense to shine, זֹהַר being brightness.
ז-ו-זmoneyמְזוּזָה, the doorpost; doorposts, he says, are the cheeks of the gateways. Its mem is added and its final heh marks the feminine.
ז-ו-יcorner
ז-ו-ןfoodTo feed: זַן are the kinds that feed a man, מָזוֹן is food, and Rachav הַזּוֹנָה a seller of food. Rabbi Yonah takes זַן as a kind.
ז-ו-רresident · strangerTo press; a blow is called מָזוֹר because it is pressed, and so is its healing. Another sense, near the first, is to sneeze; another, to be strange or estranged.
ז-ח-לtremblingFear, at Iyov 32:6, as its place requires, where Rabbi Yonah reads holding back; in another sense, creeping on the belly, with Chazal's like word for flowing liquids.
ז-י-וsecond monthZiv, the month of Iyar, called so, Chazal say, for the brightness it holds for the trees; זיו in their language is brightness and shining.
ז-י-זroosterזִיז, by its place like זיו, radiance; some say it is a beast of the field, others a name for every beast of the field; in Vayikra Rabbah, a great bird.
ז-י-ןarmed
ז-כ-רrememberTo remember; a second sense, זָכָר, the male; a third, smell, as the אַזְכָּרָה, the part burned; smell and memory may be one sense, since smell brings a thing to mind.
ז-ל-ז-לdisgraceThe branches of young plantings: וְכָרַת הַזַּלְזַלִּים (Yeshayahu 18:5), and he shall cut off the branches; he gives the Old French word for them.
ז-ל-לdrunkennessA glutton, one who eats much meat, as a drunkard is one who drinks much wine; and in another sense, lightness and contempt.
ז-מ-םmuzzleTo think, and the nouns are thought; in another sense, filth, abomination and evil deed. Some say it is all one sense, thought for good or for evil.
ז-מ-ןtimeA time, as everything has its time and season; and appointed times, whose sense he calls known.
ז-מ-רsongTo sing and make music, with songs and their instruments; the vine branch, its pruning and the pruning knife; also a foul smell, the land's best fruit, and an animal.
ז-נ-הstraying from a pathTo play the harlot, said of a woman, of a people going after foreign gods, and of the heart and the eyes; and to make another play the harlot.
ז-נ-חnames of MosheTo cast off: Hashem casting off His mizbeach, a soul cast off from peace, the vessels King Achaz cast aside. He gives the word no gloss of its own.
ז-ע-קcrying outTo cry out, calling in a loud voice; and the gathering of a people, which belongs to the same sense, since a crowd gathers at a cry.
ז-ק-ןold ageTo grow old, with the old man, the elder and old age; and, under the same letters, the beard.
ז-ק-ףthumbTo raise, מרים: Hashem raises those who are bent over; and the Targum renders lifting the eyes with this word.
ז-ר-חcompass directions · residentTo rise, as the sun does, its rising being its uncovering. Where it rises is called מִזְרָח, the east, and אֶזְרָח is the settled native, uncovered and known to all.
ז-ר-קthrowingTo throw, as Moshe throws it heavenward and blood is thrown on the mizbeach; מִזְרָק is the vessel that one throws from.
ח-ב-הloveTo hide oneself, with the nouns חֶבְיוֹן and, in his view, חֲבִי, a hiding. Also the מַֽחֲבַת, a shallow vessel whose bakings came out hard.
ח-ב-לcollateral · lottery · rope · woundSix senses: a pledge, mostly taken, sometimes given; ruin and corruption; pangs and pains; a rope, and so a portion or district; counsels and thoughts; a company.
ח-ב-צ-לroseחֲבַצֶּ֣לֶת הַשָּׁר֔וֹן (Shir HaShirim 2:1), the chavatzeles of the Sharon, which he says is what Chazal call the ורד, the rose.
ח-ב-רfriend · hebron · names of Moshe · woundTo join; חֶבֶר, a gathering; חָבֵר, a companion; from joining too, the charmer who whispers and gathers beasts; חַבּוּרָה, a cut, or a blow where the blood is joined.
ח-ב-שtyingTo bind and fasten: headgear bound on, a wound bound up, a beast tied with its girth; and ruling, since a ruler confines and binds whoever breaks his commands.
ח-ב-תvesselThe מַֽחֲבַת, a pan, whose tav may be a root letter, though he had filed it under חָבָה; and the Kohen Gadol's daily pan offering, Chazal's חבתי כהן גדול.
ח-ג-בlocustA chagav, one of the kinds of locust: וַנְּהִי בְעֵינֵינוּ כַּֽחֲגָבִים (Bamidbar 13:33), we were like chagavim in our own eyes.
ח-ג-רbeltTo gird, girding being tying and binding fast; girded for war or in sackcloth; the belt itself; and to move unsteadily, limping as the lame do.
ח-ד-הjoyTo rejoice: וַיִּחַדְּ יִתְרוֹ (Shemos 18:9), Yisro rejoiced; with the noun חֶדְוָה, gladness, and תְּחַדֵּהוּ, You gladden him. Their sense, he says, is joy.
ח-ד-לearth (the seven names) · stoppingTo cease and leave off; and חָדֶל, the age, as though חֶלֶד, time, were turned about.
ח-ד-קthornsA thorn, one of the kinds of thorns: כִּמְשֻׂכַת חָדֶק (Mishlei 15:19), like a hedge of chedek.
ח-ד-ק-לtigris
ח-ד-שmonthTo renew, with חָדָשׁ, new. The חֹדֶשׁ, the month, is named for the renewal of the moon; the word means the whole thirty days, and also the first day alone.
ח-ו-גaroundTo go round; the noun חוּג, the sphere that goes round the earth; and מְחוּגָה, the tool a circle is drawn with.
ח-ו-הspeechTelling, which he says is the sense of all of it, verb and noun; חַוֹּת יָאִיר, Chavos Yair, he leaves to be explained under the root חיה.
ח-ו-םredחוּם, said of a lamb: black. The correct view, he holds, is that the word is from the root חָמַם, and he will explain it there.
ח-ו-סmercyTo have pity: the sense of them all, he says, is compassion, ענין חמלה. At וַתָּחָס עָלֶיךָ, which names no eye, he reads it as my eye, or my soul, had pity on you.
ח-ו-רfreedom · whiteWhite, and to turn white, with shame spoken of as whiteness; in another sense, a hole. חֹרִים, the nobles, Rabbi Yonah also draws from whiteness.
ח-ז-הprophetTo see, some of it plain seeing and some the sight of prophecy, with the nouns for vision and the seer; a separate sense, to be entangled; and the breast of an offering.
ח-ז-קstrengthTo be strong, or stronger than another; to make strong; with a beis, to take firm hold of a thing, like seizing; and of a vessel, what it holds.
ח-ז-רbook · returnThe חֲזִיר, the pig, which he calls known and does not explain; in the Mishnah the root is much used for חזרה, going back.
ח-ט-אsinTo sin; to make another sin, or a stone miss. The offering for a sin is called חַטָּאת after it, and its service takes sin away; it can also mean sin's punishment.
ח-ט-בspeechCutting, as of wood. Rabbi Yonah takes two of its words as high and lifted up; Radak keeps them to cutting, a bed's hewn poles and a house's hewn corner stones.
ח-ט-טteeth
ח-ט-םnoseA single word, אֶחֱטָם: I will lengthen My nose toward you, as the same pasuk says I will lengthen My anger; for anger and wrath are also called חוטם, nose.
ח-ט-רstaff and tribeA rod, the word the Targum gives for מַטֶּה, a staff; and in Mishlei the rod of pride in the fool's mouth, which he and Rabbi Yonah read differently.
ח-י-הangel classes · animal · beast and boor · soulTo live, and to keep alive; health; חַי, of meat, is raw. חַיָּה is the neshamah, which lives for ever, and the animal soul; an animal; a company; a cluster of houses.
ח-כ-הtrustTo wait: those who wait for Hashem, those who wait for a death that does not come, bands waiting for a man. The sense of them all, he says, is like that of hope.
ח-כ-םwisdomTo be wise, to grow wise, and to make another wise; the noun is חָכְמָה, wisdom, and the wise man is חָכָם.
ח-ל-בfat · whiteMilk, חָלָב; and חֵלֶב, fat, which by way of borrowing names the choicest of anything; also חֶלְבְּנָה, a spice whose smell is foul.
ח-ל-דearth (the seven names)Time: a man's span, or the men of the age; and הַחֹלֶד, a creature named beside the mouse, which Chazal call חולדה, the chuldah.
ח-ל-לbeginning · bread · cake · corpse · dough · windowחָלָל, one slain, and to slay; to begin; to profane, with חֹל, the common; חָלִיל, a hollow instrument of music, and מָחוֹל, the dance; hollows, and חַלּוֹן, a window.
ח-ל-מ-שrockStrength, said of rock: מִצּוּר הַחַלָּמִישׁ, from the strong and mighty rock; מֵחַלְמִישׁ צוּר, from the strength of the rocks. It is said of nothing but a rock.
ח-ל-ףexchange · sword and knifeTo pass on and be gone; to change or renew, and changes of garments; in place of; and a sense close to these, cutting off, from which knives are called מַֽחֲלָפִים.
ח-ל-ץarmed · slipping offTo part and withdraw; to draw off, as a shoe; to be drawn out of trouble; changes of clothing; the loins, and one girded for war; and, of the bones, to make fat.
ח-ל-קsmoothTo divide, with חֵלֶק, a portion, and from it חֶלְקָה, a holding of fields. A second sense is smoothness, and likewise of words, soft and enticing speech and deceit.
ח-ל-שlotteryTo grow weak; and with an object, to break and crush. Radak takes חוֹלֵשׁ עַל־גּוֹיִם as crushing nations; Chazal read it in the sense of a lot.
ח-מ-דdesire · Mount SinaiTo desire, to covet. Its nouns name what is desired and of worth: garments of worth, the delight of the eyes, a land of desire, vineyards of delight.
ח-מ-הangerחָם and חָמוֹת, a woman's father-in-law and mother-in-law; and חוֹמָה, a wall. Wrath, חֵמָה, he files under יָחַם, its root in his view.
ח-מ-לmercyTo have pity. Some read two pesukim as rejoicing; Radak holds there is no need to take them out of the sense of pity (חמלה).
ח-מ-םidolsHeat and growing warm: to be warm, to warm another or oneself, hot bread, heat itself; and from this sense the sun is called חַמָּה.
ח-מ-סtheftRemoving a thing from its place (so Rabbi Yonah gives it in Arabic): robbing it, pulling it down, taking its covering off; the תַּחְמָס is a bird that robs.
ח-מ-ץred · theftTo become leavened, of dough. Vinegar, חֹמֶץ, is one with it in sense, as overleavened dough tastes of it. It also means to oppress. חֲמוּץ בְּגָדִים is red of garment.
ח-מ-רdonkey · pile · wineOf wine, to be red; mortar and clay, and water made turbid like clay; a heap; the measure חֹמֶר, a kor; and חֲמוֹר, the donkey.
ח-מ-שarmedFive, and in the larger count fifty; the fifth part, and taking it; and חֲמֻשִׁים, girded with weapons at the fifth rib.
ח-נ-הfamily · spearTo encamp, and to encamp against a city. The camp, מַחֲנֶה, comes from it, and the spear, חֲנִית, may as well.
ח-נ-ןmercy · prayerTo show favour, חֵן, which in places comes close to a gift, and to plead for favour, with תְּחִנָּה, a plea; all of it one sense. And חִנָּם, free, as though by favour.
ח-ס-הtrustTo take shelter, all of it the sense of הסתופף, as in the shadow of wings; and the noun מַחְסֶה, a shelter.
ח-ס-לlocustTo cut off and make an end of; so the kind of locust that destroys most is called חָסִיל, and from this comes חסלת, said of a seder or masechta when it is finished.
ח-פ-הcanopyTo cover: a head, a house with wood or gold; and, spelled with an alef, of those who screened themselves from the Creator, saying He knows nothing of what men do.
ח-פ-ץdesire · land (running versus passive) · willTo desire and to delight in, with the noun חֵפֶץ, desire; one pasuk, of a tail like a cedar, has been explained as swift movement.
ח-פ-שfreedomTo search out, a searching akin to inquiry; and, reflexively, changing one's veil or garment for another. Free: חָפְשִׁי is one free of his master, or of the toil of the world; the nouns are חֹפֶשׁ, freedom, and חֻפְשָׁה, release.
ח-צ-בdigCutting, of the kind done in carving: to hew out a winepress, cisterns or a grave; and, as a figure, Hashem's many words spoken through the prophets.
ח-צ-רhornBlowing trumpets; a courtyard, and the unwalled villages that are like one; and in a second sense חָצִיר, grass, which in one pasuk is the leek.
ח-ק-קlaw · writingTo cut in or engrave, and to write. A man's due is his חֹק because it was set down in writing, and the word also means a fixed law or custom.
ח-ר-בdestruction · dry · earth (the seven names) · Mount Sinai · sword and knifeTo be dry, or to dry up. A חֶרֶב is anything that cuts, sword, razor or stonecutter's tool, and the verb is to smite with one. Also to lie waste; a חָרְבָּה is a ruin.
ח-ר-דtremblingTrembling: fear with movement of the body, for when sudden fear comes a man's whole body moves; and in some pesukim, movement with no fear in it.
ח-ר-הangerAnger, and being incensed. At root the matter is heat, since it is out of great heat that a man grows angry.
ח-ר-טwritingחֶרֶט, a scribes' pen, in both of its pesukim, though some take one of them as a mould; and חֲרִטִים, purses.
ח-ר-לthornsחָרוּל, a plant that some take for an herb resembling thorns and others for the thorn whose flower is used to curdle cheese.
ח-ר-םsickleKilling, cutting off, destroying and loss; what a man devotes is as though destroyed to him. Close to this, a net; and חָרֻם, in Chazal, one whose nose is sunken.
ח-ר-סboils · sunThe sun, and from it the eastern gate of the Beis HaMikdash; in another sense the dry scab, named for the potsherd it is scratched with.
ח-ר-ףshameTo lay open and make known: exposing oneself to death; a maidservant designated and known as a man's; reviling, which lays blemishes open. In another sense, winter.
ח-ר-ץcheese · goldMoving, and the diligent, who move about for their food; decreeing and judgment; cutting, with the threshing sledge and a trench; cheeses; and gold.
ח-ר-רcake · freedomTo be scorched, burnt with heat. From it come the חֲרָרָה, a cake baked on the coals; the kindling of a quarrel; and חַרְחֻר, a sickness that burns from much heat.
ח-ר-שartisan · silence · writingחֶרֶשׂ, earthenware and a potsherd; and in חַדּוּדֵי חָרֶשׂ, pearls shining like the sun. To be silent, which is making oneself deaf, and חֵרֵשׁ, a deaf man. In other senses: to plow; חָרָשׁ, a craftsman; thought; and חֹרֶשׁ, a bough.
ח-ר-תwritingEngraved: חָרוּת on the luchos has the sense of חקוק, cut in, as he explained חֲרוּשָׁה, engraved on the tablet of their heart.
ח-ש-בartisan · thoughtTo think and to plan, and to take a thing for something or nothing. Since craft and counting rest on thought, it serves for both, and Chazal call the חֹשֵׁב a weaver.
ח-ש-הsilence · the eighth monthTo be silent, and to make others silent. Said of waves too, falling silent; every use is one sense, silence.
ח-ש-ךdarkness · stoppingTo hold back, to withhold: וְלֹֽא־ חָשַׂךְ מִמֶּנִּי מְאוּמָה, he withheld nothing from me. To grow dark, and to make dark; חשֶׁךְ is darkness and מַחְשָׁךְ a dark place. The lowly of men, who are in darkness, are called the dark ones, חֲשֻׁכִּים.
ח-ש-מ-לangel classesThe chashmal of Yechezkel's vision: an angel of that name, or, as Radak allows, it may be the name of a hue close to the hue of fire.
ח-ת-ךcuttingDecreed: נֶחְתַּךְ עַל־עַמְּךָ וְעַל־עִיר קָדְשֶׁךָ (Daniel 9:24), it is decreed upon your people and upon your holy city, which he explains as נגזר, decreed.
ח-ת-ןin-laws · sibling-in-lawTo marry into a family: a wife's father is the man's חֹתֵן, her mother his חֹתֶנֶת, and he is their חָתָן, which he becomes on the day of his chupah.
ט-ב-חslaughterTo slaughter, ענין זביחה: טַבָּח, the slaughterer; טֶבַח, טִבְחָה and מַטְבֵּחַ, slaughter. Rabbi Yonah took some as cooking; Radak reads them all as slaughter.
ט-ב-לtableTo dip, which he likens to washing with a difference: washing is to clean a thing, dipping is at times to touch it, in part or whole, to something wet.
ט-ב-רkinneres · middleThe navel; and because the navel is the middle of the body, the middle and high point of the earth is called טַבּוּר הָאָרֶץ.
ט-ו-חkidneysTo plaster: daubing the walls of a house with lime or clay, and eyes smeared over from seeing. The טֻּחוֹת of two pesukim he explains as the kidneys.
ט-ט-ףphylacteriesTotafos: a thing tied on the forehead, like a tzitz, and at times on the arm; the totefes written in the Torah is what Chazal call tefillin.
ט-ל-הchild · sheep and goatsSpotted with broad spots, where נָקֹד has small ones; likewise patched, a patch; and the lamb, טָלֶה, may belong here, since its plural is written with an alef.
ט-מ-ןhiddenTo hide: all of it, he says, is the sense of concealing and putting out of sight; and מַטְמוֹן, a hidden store.
ט-מ-רsecret
ט-נ-ףdirtTo soil, to dirty: אֲטַנְּפֵם is אלכלכם, I shall dirty them. Chazal use the word of dirt, as in the filthy alleyways, and there are many more.
ט-ע-הstraying and errorLeading astray is the only form in the pesukim, yet to stray is Biblical all the same; in the Mishnah it is an unwitting error. It is one sense with תָּעָה.
ט-פ-חwetnessThe tefach, a handbreadth, measured by four fingers held together; and a verb of rearing children, since an infant is patted and his limbs straightened as he is swaddled.
י-א-רriverWater drawn off from a river in channels onto the fields; the Nilus is called so, its waters running over the fields, and so is the Chidekel. For Onkelos, the river.
י-ב-לfood · horn · sheep and goatsTo bring; יוּבַל, a stream; יְבוּל, crops and all that comes out of the land; יוֹבֵל, a ram, the shofar and the fiftieth year named for it; and יַבֶּלֶת, a wart.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ב-ל
י-ב-םsibling-in-lawTo take one's brother's wife in yibum: he is her יָבָם and she his יְבָמָה; and the wife of the יָבָם is called her יְבָמָה too, on account of her husband.
י-ב-שdry · earth (the seven names)To dry up, and to dry a thing up, with יַבָּשָׁה, the dry land; another sense is shame, and two pesukim in Yoel can be read in either sense.
י-ג-עtiredTo toil; the sense of toil, he says, is known, like the sense of weariness. The noun is labour, and the adjective, weary.
י-ד-דnames of Shlomo HaMelechBeloved, and the noun, the love of one's soul; and יַדּוּ גוֹרָל, they cast lots, its root disputed: יָדַד to Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Yonah, יָדָה to Radak's father.
י-ד-הnames of the Jewish people · praiseTo cast. In another sense, to praise and give thanks, with תּוֹדָה, thanksgiving, and the name יְהוּדָה taken from it. In another, to confess.
י-ד-עwisdomTo know, and in places to recognize or to feel a thing; also of a man knowing his wife. Making a thing known; and מוֹדָע, a kinsman, so called because he knows a man.
י-ח-דsoulThe sense of one: the only one, the soul as the single one, and many joined together so that they look like one; and to make one.
י-י-ןwineWine, which he calls known. In יַיִן תַּרְעֵלָה and the like he reads a bound word as left out: wine, the wine of reeling.
י-כ-חrebukeTo reprove: setting out words to one another in claims, making judgments known, and the chastening that comes of reproof; close to it, in two pesukim, to appoint.
י-ל-דchildTo bear a child and to beget one; יֶלֶד is a child. A day's events are called its children, as are the heart's thoughts; תולדות is a man's offspring or what befell him.
י-ל-ףboilsיַלֶּפֶת, the affliction named at Vayikra 22:22; the Chachamim take it for the Egyptian lichen, which winds itself about a man until the day he dies.
י-מ-םcompass directions · donkeyThe sea; and the west, called so because the Great Sea lies west of Eretz Yisrael. Another sense of the root: הַיֵּמִם, the mules.
י-מ-ןcompass directionsThe right hand and the right side; since a man's strength is on his right, strength; and the south, which is on a man's right when he faces east.
י-נ-הwineTo wrong a man in his money, taking what is another's in buying and selling or otherwise, whether he knows of it or not.
י-ס-ףnames of YosefTo add, and to do a thing again; and to be added to something. All of it, he holds, is one sense.
י-ס-רrebukeTo chasten, whether by words or by blows. In another sense, to bind, with the nouns for bonds and bands.
י-ע-דtimeSummoning, meeting by appointment; מוֹעֵד is a set time, and the place where people gather at a known time; the עֵדָה, the congregation, is those summoned together.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ד
י-ע-ףtiredWeariness: to tire, and the weary man. מֻעָף בִּיעָף is of the sense of flying; and in another sense, תּֽוֹעָפוֹת is strength.
י-פ-תsignמוֹפֵת, whose sense is like אוֹת, a sign; but a מוֹפֵת is shown so that one believe in something like it yet to come, where an אוֹת can be a bare mark.
י-צ-אexcrementTo go out, and to bring out. Among its nouns, מוֹצָא, a going out; צואה, filth; and הַצֶּֽאֱצָאִים, offspring.
י-ק-ץwakingTo awake; of the sense he says only that it is known: Yaakov from his sleep, Noach from his wine, and those who shake you.
י-ק-רhonorTo be precious and honoured; the word serves for weight as well as honour, so אֲבָנִים יְקָרוֹת are heavy stones. The noun is יְקָר, honour.
י-ר-אfearTo fear, whether Hashem or a man; the nouns for fear and awe; awesome, one who is feared; and to make another afraid.
י-ר-דnames of MosheTo go down, and to bring down; מוֹרָד, a descent; eyes said to go down with water; and מַעֲשֵׂה מוֹרָד, beaten work, close in sense to going down.
י-ר-הrain · razor · teachingThree senses: casting, as of lots or arrows; teaching, and its noun תּוֹרָה, how a mitzvah is to be done; and rain, the יוֹרֶה.
י-ר-חJericho · month · moonיָרֵחַ, the moon; and יֶרַח, a month, since the moon renews itself each month.
י-ר-קvegetable and greenTwo senses: to spit; and green, of growing herbage and of the herb people eat. The doubled form is a deep green, and a face turns green at sudden trouble.
י-ר-שinheritance · poverty · wineTo inherit, from a father or by taking what another held; to drive out, as it always is when bound with מ; in a sense close by, to make poor; and תִּירוֹשׁ, new wine.
י-ר-ש-ל-םJerusalem
י-ש-בresidentTo sit; to stay and tarry, even standing on one's feet; a man's long remaining where he is, to dwell; and being established and enduring.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ש-ב
י-ש-ןold age · sleepTo sleep, with sleep and the sleeper; in another sense old, as in יָשָׁן נוֹשָׁן, very old: ישן of last year, נושן of three years.
י-ש-עsalvationDeliverance, in the nouns יֵשַׁע and תְּשׁוּעָה; the verb is to save, and to be saved.
י-ש-רnames of Yaakov · plainStraight, and right in one's eyes; the upright, יְשָׁרִים; uprightness, יֹֽשֶׁר; level ground, מִישׁוֹר; and the verb, to make straight.
י-ש-שold ageThe aged, further on in years than the זָקֵן, the old, or the שָׂב, the grey-haired; he takes it from יֵשׁ, being, which has stood in him many days.
כ-ב-דhonorHeaviness, and with it burden, great numbers and wealth, since abundance is heaviness. Close to it, כָּבוֹד, honour, which also names the soul; הַכָּבֵד, the liver.
כ-ב-לropeA fetter, and in the plural chains of iron; the land called אֶרֶץ כָּבוּל is explained from the foot sinking into it and being held fast.
כ-ב-סwashingTo launder: of garments, and also of a heart washed of evil and a man washed of his sin. כוֹבֵֽס is one who launders clothes.
כ-ב-רstrengthכַּבִּיר, mighty and great, in quantity or in quality; also a sieve, a cushion, and כְּבָר, already, of time gone by. In כִּבְרַת, a stretch, the kaf is a prefix.
כ-ב-שsheep and goatsThe lamb, כֶּבֶשׂ, so called within its first year, since one older is called אַיִל, a ram; the female is כַּבְשָׂה or כִּבְשָׂה, a ewe lamb. To subdue and to seize by force. In another sense כֶּבֶשׁ, a single sloping step, a ramp; and in another, כִּבְשָׁן, a kiln for lime or for earthenware.
כ-ה-ןpriestService in greatness, as the kohanim served Hashem and headed the people. Any servant is called so, even of avodah zarah, and so are a king's counsellor and chief men.
כ-ו-לmiserTo measure; to hold, a vessel's measure being what it holds; to bear. Doubled, to hold and bear, and to feed each by his measure. כִּילַי, the miser, is from it.
כ-ו-רfishThe crucible in which the smith melts silver and gold; the kor, a measure, which is the chomer, thirty se'ah; and the land where one dwells.
כ-ז-בfalsehoodTo lie, and to be proved a liar, all one sense; the noun כָּזָב is a lie, and with an added alef אַכְזָב, a lying spring.
כ-ח-שfalsehood · forgettingTo deny and to lie; by borrowing, of a crop that belies the hope of those who wait on it; and in another sense, to grow lean.
כ-י-דspearכִּידוֹן, the spear that carries the banner, or perhaps the spear alone; the bronze kidon between the shoulders is a shoulder guard. כִּידוֹ is like אידו, ruin.
כ-י-לmiserThe miser, so called in his own view because he lays out his expenses by a fixed measure with nothing over; he stands opposite the open-handed man.
כ-כ-רbread · cakeA large loaf of bread, and a piece of bread; the plain of the Yarden; and the talent of gold or silver, sixty litrin, the holy talent twice that.Rav Pappenheim takes it from כ-ר
כ-ל-אstoppingTo withhold and restrain, which he says the verb, the prison and the sheepfold all mean; and כִּלְאַיִם: wool and linen mixed, two kinds of seed, grafting.
כ-ל-בbasketכֶּלֶב, the dog, which he calls known; כְּלוּב, a basket, a vessel made of rods in lattice work, in which birds are raised; and כָלִבִּי, of Kalev's family.
כ-ל-הkidneysWasting away and ruin; completion, a sense close to it; desire and longing; holding back. From this root too come the kidneys, and kli, any article of use.
כ-ל-כ-לbasketוַיְכַלְכֵּל יוֹסֵף אֶת־אָבִיו (Bereishis 47:12), Yosef sustained his father: he glosses nothing here, having set both pesukim down under the root כּוּל.
כ-ל-לcrownWholeness: כָּלִיל, the whole of a thing; beauty made whole; the bride, כַּלָּה, with all her beauty upon her; and כֹּל, all, which he holds is of this root.
כ-ל-םshameDisgrace: to be disgraced, and to disgrace another. It is more than shame, and always a matter of disrepute, where shame can come from humility.
כ-מ-סsecretStored away: he glosses כָּמֻס עִמָּדִי (Devarim 32:34), laid up with Me, as גנוז, put away in store.
כ-מ-רpriestOf mercy, to be stirred and rolled about, or to grow hot; close to it, blackened, and from this the כְּמָרִים, servants of avodah zarah in black; and a net.
כ-נ-םliceכִּנִּים, lice, in Shemos 8: the single one is כִּנָּה, in the words of Chazal, and הַכִּנָּם takes in the whole kind. The word כֵן, so, he files under כּוּן.
כ-נ-עmerchantLowering: to be humbled, and to bring another low. כְּנַעַן is also a trader, a merchant.
כ-נ-ףbird · wingA wing; by borrowing, shelter under a wing and a garment's lower edge; the ends of the earth; light spreading as a wing spreads; and יִכָּנֵף, to be gathered in.
כ-נ-רkinneresכִּנּוֹר, the kinnor, named in the pesukim with the ugav and the nevel; its sense is known. It takes a plural, and a plural in the feminine form.
כ-ס-אchairA throne, and the heavens are called Hashem's throne. כֶּסֶא, pointed with six dots, is a time, and it is also written with a heh, כֵּסֶה.
כ-ס-ב-רcoriander
כ-ס-הclothing · propertyTo cover; its nouns are כְּסוּי and כְּסוּת, a covering or a garment, and מִכְסֶה, a covering.
כ-ס-לtrustThe fool and his folly; in another sense, trust and hope; Kesil, a star; and the כְּסָלִים, the flanks beside the kidneys at the roots of the thighs.
כ-ס-ןguest
כ-ס-סchewing · taxNumber: תָּכֹסּוּ עַל־הַשֶּֽׂה, you shall make your count for the lamb; and the מֶכֶס, the tax, is named for number, being taken by count.
כ-ע-סangerTo be angry and to anger another, with the noun for anger; all of it, he says, is wrath and fierce anger.
כ-פ-ןfamineGathering, as of roots gathered in; and כָּפָן, the Targum's word for famine, which his father explains instead as lack of the purse.
כ-פ-ףbasketTo bend or bow down. From it כִּפָּה, a branch, and כַּף, the palm, both for being bent; כַּף is also the sole of the foot, the hollow of the thigh, and a spoon.
כ-פ-רforgiveness · heretic · lionTo coat, and from it the כַפֹּרֶת, the aron's cover; to remove, as anger or sin, and atonement is from this; also a village, a young lion, frost, and pans of gold.
כ-פ-תtying
כ-פ-ת-רEgyptכַּפְתֹּר: on the menorah, knobs like apples bulging from its body; in Amos, the lintel over the doorposts, called so for the flowers and kaftorim figured on it.
כ-רcamel · dancing · plainRav PappenheimDigging: כריה, a dig that is not deep, against חפירה, the deep one; so searching out and recognizing (הכרה), and the furnace, the field, cutting and selling.
כ-ר-בangel classesA keruv, a winged figure. Ibn Ezra holds the word covers any form; Chazal take the kaf as a prefix, כרביא, like a youth. A king is called a keruv by borrowing.
כ-ר-הdigTo dig. A second sense is eating, as כֵּרָה גְדוֹלָה is a great meal; a third is acquiring, as by purchase.Rav Pappenheim takes it from כ-ר
כ-ר-ךouter garmentTo wind or wrap around; תַּכְרִיךְ is the cloak a man winds about himself, and in Chazal the shrouds of the dead.Rav Pappenheim takes it from כ-ר
כ-ר-כ-רdancingTo dance. From it camels, or beasts light in their going, are called כרכרות, since in their lightness and speed they seem to dance.
כ-ר-מ-לwidowThe ear of grain while still soft and moist; a colour, said to be scarlet; and land of fruit trees and grain fields, for which the mountain is named.
כ-ר-סchairThe belly: מִלָּא כְרֵשֹׂו מֵֽעֲדָנָי (Yirmiyahu 51:34), he filled his belly with my delicacies. The word, he says, is known from the language of Chachamim.
כ-ר-עbowingTo kneel or crouch, and to bring another low; from this, כְּרָעַיִם, a beast's legs, named for their bending in kneeling.
כ-ר-תcutting · excisionTo cut: to cut a covenant, to be cut off from one's people, and to cut off; סֵפֶר כְּרִיתֻת, a bill of divorce; and cedar beams cut and well hewn.Rav Pappenheim takes it from כ-ר
כ-ש-בsheep and goatsThe כֶּשֶׂב, a lamb, is one with כבש, its letters turned about: up to a year old it is called כשב or כבש, and older than a year, אַיִל, a ram.
כ-ת-בbook · writingTo write. The nouns כְּתָב and מִכְתָּב are each both the writing itself and a letter sent; and כְּתֹבֶת קַֽעֲקַע, a mark gouged into the flesh and written in.
כ-ת-לwallThe wall: אַחַר כָּתְלֵנוּ (Shir HaShirim 2:9), behind our wall, which he glosses הוא הקיר, it is the wall.
כ-ת-םgoldכֶּתֶם, the good gold: Rabbi Yonah wrote that it is pearls, but its tie to Ophir and to פָּז makes it look like gold. Also נִכְתָּם, marked; Chazal call a mark כתם.
כ-ת-ןlinenA tunic, כְּתֹנֶת, in several patterns of the noun. A pasuk may name the tunic and the robe together as one, but among the priestly garments they are two.
כ-ת-ףshoulderThe shoulder, a known word; כְתֵפֹת, shoulder pieces, called so for sitting on the shoulders; and in other places a side or a flank.
כ-ת-רcrownThe crown, כֶּתֶר, and the capitals that sat on the pillars like one; since a crown is round, to surround; and in another sense, to wait.
ל-א-טmagicTo cover, as the king covered his face; and of the sorcerers' arts, done in hiding and in covering from men.
ל-א-ךangel · workA messenger, one sent, whether by men or by the Creator, the navi among them; and another sense in this root, מְלָאכָה, a man's work, his property and his affairs.
ל-א-םnationלְאֹם, a people, and the plural לְאֻמִּים; his entry gives no gloss, only the pesukim and a note on one spelling.
ל-ב-אlionלָבִיא, the lion; its feminine is לְבִיָּא, the lioness, and its plurals are לְבָאִם, lions, and לְלִבְאֹתָיו, for his lionesses.
ל-ב-ןmoon · rock · whiteWhite. The brick, הַלְּבֵנָה, may be from it, since what is burnt whitens; the moon, לְבָנָה, is named for looking white. Also לִבְנֶה, a tree, and לְבוֹנָה, a resin.
ל-ה-בEgypt · fireA flame. The sword too is called lahav, since it looks like a flame as it blazes; and the לַהֶבֶת of a spear is its iron.
ל-ה-טfire · magicBurning, as fire burns. לַהַט הַחֶרֶב is the flame of the sword, and the sorcerers' בְּלַֽהֲטֵיהֶם may be of the same, some sorcery being done with a sword's flame.
ל-ו-זalmondTo turn aside, to incline away; נָלוֹז is what is bent aside. And the לוּז, called avellanier in the vernacular, which Rav Saadiah Gaon took for the almond.
ל-ו-ןsleepTo lodge for the night; some hold it is said also of constant persistence. A second sense, to complain, holding a grievance, mostly takes a dagesh to keep the two apart.
ל-ו-ץadvocateTo scoff, a sense he calls known, the לֵץ being the scoffer; and a separate sense, of the מֵלִיץ and the מְלִיצָה, meaning the substance of a matter and the plea for it.
ל-ח-םbread · warTo eat, and לֶחֶם, food of every kind, said most of all of bread; from this sense, מִלְחָמָה, war, and to fight, since in war the sword eats on this side and on that.
ל-ח-ץpressureTo press, whether a people oppressed or a foot pressed against a wall; and the noun, oppression. All of it, he says, is the sense of pressure.
ל-י-לdemonNight, with or without a final heh, its plural in the feminine form. Also the לִּילִית, a beast of the wilderness named for crying out at night; some say a bird.
ל-מ-דteachingTo learn, and to teach; and of the taught and accustomed, whose sense is learning and habit. The ox goad, מַלְמַד, is named for teaching the oxen to plough.
ל-מ-הwhyWhat: a question after what a thing is or how it is. It can mean 'when'; with a lamed, 'for what reason'; it also magnifies, belittles, leaves unsaid, or laments.
ל-ע-סchewing
ל-פ-דfireלַפִּיד, the burning wood, called so only once alight; Eishes Lapidos is the wife of Barak, and ברק, lightning, and לפיד, a torch, are close in sense.
ל-ק-הflogging
ל-ק-חspoils of warTo take. Its nouns: מַלְקוֹחַ, spoil; tongs, named for taking hold of a thing; a purchase; and לֶקַח, knowledge.
ל-ק-קlicking · locustTo lick: the dogs that licked, and whoever licks water with his tongue. Its sense, he says, is that of licking, and it is well known.
ל-ק-שrainThe late rain and the late grass: the מַלְקוֹשׁ is the later rain, where the יוֹרֶה comes first; the לֶקֶשׁ is late grass; and the verb is to leave a vineyard late.
ל-ש-ןlanguage · names of Mordechaiלָשׁוֹן, the tongue, and in the plural the tongues of the nations; the verb, to denounce and slander; and by borrowing, a tongue of gold, of fire, of sea, or of rock.
ל-ת-עteethThe large teeth, מַלְתְּעוֹת; and from this a verb for those teeth being uprooted and falling out.
מ-א-ןrefusalTo refuse: מֵאֵן בִּלְעָם הֲלֹךְ עִמָּֽנוּ (Bamidbar 22:14), Bilam refused to go with us; and the adjective, one who refuses, in two patterns.
מ-א-רcurseCausing pain: its sense, he says, is like מכאיב, one that pains, as of סִלּוֹן מַמְאִיר, a brier that pains, and צָרַעַת מַמְאֶרֶת, a painful tzaraas.
מ-ד-דclothingTo measure, all of it one sense of measure; the noun is מִדָּה, a measure, and אִישׁ מִדָּה is a man of great measure.
מ-ה ד-עwhyWhy: the word's sense, he says, is like למה; some say it is two words, מַה דַּוּעַ, what knowledge, from יָדַע, knowing. To know, and in places to recognize or to feel a thing; also of a man knowing his wife. Making a thing known; and מוֹדָע, a kinsman, so called because he knows a man.
מ-ה-הdelay
מ-ה-לcircumciserMixed, as wine mixed with water. His entry under these letters holds that alone, and nothing of circumcision.
מ-ו-טpoleTo tilt and slip, with מוֹט a slipping; and, close to that sense, מוֹט a carrying pole, and מוֹטָה the yoke, or the strap it is tied with.
מ-ו-לcircumciser · cuttingTo circumcise; all its forms, he says, are the sense of cutting; and מוּל, over against, facing.
מ-ו-רexchange · heretic · razorמֹר, myrrh, a spice. Some took it for musk; Ibn Ezra makes it a spice of the gathered plants, and Rabbeinu Hai the resin of a sweet-smelling tree.
מ-ו-תdeathTo die, or to be dead, and מָוֶת is death. Where the verb takes an object, it means to put a man to death.
מ-ז-גmixingMixture: הַמָּזֶג, a word known from Chazal, who speak of יין מזוג, mixed wine, explained as wine that water is mixed into.
מ-ח-לforgiveness
מ-ט-רrainRain; and to rain, of Hashem raining bread or snares down, and of the cloud that rains, or does not rain, upon a field.
מ-י-ןheretic · speciesKind: what is like a thing and is of its own make, as fruit after its kind and the beast of the earth after its kind.
מ-י-רexchangeExchanging one thing for another, with the noun תמורה, what is given in exchange. In one pasuk the word may also carry a second sense, magnifying.
מ-כ-ךpovertyLowness: to be brought low, as in sin, and to sink, as a roof does. The brother who grows poor may be from it too.
מ-כ-רmoneyTo sell, and to be sold; also of one who sells himself to do evil. The nouns מֶכֶר and מִמְכָּר are the thing sold.Rav Pappenheim takes it from כ-ר
מ-ל-ךking · synonyms · the Egyptian monarchTo reign; מֶלֶךְ, a king; מְלוּכָה, מַמְלָכָה and מַלְכוּת, kingship. In another sense, to take counsel. And מֹלֶךְ, an avodah zarah served with two fires.
מ-ל-לwordTo speak or utter, with the noun מִלָּה, a word; by figure, to speak with the feet by signs. In another sense מְלִילֹת, ears of grain, rubbed out by hand.
מ-ל-ץadvocateSweet, and strongly so: he reads מַה־ נִּמְלְצוּ as how sweet and how forceful, the sweetness at its full strength. The words for spokesmen may belong here too.
מ-נ-הcounting · moneyTo count. The מָנֶה, a weight of sixty shekels, is named for the known number in it. In a second sense, to appoint or assign, and a מָנָה is a portion.
מ-נ-חgiftמִנְחָה, a gift or offering, its mem perhaps of the root, perhaps added; the evening and morning olah are so called, and the prayer is named for the evening one's hour.
מ-נ-עstoppingTo withhold, to keep a thing back from someone; and to be withheld, or to hold back. The sense of withholding, he says, is known.
מ-ס-ךmaskMixture and confusion; so too the mixing of water with wine, and the nouns מֶסֶךְ and מִמְסָךְ, a mixture.
מ-צ-אchanceTo find and to be found; to befall, of the happenings that meet a man; to suffice; and, where the verb takes an object, to bring a thing to hand.
מ-צ-חforeheadThe forehead, a sense he calls known; and מִצְחַת נְחשֶׁת, a plate of brass, named for the מצחה that girls wear on the forehead.
מ-צ-רEgyptStraits, which he reads as fences on either side that leave no way to flee; in Chazal's words, a boundary. The mem may or may not be a root letter.
מ-ר-דrebellionTo rebel, against a king or against Hashem; and in another sense, poverty and lowliness: מְרוּדִים, the lowly poor, and the days of her affliction and lowliness.
מ-ר-הrebellion · refusalTo defy a word or a command, which in all its forms he calls changing and altering it; מְרִי, defiance. מוֹרָה is a razor.
מ-ר-קwashingScouring, a sense he calls known: spears and a vessel scoured; the women's adornment, which scours the flesh clean; and broth, since the meat is scoured in it.
מ-ר-רrebellionBitter and bitterness, in taste and in soul; the gall; and in other senses, exchange, as of a scent unchanged, and height, as the tall markers, תַּמְרוּרִים.
מ-ש-ךpulling and drawingTo draw or pull: a bow, a yoke, kindness toward someone, a thing drawn out; מֶשֶׁךְ is also read as preciousness, its name being drawn far; and Meshech, a nation.
מ-ש-לking · synonymsTwo senses: to rule, with הַמֶּמְשָׁלָה, the dominion; and the מָשָׁל, the likening of one thing to another (which also holds hidden matters), with being likened.
מ-ת-גmuzzleThe מֶתֶג: the iron goad that pricks a donkey, and the long iron put in a beast's mouth to lead it, all one sense, he says. Also Meseg HaAmah, taken from the Pelishtim.
מ-ת-קsweetTo be sweet and to make sweet: sweetness of lips, sweeter than honey, the labourer's sweet sleep; and by a borrowing, evil sweet in the mouth, and sweet light.
נ-א-הpleasure
נ-א-םspeechA saying (מאמר): נְאֻם is a noun, though it may be a verb; and from it the נֶאֱמָנִים, those clear of tongue and skilled in the wisdom of speech.
נ-א-ץangerTo loathe and spurn; the heavy form comes close to provoking anger, and all the forms are near one another in sense.
נ-ב-אprophetA prophet, and to prophesy: to receive prophecy from Hashem and speak it to those one is sent to. A נְבִיאָה is a prophetess, and also a prophet's wife.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ב-א
נ-ב-טseeingTo look toward, to gaze; and the noun מַבָּט, the thing one looks to. His word for the sense is השגחה, watchful attention.
נ-ב-לclouds · corpseFalling: leaves that fall, the base and fallen man, a disgraceful thing, the carcass that falls. Also נֵבֶל, a skin or a potter's jug, and an instrument of music.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ב-ל
נ-ב-עspeechComing out from a source, as water wells up; and speech, called so because it comes out of the mouth as water from its source.
נ-ג-בcompass directions · dryThe south, and waste, parched land; in the Targum and in Chazal, to dry. The south itself is called נֶגֶב, he says, for the drought of that quarter and its heat.
נ-ג-דtellingTo tell; נֶגֶד, over against or in front of, and with a mem before it, at a distance; from it, נָגִיד, the head of the people, to whom all turn.
נ-ג-חspringPushing and striking with the horn, which he gives as the sense of every form, from the ox that pushes a man to שׁוֹר נַגָּח, a pushing ox.
נ-ג-עleprosyReaching and bringing near: touching, at times to do harm, reaching a place, and bringing one thing to another. A second sense is being stricken, with נֶגַע, a plague.
נ-ג-ףplagueThrusting and striking, some of it deadly and some not: striking a thing, a foot knocking against a stone, being beaten; and נֶגֶף and מַגֵּפָה, the stroke.
נ-ג-שapproach · pressureTo press: pressing out silver and gold, pressing one's fellow, the נֹגֵשׂ who presses, and being pressed; all of them, he says, the sense of pressure. To draw near, and to bring near. Even moving off is said with it, since one who is far from the speaker's place is near to the other place.
נ-ד-בvowTo give willingly, where the heart moves a man to it. The נָדִיב is one whose soul is broad to give of his own in the fitting place, and a נְדָבָה is a freewill gift.
נ-ה-גleadingTo drive or to lead: a flock, cattle, a wagon, an east wind. Of the heart, to conduct oneself, as with wisdom. The noun is the manner of driving.
נ-ה-לleadingTo lead: of its verbs he says ענין נוהג, their sense is leading; and הַנַּהֲלֹלִים, a kind of low, lesser tree, which his father takes from הלל.
נ-ה-םanimal soundsIts sense is like that of שאגה, roaring: said of men, of young lions, of the sea, and of the heart.
נ-ה-קanimal soundsMaking a noise, המיה, which is his sense for both pesukim: the wild donkey over grass, and those among the bushes.
נ-ה-רriverTo run toward the thing desired; from this the river, נָהָר, is named, as the place where water runs. A second sense is light, with the noun נְהָרָה.
נ-ו-בfoodFruit and herbage coming out and growing; likewise wealth increasing, and speech, which is the fruit of the tongue.
נ-ו-ןfish
נ-ו-ףwavingMelting and sprinkling, as with spices, and נֹפֶת, a dripping; in another sense, waving to and fro, as a wave offering, a hand or a sieve; and נוֹף, a district.
נ-ז-הthrowingTo sprinkle, of blood and of the water of the niddah; a known sense, like dripping. He reads כֵּן יַזֶּה גּוֹיִם רַבִּים as speaking: so shall he address many nations.
נ-ז-לfortuneTo flow down, of water and of mountains, and to make flow. The מַזָּלוֹת, the constellations, are named from it because they flow in their course.
נ-ז-רcrownKeeping apart: the nazir keeps himself apart from wine, and the growth of his hair is called נֶזֶר. In another sense, נֵזֶר is a crown.
נ-ח-הleadingTo lead and conduct: the sense of them all, he says, is conducting and leading. The word מִנְחָה, a gift, he explains elsewhere, under the root מָנַח.
נ-ח-לinheritance · riverTo take as a possession, and to give one; נַחֲלָה, an inheritance. In another sense, נַחַל, the valley the water runs in, called so even when it is dry.
נ-ח-םmixingConsolation: comforting, being comforted and taking comfort, with the nouns for it; and in another sense, regret.
נ-ח-רnose · slaughterThe nostrils, the two openings of the nose; and sneezing, as of horses, is named for them.
נ-ח-שsnakeTo divine by omens; the snake; copper, with the fetters named for it and the metal meant where strength is spoken of; and the bottom of a thing.
נ-ט-הbed · staff and tribeTo turn aside; to turn a thing aside and bring it to something; and, near to that, to spread and stretch, from which come מִטָּה, a bed, and מַטֶּה, a staff and a tribe.
נ-ט-ףbalsamFlowing and melting: hands dripping myrrh, mountains dripping sweet wine; by borrowing, speech that drops; neck pendants; and נָטָף, a spice said to be tzori.
נ-ט-רguardingTo keep; from this sense, the מַטָּרָה, a mark set up to shoot arrows at, and the court and the gate of the guard.
נ-י-םhair
נ-י-ןfishנִין, whose sense he says is like בן, a son; מָנוֹן is another pattern of the word, and יִנּוֹן another form of it.
נ-כ-אwaxנְכֹאת, a desirable thing (Bereishis 37:25); some explain it as carob fruit, and Bereishis Rabbah as wax.
נ-כ-הfloggingTo strike: a man, a thing, the hand against the hand, or with the tongue; by borrowing, to tear a city down. Close to it in sense, נְכֵה רַגְלָיִם, lame in the feet.
נ-כ-רdig · strangerTo recognize. A second sense, its opposite: denial and strangeness, and from it נֵכָר and נָכְרִי, the foreign. A third: to hand over.Rav Pappenheim takes it from כ-ר
נ-מ-סlaw
נ-נ-סshortness of stature
נ-ס-ךidols · mask · princessTo cover, and a מַסֵּכָה is a covering. To pour or to cast, as a libation is poured and an idol cast. And in a third sense, to install a ruler.
נ-ס-סpoleThe נֵס, the banner carried high for a whole army to see and follow; the root's core is height and being raised, and a sail is a נֵס too.
נ-ס-עfleeingTo set out; to pull a thing out of its place; to make others set out, or to move a thing away; and the noun is the march.
נ-ע-םgood · sweetTo be pleasant; pleasantness is a known sense, of the kind that is beauty: pleasant words, ways of pleasantness, the one pleasant in Yisrael's songs.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ם
נ-ע-רanimal sounds · youthTo roar, and in Chazal's usage the braying of a donkey; to shake out; and נַעַר, a youth, and so a servant of any age, since it is the way of the young to serve the old.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ר
נ-פ-לchickTo fall, its many uses one sense, each read by its context; also to be less than another. The nouns: the refuse of grain, a miscarried child, and the giants.
נ-פ-שsoul · tombstoneThe soul; at times the body; the will and the desire; the dead, so called because death is the soul's parting from the body; the breath; and as a verb, to rest.
נ-צ-בaltar · idols · standing · tombstoneWhat is set up or stands: נְצִיב, a mound of salt or a governor; מַצֵּבָה, a stone set up to be worshipped; הַנִּצָּב, a knife's handle. Most of it may belong to יָצַב.
נ-צ-חforever · praiseThe text here breaks off after מְנַצְּחִים לְהַֽעֲבִיד אֶת־הָעָֽם, overseeing, to make the people work, and runs on into words of reaching.
נ-צ-לsalvationTo be rescued and to rescue, to take away, and to strip. The sense is removal and stripping, and rescue falls under it, as removal from the one who takes a man.
נ-צ-רguardingTo guard and keep, and from it the נוֹצְרִים, lookouts in a tower; another sense, ruin; and a third, נֵצֶר, a young shoot or a branch.
נ-ק-בhammerTo bore and pierce; מַקֶּבֶת is the hammer that bores, and נְקֵבָה, female, derives from this sense. In another sense, to name, and to spell out the Name and curse.
נ-ק-ףaroundBreaking and cutting: of a head cut off, of forest thickets cut down with iron, and of the cutting of an olive tree.
נ-ר-ק-סrose
נ-ש-אbetrothal · cloudsTo carry and lift, one sense, he says, through the whole root, with taking close to it; מַשָּׂא, a burden and a prophecy; נָשִׂיא, a great man. Another sense: burning. To incite and to entice; and a second sense, ruin and desolation.
נ-ש-בwindowOf the wind, to blow upon a thing; to make the wind blow, and to make a thing fly off. The sense, he says, is ההפרחה והריחוף, making fly and hovering.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ש-ב
נ-ש-הforgetting · manTo forget; and in another sense, to lend and to be a creditor, where נֹשֶׁה may name the lender and the borrower alike.
נ-ש-לslipping offTo slip off and drop, of itself; and with an object, to take off or drive out, which he gives as removal and overthrow: the shoe from the foot, nations from before you.
נ-ש-םsoulBreath: every living thing's, it seems to him, though Ibn Ezra finds the word only of man. Also the תִּנְשֶׁמֶת, a kind of bird and a creeping thing.
נ-ת-חcuttingCutting into נְתָחִים, which are limbs: וְנִתַּח אֹתוֹ לִנְתָחָיו (Vayikra 1:12), and he shall cut it into its limbs.
נ-ת-ןgift · placingTo give. He sets out the forms and at the end says only ענינם ידוע, their sense is known.
נ-ת-קcornerRemoval and uprooting: a thing pulled loose, men drawn away from a city, roots torn out; and נֶתֶק, the name of a nega in a place of hair.
ס-ב-אdrunkenness · wineDrinking and drunkenness; wine is named for it, and so the wine-seller is called סובא; and סְבָאִים, a nation of the sons of Kush.
ס-ב-בaround · mealGoing round a thing and encircling it. Every word of the root is this one sense, since there is no rolling, returning or reversing without a going round.
ס-ב-רexplanation
ס-ג-דbowingTo bow down. His entry gives no gloss of its own: two pesukim, and the Targum's use of the word for bowing oneself down.
ס-ה-דwitness
ס-ה-רmoonThe moon: the Targum renders יָרֵחַ, the moon, with סִיהֲרָא. The women's mirrors are called שהרונים for being like it, and the prison is round in its likeness.
ס-ו-דsecretCounsel and a hidden matter, and from this sense the counsel of those who join together. Rabbi Yonah made two senses of it; Radak holds it is all one sense.
ס-ו-ףmarshTo come to an end; from it סוֹף, the end of a thing; סוּפָה, the storm, which too brings things to an end; and סוּף, the rush, which may be named for its quick end.
ס-ח-רmerchantTo go round about. From this a trader is socher, going round the lands and back, and a round shield is sochera; also trade, wares, and a gem perhaps named for traders.
ס-י-ףsword and knife
ס-כ-הprincess
ס-כ-ךcanopy · names of MosheTo cover over, and at times to screen off as a partition; the nouns סֻכָּה, a booth, and מָסָךְ, a screen; and סָךְ, a count.
ס-כ-ןpoverty · sword and knifeTo be of use, to profit. In other senses, to be accustomed; the one set over the treasury, and storehouses; to warm; and מִסְכֵּן, poor.
ס-ל-הforeverTo tread down and trample, as it may be read from מסלה, a highway, though the two are separate roots; and in another sense, to be valued.
ס-ל-חforgivenessTo forgive. He gives the word no gloss, only its forms: the verb, being forgiven, סַלָּח, forgiving, and סְלִיחָה, forgiveness.
ס-ל-לpath · pathsRaising and lifting high, all one sense on his view: lifting stones off a road, so the road is a מְסִלָּה; the siege work, סֹלְלָה; extolling. Another sense: a thorn.
ס-ל-עcoins · rock · rockA rock; high fortresses are called so too, since most of them are built on rock; and figuratively, Hashem as a rock.
ס-ל-תflourSolet, the flour of a coarse grinding; so the Mishnah speaks of a sieve that lets the flour through and holds the solet back.
ס-מ-אblindness
ס-מ-ךtrustTo lean on a support, or to hold up; close to it, drawing near and surrounding; and in another sense, the שְׂמִיכָה, written with a sin, a thick covering.
ס-מ-פ-ןblemish
ס-מ-קred
ס-ע-דmeal · trustTo support, to prop up: bread supports the heart, a right hand upholds a man, kindness upholds a throne. From this Chazal called a meal סעודה.
ס-פ-ןboats · hiddenThe roofing of houses and covering them over; close to it, שְׂפֻנֵי, hidden things, written with a sin; and the סְפִינָה, a ship, a known word.
ס-פ-רblue · book · border · counting · haircut · scribe · tellingTo count; to tell; and to write, a סֵפֶר being a book and a סֹפֵר a scribe. In another sense, סַפִּיר, a stone the authorities identify differently.
ס-ק-לstoningTo stone; and turned about, to clear of stones. His father held them all one sense, reading the clearing as building with stones.
ס-ר-בrefusalTo refuse and rebel, ממאנים וממרים in his gloss; the Targum uses the word for refusing and for rebellion, and it is known in the language of Chazal.
ס-ר-ףuncleA man's mother's brother, where the דּוֹד is his father's brother; others take the word from burning instead.
ס-ר-קgrapevine
ס-ת-רhidden · names of Esther · secretTo be hidden, and to hide; the noun סֵתֶר, a hiding place or secrecy.
ע-ב-דhandmaid · workTo serve: service to men, divine service, and working the land. עֶבֶד is a servant; the land's produce is named for the work, and the word can mean deeds.
ע-ב-טcollateralThe pledge, a thing seized and held back in a man's hand; from it, being held back on the way; and lending, since a loan on a pledge is called by it.
ע-ב-רanger · because · boats · names of the Jewish people · sinTo pass or cross over, transgress, outstrip, bar across. עֵבֶר is a side and an עִבְרִי of Ever's family. Also anger, grain and pregnancy; בַּעֲבוּר, because of.
ע-ג-בloveLove and words of desire; and עוּגָב, one of the instruments of music, from which Yonasan renders כְּשִׁיר עֲגָבִים, like a song of love, as the music of pipes.
ע-ג-לcattle · path · pathsRound; from it מַעְגָּל, a camp, pitched in a ring, and עֲגָלָה, a wagon, which is round. Also מַעְגָּל, a way; עָגִיל, an earring; and עֵגֶל, a calf.
ע-דforever · spoils of war · witnessRav PappenheimComing together: things joined to each other, or two joined in a third that binds them. So until and for ever, meeting and set time, still, ornament, delight, witness.
ע-ד-ןnow · pleasurePleasure, תענוג: whatever gives the body pleasure, good food or fine clothing; עֶדְנָה, the days of youth. Also binding, as he holds Agag's מַעֲדַנֹּת to mean.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ד
ע-ו-דgatheringThree matters: to plunder, and the spoil; to testify, a witness and his testimony; and continuance and the present time: while, still, yet, further, for ever.
ע-ו-הsinTwisting, the sense of every form: to be bent awry, to act perversely. עָוֹן is iniquity, and at times the punishment for iniquity.
ע-ו-ףaround · birdThree senses: to fly; darkness, which most commentators take the other way, as brightness; and weariness, with עָיֵף borrowed for one who thirsts.
ע-ו-רblindness · wakingTo wake and to rouse. Other senses: an enemy; baring and uncovering; עוֹר, skin; and blinding, with עִוֵּר, blind.
ע-ז-זstrengthTo be strong and to hold sway; oz, strength, and maoz, a stronghold; az, strong or fierce; and the ozniyah, a bird named for its great fierceness.
ע-ט-הclothingWrapping in a covering, as a garment is put about one; and a second sense, where the root's last letter shows, turning aside.
ע-ט-רcrownThe crown, whose sense he calls known. The plain verb, from the noun, is to surround a man like a crown; the heavy forms are to give a crown and to crown.
ע-י-ןcolorThe eye, and looking, whether in hatred or in hope; the look a thing has; a spring of water; and in Chazal's usage, something after the manner of another.
ע-י-ףtiredWeary: עָיֵף וְיָגֵעַ, faint and weary, and my soul is faint. He gives no gloss here, having set these pesukim down already under the root עוף.
ע-י-רangel classes · donkeyA city; and a second sense, עַיִר, the donkey while it is still young, a word that fell on the wild ass as well.
ע-כ-סpoisonThe anklet, a rattling ornament that women wear on their feet; and the fetter, called by the same word because it rattles too.
ע-כ-שsnake
ע-ל-הclothing · level · praiseTo go up; the עֹלָה, an offering named for going up whole, and the עֲלִיָּה, an upper room, are from it. Close to it, to be cut off and to cease. Also עָלֶה, a leaf.
ע-ל-םforever · hidden · youthTo be hidden, and to hide; עֶלֶם and עַלְמָה, a youth and a young woman; and עוֹלָם, a long span, as until Yovel or all one's life; עוֹלָמִים, this world and the next.
ע-ל-קnames of Shlomo HaMelechThe עֲלוּקָה: in his own view the leech of Chazal, the river worm that sucks blood until it swells and never says enough. Rav Saadiah Gaon read it as privation.
ע-םwithRav PappenheimWith: the incidental sharing one relation with the essential, or the secondary with the main; at root ע, movement, so existence at one and the same time.
ע-מ-דstandingTo stand; also to stop, and to endure and hold firm. The עַמּוּד, a pillar, is what keeps a house standing; and עִמָּדִי means with me.
ע-מ-םnationTo cover over and hide. Under the same letters stands עַם, a people, a gathering of men, said also of other creatures such as locusts and ants.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ם
ע-מ-רpileMaking use of a person along with trading in him; and the עֹמֶר, a measure, with עָמִיר, which he explains as gathered bundles of ears.
ע-מ-תfriendעָמִית, a fellow, a companion; and לְעֻמַּת, over against, opposite.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ם
ע-נ-הfastingTo answer; close to it, to testify and to raise the voice in song. To afflict and submit; עָנִי, poor; near it, עֲנָוָה, lowliness of spirit. Apart, עִנְיָן, business.
ע-ס-סdough · wineTo tread down and pound. From it is named עָסִיס, the liquid that comes out by squeezing and pounding.
ע-ס-קcommunal activist
ע-פ-לexcrementThe עֹפֶל, a high place and a stronghold; from it, raising the heart and strengthening it to go up. Also the עפולים, called טִחוֹרִים, a euphemism for the lower parts.
ע-פ-רdustDust and anything fine; one in sense with אֲדָמָה, ground, אֶרֶץ, earth, תֵּבֵל, world, differing a little; עוֹפֶרֶת, lead, gaining in dust; עֹפֶר, a young hart or deer.
ע-צ-בanger · idolsVexation and worry. From this idols are called עצבים, since dealing with them is worry and vexation, and by them one vexes Hashem. A near sense: toil and weariness.
ע-צ-דcutting toolsThe מַֽעֲצָד, a craftsman's tool: the large axe, or one of two small tools, since the Mishnah and a baraisa use the word differently.
ע-צ-הkidneysTo shut the eyes; and הֶעָצֶה, the end of the spine, which Chazal took instead from the root יעץ, counsel.
ע-צ-םbone · strength · treeStrength, force and greatness; עֶצֶם, a bone, so called as stronger than flesh; from it the body, and likewise the body of any thing. Another sense: to close the eyes.
ע-צ-רnames of ShavuosTo withhold and hold back, and in a close sense to hold up or detain. From it rule is called עֶצֶר, holding the people in, and a gathering עֲצָרָה, held in one place.
ע-ק-בnames of YaakovDeceit and cunning; the heel, and in the plural, goings; from the heel, the end of a thing, and reward, since reward is the end of the deed.
ע-ק-דtyingTo tie, which he glosses ויקשור; and the flock called עֲקֻדִּים, so named because their spots were where the foreleg is bent onto the leg and tied.
ע-רbeast and boor · child · pile · wakingRav PappenheimBare: what lies open to the eye with nothing screening it. From it nakedness, skin and blindness, city and forest, the heap, waking and youth, the foe, and cunning.
ע-ר-בcompass directions · mixing · sweet · wildernessTo mingle, and from it עֶרֶב, evening, when things blur together, and מַעֲרָב, the west. Also to be pleasing, to stand surety, עֲרָבָה, wilderness, and willows.
ע-ר-הrazorPouring out; uncovering, and nakedness; joining, as shields joined to a wall; and עָרוֹת, the moist greens and grasses.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ר
ע-ר-םpileTo be shrewd, the sense of stratagems and cunning; in a second sense, naked; in a third, a heap, as of grain. And עַרְמוֹן, a tree.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ר
ע-ר-קfleeingTo flee: הָעֹרְקִים are those fleeing, and the Targum renders fleeing with the word. Also the sinews, as עֹרְקַי, my sinews, and in Arabic the sinews are called by it.
ע-ר-רexcisionChildless: the עֲרִירִי is a man alone, with no children.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ר
ע-ש-ןangerSmoke, and to smoke. Since anger and wrath are heat, and are figured as fire, they are figured as smoke as well.
ע-ש-קcommunal activistHarassing and contesting a claim, טרידה וערעור: the well named עֵשֶׂק, because they contended with him. To withhold another's money that came into your hand, a deposit, a loan or a wage owed, refusing to return it; robbing, taking by force, is a different thing.
ע-ש-תelevenBright and clear, as burnished iron or ivory; in another sense thought, from which, he holds, eleven is named, as the counter's first thought after ten.
ע-ת-דsheep and goats · timeReady, made ready: what is prepared for someone, of punishment or of treasure; and עַתּוּדִים, the grown he-goats, a name borrowed for the nobles who lead the people.
ע-ת-קold ageThick and strong, much and great; in another sense, to uproot and move from a place, so the copyist is called מעתיק, a mover; and in a third, to grow old.
פ-א-הcornerThe edge and end of anything, which is called its פאה; and a verb, to scatter into every פאה, every corner.
פ-א-רpraiseGlory, praise and beauty: to take glory to oneself, and to glorify; הַפְּאֵרִים are caps, a glory on the head. פֻּארָה, a bough, may belong here.
פ-ג-םblemish
פ-ג-רcorpseA corpse, which is the body without spirit; and as a verb, to be weakened and weary, unable to go on, or, on one reading, to make oneself out so.
פ-ד-הredemptionTo redeem, with its nouns for redemption and ransom. The פְדֻת set between My people and yours is that they are redeemed and saved, which sets the two apart.
פ-ד-חforehead
פ-ד-ןplainHis palace, אַפַּדְנוֹ, the alef added. פדן ארם is named so because two places were called Aram, פדן being two in Chazal's words; some take it as the field of Aram.
פ-ז-זdancingGrowing strong: וַיָּפֹזּוּ, they grew strong; מְפַזֵּז, bracing oneself as dancers do; and פָּז, the good refined gold, since the refined is the stronger.
פ-ח-דfearTo fear, with פַּחַד, fear; פַּחַד יִצְחָק is the One whom Yitzchak fears; and in another sense, at Iyov 40:17, the testicles.
פ-ט-רdeathSending away and opening: to slip away, to dismiss, to be exempt; the firstborn, פֶּטֶר כָּל־רֶחֶם, is so called as the sending out and first opening of the womb.
פ-י-לelephant
פ-י-סlottery
פ-כ-הvesselComing out, of water; and from this the flask of oil is called פַּךְ, since the oil is brought out and emptied from it.
פ-ל-אsignTo be wondrous, or too wondrous for someone, with פֶּלֶא, a wonder. Another sense, close to it, is setting apart, as with a vow; in that sense the root is פָּלָה.
פ-ל-חcuttingSplitting. The noun פֶּלַח is used of the lower millstone, a piece of the upper one, a piece of pressed figs, and a split piece of pomegranate.
פ-ל-טsurvivorRescue and escape: to get away and to deliver, the פָּלִיט being one who got away; and in another sense close to it, a casting out, as of the unborn child at birth.
פ-ל-לphylacteries · prayerTo judge: to rule on a case, and to carry out judgment. Prayer, תְּפִלָּה, belongs here because the one who prays asks Hashem to judge him in His mercy.
פ-ל-םwetness
פ-נ-גbalsamPannag, named with wheat and honey: some say it is a place; the Targum renders it kulya, a field herb in Chazal's usage; and Yosef ben Gurion says it is balsam.
פ-נ-הanger · compass directions · corner · maybe · unmarried manTo turn and look; from it פִּנָּה, a corner, and פָּנִים, the face, which also names anger; before, earlier, within, in one's lifetime; and in another sense, to clear.
פ-נ-קpleasureTo pamper, מענגו ומעדנו, giving one delight and indulgence: מְפַנֵּק מִנֹּעַר עַבְדּוֹ (Mishlei 29:21), one who pampers his servant from his youth.
פ-ס-גmountainThe פִּסְגָּה, whose top one goes up to; and as a verb, to strengthen and fortify, said of palaces.
פ-ס-חjumpingLame; and in a sense close to it, to skip over, as Hashem skipped over the doorways and over Yerushalayim; the offering is called pesach for that skipping.
פ-ס-לidols · writingTo hew, said mostly of stone and also of wood; the nouns פֶסֶל and פְּסִילִים, carved images; and הַפְּסִילִים, a place where stones were hewn.
פ-ס-קstopping
פ-ע-םfootA time, as this time or seven times. Also breaking and crushing, from which the bell is called פעמון; and the feet, and in the feminine plural, corners.
פ-צ-הwoundOpening, the sense of all of them, of the mouth and the lips; and another sense close to it, redeeming and the opening of the prison.
פ-צ-עwoundSplitting, that is, a blow that brings out blood, with the noun פֶּצַע; and פְצוּעַ־דַּכָּה, one whose testicles are split.
פ-ק-דcounting · rememberTo remember and watch over a thing; to lack, or be missing; to number and count; to command; to store a thing away; and to appoint a man over a charge.
פ-ר-אdonkeyפֶּרֶא, the wild donkey, and פֶּרֶא אָדָם, a man of the wilderness like one; and יַפְרִיא, he will increase and be fruitful, which Rabbi Yonah takes from פֶּרֶא.
פ-ר-ג-דcurtain
פ-ר-דdonkey · gardenפֶּרֶד, the mule, so named, Rav Hai Gaon wrote, because it does not beget and is apart; and to part, to be parted, and to separate others.
פ-ר-ד-סgardenA garden of fruit trees, as he glosses it: פַּרְדֵּס רִמּוֹנִים (Shir HaShirim 4:13), an orchard of pomegranates.
פ-ר-חchickTo blossom, and the blossom; close to it, a thing showing itself and spreading, as tzaraas on the skin; the young of birds and of men; and to fly.
פ-ר-ךcurtain · hardHardship and crushing, בְּפֶרֶךְ; and the פָרֹכֶת, a sheet that screened the Aron off from the Ohel Moed.
פ-ר-םcuttingTearing; and since Chazal set נקרעו, torn, beside נפרמו, come apart, it appears there is a difference: tearing is in the body of the garment, coming apart at the seam.
פ-ר-סpublicTo break into pieces with the hands, as bread for the hungry; to spread the hands in mourning; the hoof, פַּרְסָה; and the פֶּרֶס, a large bird of the wilderness.
פ-ר-עthe Egyptian monarchRebelling, keeping far off and setting aside; in another sense, uncovering, as of the head and its hair; and in a third, vengeance.
פ-ר-ע-שliceפַּרְעֹשׁ, the flea, a known word; before the king the one speaking calls himself a dog and a flea, for his lowliness and weakness. It is also a man's name.
פ-ר-קsalvationBreaking, and parting one thing from another: a yoke off the neck, rings from the ears; and close to it, tearing a man free from his foes.
פ-ר-שexcrement · explanationTo spread out flat, as a cloud, the hands or a net is spread; close to it, to scatter far apart; and a further sense, which he explains at פרס. To make plain, and a full account; close to it, separated; another sense, a snake's strike, and from it the horseman, who pricks his horse on; and dung.
פ-ש-עrebellion · sinTo step, to stride; פֶּשַׂע, a step, meaning a small thing; and מִפְשָׂעָה, a covered name for the private parts. Rebellion, going out from under the authority of a master, or of whoever charged him with the matter.
פ-ש-רexplanationInterpreting: פֵּשֶׁר דָּבָר is פתרון דבר, the interpretation of a matter, and the Targum uses the word for the interpretation of a dream.
פ-ש-תlinenFlax. The word is feminine, yet its suffix and its plural come in masculine form; פִּשְׁתֵּי הָעֵץ is flax still in its stalk, which is called wood.
פ-ת-הsuddenlyThe heart leaning aside, off the way of truth and reason; to entice; פֶּתִי, the fool who leans to anything; from it פִּתְאֹם, suddenly; a second sense, to make wide.
פ-ת-חnames of Mordechai · writingTo open; from it פֶּתַח, a doorway, and the key one opens with. Close to it: to loose and set free, as a sword is drawn; and to engrave, from which swords are named.
פ-ת-לfringes · phylacteriesTwisting and turning about, which he holds is the one sense of the whole root: crooked conduct, a thread doubled and twisted, and פָּתִיל, a small piece of cloth.
פ-ת-רexplanationInterpreting a dream: of verb and noun alike he says the sense is the explaining and clarifying of the dream.
פ-ת-ר-סEgypt
פ-ת-תbread · cuttingCutting and breaking into pieces, as פַת־לֶחֶם, a piece of bread, and פִּתִּים, pieces.
צ-ב-אroot צ-ב (splendor, desire, consent, army)The gathering of a host: to gather as a host against a place, and צָבָא, the host; in another sense an end and a set time, as a man's set time on earth.
צ-ב-הroot צ-ב (splendor, desire, consent, army) · willThe belly swelling; of this root too צְבִי, the gazelle, and צְבִי, desire and will, for which he says Eretz Yisrael is called צבי; Chazal give another reason.
צ-ב-עcolorDyeing; the bird called צָבוּעַ for its many colours, as though dyed; the צבוע, a beast Chazal name; and, from this root, אֶצְבַּע, a finger, its alef added.
צ-ב-רpublicTo heap up, as silver like dust, or grain; and the noun, a heap. All of it, he says, is the sense of gathering.
צ-ה-רoilNoon, when the day's light is strong; צֹהַר, a window the light comes in by; and יִצְהָר, oil fresh from the treading, called by a word of light for its great clearness.
צ-ו-םfastingTo fast, and צוֹם, a fast. His father wrote that the צוֹם called over Navos is a gathering, as is any calling of a צוֹם that is not a matter of teshuvah.
צ-ו-רrockTo besiege; close to it, straits and pain: pangs, the enemy, the rival wife; close to that, binding up. Also an envoy, a hinge, a rock, sharpness, a form; the neck.
צ-ח-קlaughterTo laugh; and to make sport, whether in amusement and rejoicing, in mockery, or in abuse. All of them, he says, come under the sense of laughter.
צ-ח-רwhiteWhite: אֲתֹנוֹת צְחֹרוֹת (Shoftim 5:10), white she-donkeys, and וְצֶמֶר צָֽחַר (Yechezkel 27:18), white wool.
צ-י-הwildernessצִי is a ship, and צִיִּים ships; צִיָּה is drought and wilderness, and צִיִּים are also the beasts, or the nations, that dwell in it.
צ-י-ןJerusalem · tombstoneIts sense is that of a מצבה, a standing stone set over a grave or as a sign on the roads.
צ-י-ץfringesFlowers coming out and being seen; other senses are the plate of gold, צִיץ, and a wing; and צִיצִת, the loose end that hangs from a garment.
צ-י-רangelצִיר נֶאֱמָן לְשֹֽׁלְחָיו (Mishlei 25:13), a faithful envoy to those who send him. The matter is set out already at the root צוּר.
צ-ל-לlocustShade and shadow, and growing shadowed or casting shade. A second sense is the motion of a noise, as in ringing ears, and from it bells and cymbals; a third is sinking.
צ-מ-תfastingTo cut off, the sense of כריתה, cutting off; some read one form, נִצְמָתוּ, as being joined together, from a word in Chazal.
צ-נ-ןcoldColdness; in another sense a thorn; and in a third the צִנָּה, a weapon of war like a shield.
צ-נ-ףhatTo wind round about, as a turban is wound; the מִצְנֶפֶת and the צָנִיף, turban and headwrap, which he says are known.
צ-ע-קcrying outTo cry out, and the noun צְעָקָה, a cry; their sense, he says, is like that of זעקה, spelled with a zayin.
צ-פ-הseeingTo look out and watch, all of it the sense of looking; in the heavy form close to hoping, since one who hopes for another looks out for him. A second sense: to overlay.
צ-פ-ןcompass directions · hidden · locust · names of YosefTo hide or store away. צָפוֹן, the north, is named for it, as though hidden: from men, since little of it is settled, or from the sun, whose path runs on the south.
צ-פ-עsnakeThe צֶפַע and the צִפְעֹנִי, a kind of snake; and in these letters cattle dung, and in that same sense offspring, sons and daughters.
צ-פ-צ-ףwhistleTo chirp: chirping in birds, he says, is as speech in man. In another sense, the צַפְצָפָה, a kind of willow, and the inferior kind.
צ-פ-רbird · morningTo rise early in the morning; a going round, as the turban wound round the head; צִפּוֹר, a bird; צְפִיר, a he-goat; and צִפֹּרֶן, a nail, and an iron stylus.
צ-פ-ר-ד-עplagueThe frog, a word whose sense he calls known; the singular הַצְּפַרְדֵּעַ may name the whole kind rather than a single frog.
צ-ר-יbalsamTzori, balm, which he takes to be the נטף among the spices of the ketores; Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel calls it sap that drips from the ketaf trees.
צ-ר-עleprosyTo be stricken with צָרַעַת, tzaraas, a thing he calls known. The צִרְעָה some said was a flying creature that struck the eyes with venom; Ibn Ezra takes it from צרעת.
צ-ר-רenemy · tyingTo harass, to be an enemy, with the noun הַמֵּצַֽר, the strait; to bind up, with צְרוֹר, a bundle; and צְרוֹר, a stone, which is like צוּר, a rock.
ק-ב-בcurseTo curse; הַקֻּבָּה, which is like a tent and, in קֳבָתָהּ, comes without the dagesh, or else קֳבָתָהּ is of קֵבָה, the maw. Chazal read קבתה as the place of ervah.
ק-ב-ץgatheringTo gather together. Its sense is like that of taking in, אסיפה, but as his father wrote, gathering is said only of what is scattered, and taking in even of what is not.
ק-ד-דbowingBowing: the lowering and bending of the קָדְקֹד, the crown of the head, a word of this root with its first letter doubled. Also the spice קִדָּה.
ק-ד-םbeginning · compass directionsTo go before, which he holds takes in coming before someone to meet him; קֶדֶם, of old, and the east, as the west is called behind; and קָדִים, the east wind.
ק-ד-שbetrothal · sanctuary · witnessTo be holy, and to make holy; also, to become forbidden, as holy things are. A second sense is designating, as in appointing a fast or a war.
ק-ה-לgathering · names of Shavuos · names of Shlomo HaMelechTo be gathered together, and to gather others; קָהָל, a congregation, with קְהִלָּה and מַקְהֵלִים for an assembly.
ק-ו-הnames of Moshe · trustHope and expectation; in a second sense, gathering, as of waters; and in a third, קַו, the measuring line, which a builder stretches as he builds.
ק-ו-םplaceTo rise, and to rise against; to stand and endure, and to confirm; קוֹמָה, stature; קָמָה, standing grain; יְקוּם, every living thing; and מָקוֹם, a place.
ק-ו-רcoldTo come as far as the source of the waters, and מְקוֹר, a spring; and, of this root, the spider's קוּרֵי, which he explains as sheets.
ק-ט-בcuttingA sense of cutting off: קֶטֶב is the sickness that comes upon a man suddenly and kills him.
ק-ט-ןlinenTo be small, or a small thing in someone's eyes; קָטֹן, small, the lesser or the youngest; and to make small.
ק-ט-רtyingTo burn incense or an offering in smoke, with קְטֹרֶת, incense, and קִיטוֹר, smoke or vapour. Courts called קְטֻרוֹת he takes as tied, as the word is in Aramaic.
ק-י-אnames of Shlomo HaMelechTo vomit, a sense he calls well known, and the noun קִיא, vomit; the land too is said to vomit out those in it.
ק-י-רwaxA wall: the wall of the mizbeach or of a house, and by borrowing the walls of the heart; the doubled verb from it is tearing a wall down.
ק-ל-טsurvivorTaking in and gathering: the cities of refuge took in those who fled there, a קָלוּט has a foot gathered in and narrow, and dye is taken in and gathered.
ק-ל-לcurseContempt, being made light of; close to it in sense, lightness and speed; and cursing. Also קָלָֽל, of burnished copper, and קִלְקַל, ruin, which others read otherwise.
ק-ל-םlice
ק-ל-ןdisgraceTo parch or roast in fire; and in another sense to hold cheap and be held cheap, with the noun קָלוֹן, disgrace.
ק-ל-סpraiseMockery and contempt; sometimes this word is said of praise, and in that sense Kaddish says ויתקלס, though Rav Amram Gaon wrote that it is not fitting to say it.
ק-מ-חflourFlour. Where a pasuk says to grind flour, it names the thing by what it will become, since no one grinds what is already flour.
ק-מ-ץmiserGathering and collecting: the fistful, taken with the fingers gathered in to the palm; and the gathering in of the years of plenty.
ק-נ-הproperty · vesselTo acquire, the counterpart of selling; מִקְנֶה, cattle, a man's possession. A second sense: קָנֶה, a reed, and things so called, a measuring rod, a branch, a spear.
ק-נ-חwashing
ק-נ-ק-ןvessel
ק-פ-ץjumpingTo close and withhold, of a hand or a mouth shut; in another form, skipping and hurrying along; and of men, coming quickly to an end, like one who skips away.
ק-צ-הcornerTo cut off, cutting and severing; and קָצֶה, the end or side of a place, and מִקְצָת, the end of a span of days.
ק-צ-עcornerTo peel, as plaster from a house, and the tool that peels wood smooth; מִקְצֹעַ, a corner; and קציעה, on whose identity the authorities differ.
ק-צ-ףangerTo be wroth, its sense a boiling in anger; from this it is said of water boiling up in a strong wind, which some explain instead as the bark of a tree.
ק-צ-ץcuttingTo cut and sever; and of this root and sense, קֵץ, the end of a span of time, as though it were cut there, or at times its start.
ק-צ-רnames of ShavuosShortness and straitness, the opposite of length; in another sense קָצִיר is a branch; and in another again, to reap, with קָצִיר the harvest.
ק-ר-בapproach · thorns · warTo draw near, and to bring near; קָרוֹב, near; קָרְבָּן, the thing brought near on the mizbeach. Close to it, קֶרֶב, the inward part. In another sense, קְרָב, war.
ק-ר-הchanceTo lay the beams of a house and cover it with them, with קוֹרָה, a beam. A second sense is קִרְיָה, a city; a third, to happen or befall, with מִקְרֶה, a happening.
ק-ר-ןcorner · hornA horn, and as a figure, might; the horns of the mizbeach, which are its corners; and in another sense close to the first, brightness, as Moshe's face shone.
ק-ר-עcuttingTo tear or rend, garments or a kingdom; the sense of all of them is splitting and cutting, and in some pesukim, opening.
ק-ר-ץmorningCutting off and decreeing; and so too the moving of the eyes or the lips in mockery and scorn, as though one were cutting and breaking them.
ק-ש-הhardHardness, a sense he calls known: to be hard; to make hard a heart, a neck or a birth; a hard master; and מִקְשָׁה, which he takes as evenness, and Rashi from striking. He gives no sense here: of קְשׂוֹת הַנָּסֶךְ, the kesos of the covering, and the forms beside it, he says he has explained them at the roots נסך and נקה.
ק-ש-חhardTo be cruel and hard of heart: dealing hardly with one's young, and a heart hardened away from the fear of Hashem.
ק-ש-רtyingTo tie and bind one thing to another, and to join; of matters joined in one agreement, to conspire; and קִשֻּׁרִים, the ornaments a woman ties on.
ק-ש-שold ageTo gather up fine things, straw or thin sticks, the verb being derived from קַשׁ, straw; and likewise of searching out faults and gathering them with care.
ק-ת-ד-רchair
ר-א-הcolor · prophet · seeingTo see, with the eyes and with the heart, which is to understand; מַרְאֶה and מַרְאָה, a sight and a vision; רֹאֶה, seeing, which he reads as prophecy.
ר-א-שbeginningThe head. Also the top of a hill, a sum, the principal of a debt, and the beginning or first; and, the head being the body's choicest part, the choicest and the chief.
ר-ב-בthumbMany, much, great; also enough. As a number, ten thousand; a man of standing is called rav, his merits being many; heavy rain; and, a sense apart, shooting arrows.
ר-ב-הfat · locustTo be many, to increase, with הַרְבֵּה, much; a second sense close to it, rearing; a third, the archer; and the locust may be named for being a numerous kind.
ר-ב-עhebronFour-square, with its sides equal; אַרְבָּעָה, four; רֶבַע and רְבִיעִת, a fourth part; and רְבִיעִי, fourth.
ר-ג-גcitron
ר-ג-זanger · tremblingTo tremble and move, out of fear or out of anger; and, where the verb takes an object, to set another trembling.
ר-ג-לfoot · spyingThe foot, and going on foot; רְגָלִים, times; being accustomed. Also to slander, which may come from the foot, and near to it, to spy out a land.
ר-ג-םpurple · stoningTo stone. מַרְגֵּמָה is a gathering of stones, or, as his father reads it, purple; רִגְמָתָם is their assembly, or, some say, their princes.
ר-ד-דveilSpreading out and beating flat, as gold over the keruvim and palm figures; of the same sense, beating nations down. Also the רְדִיד, something like a veil or wrap.
ר-ה-בEgyptTo grow strong and haughty, as a youth against an elder; Rahav, which is Egypt, so called for its strength and pride; and to strengthen another, putting might in him.
ר-ה-ןcollateral
ר-ו-חdemon · soulRelief, the opposite of distress. And רוּחַ: spirit, of prophecy or an angel; will; air; the wind, and from it a side; the soul; and breath.
ר-ו-םpalace · praise · wavingTo be high and to raise up: רָם, high; מָרוֹם, a height; תְּרוּמָה, what is set apart, since setting apart, he holds, is itself a raising.
ר-ו-עdivine judgmentBad, evil, whether it comes from a man or upon him from Hashem; so too a body run down and a face changed. Other senses: a shout, a friend, and breaking.
ר-ו-ץfleeingTo run, with the race and the runner, and to make another run; a separate sense, whose meaning he gives as breaking.
ר-ח-בpath · pathsTo be broad, and to widen or give room. רֹחַב is breadth, רְחוֹב an open square, and מֶרְחָב open ground; a heart grown broad is glad; Shlomo's, wide in understanding.
ר-ח-םdivine judgment · love · mercyTo have mercy, and רַחֲמִים, mercies; in another sense, to love; רֶחֶם, the womb, said in contempt of a woman herself; and הָרָחָמָה, a bird said to pity its young.
ר-ח-ץwashingTo wash, a sense he calls known; the noun רַחְצָה, the washing, and without the heh, סִיר רַחְצִי, a washing pot.
ר-ח-שthe eighth monthTo bring out and set moving, as Chazal use it of lips that move; and from it the מַרְחֶשֶׁת, a deep vessel in which the meal offering moves about.
ר-ט-פ-שwetnessOf flesh, grew soft, as he reads it from its place in its one pasuk; some take it as a word made of two.
ר-י-חJerichoTo smell, a sense he calls known, and by extension to sense a thing; רֵחַיִם, millstones, may be of this root as well.
ר-י-קnothing · unmarried manTo empty out, said of the vessel and of what comes out of it alike; empty, and for nothing; and, another sense, arming for war, said of sword and spear and of men.
ר-כ-זmiddle
ר-כ-ךnames of YosefSoft or tender: a soft heart, words softer than oil, a tender child; a heart grown faint, and the noun מֹרֶךְ, faintness.
ר-כ-לmerchantA merchant, and רכלה, merchandise. רָכִיל is talebearing, a sense close to the first: the talebearer passes words along as the merchant passes goods.
ר-כ-סmiddle · propertyThe רְכָסִים are the high mountains; רֻכְסֵי אִישׁ, the pride and haughtiness of men; and the verb, raising the choshen to join it to the ephod above it.
ר-כ-שhorse · propertyרֶכֶשׁ, beasts ridden: to Rabbi Yonah good horses not many years old, to Radak perhaps another kind; and רְכוּשׁ, all a man's wealth, cattle, silver, gold, movables.
ר-מ-חspearA spear, a word whose sense is known: וַיִּקַּח רֹמַח בְּיָדֽוֹ (Bamidbar 25:7), and he took a spear in his hand.
ר-מ-ךhorseMares, in his father's reading: בְּנֵי הָרַמָּכִים (Esther 8:10) are sons of the mares, since in Arabic a mare is called רמכה.
ר-מ-םwormTo be high and to rise; and where the verb takes an object, to exalt and magnify. Also רִמָּה, the worm, and a verb from it, to breed worms.
ר-מ-סtramplingTo tread with force and with destruction; and written with a sin, a word close to it in sense, of treading and going.
ר-נ-ןjoyCrying out aloud, whether in song and gladness, in proclaiming, in prayer, or in weeping and groaning, each according to its place.
ר-ס-ןmuzzleThe bridle, set in a beast's mouth to lead it as the rider wishes; to send the bridle away before a man is to have no fear or shame of him.
ר-ע-בfamineTo be hungry; the noun רָעָב, famine, also in the form רְעָבוֹן; and to make someone go hungry.
ר-ע-הthoughtTo graze, and to shepherd; to keep company, and רֵעַ, a friend, may be of this root; רַעְיוֹן, will and thought; and to break.
ר-ע-לpoisonרַעַל and תַּרְעֵלָה: bewilderment and tumult to Rabbi Yonah, trembling to Radak's father, and deadly poison as it is usually explained. Some read הָרְעָלוֹת as veils.
ר-ע-םangerTwo senses: rage in the face; and thundering, of the sea and from heaven, with the noun, thunder, whose sense he likens to a loud shaking.
ר-ע-ןwetnessFresh with moisture: the sense, he says, is לחות, moistness; an olive tree, a leaf, a couch; and fresh oil, meaning new oil.
ר-ע-שtremblingMovement and trembling: earth, the fish of the sea, and walls quake, nations are made to quake, and רַעַשׁ is a quaking; יִרְעַשׁ in Tehillim 72:16 is read three ways.
ר-פ-אcircumciserTo heal, and to be healed; figuratively, to mend what is broken and to forgive. In other senses of the root, רְפָאִים are the mighty men of the giants, and the dead.
ר-פ-ס-דboatsRafts: beams tied together and taken along the rivers and the sea; they are the דוברות named in Melachim.
ר-צ-דdancingתְּרַצְּדוּן (Tehillim 68:17): some explain it as skipping, or by its context as lowering yourselves; Rabbeinu Hai, as looking and hoping.
ר-צ-הland (running versus passive) · willTo be pleased with a thing and accept it. It also means to pay off in full, as the land pays off her sabbaths. A third sense is to go.
ר-צ-חmurderTo murder, and to be murdered, with רֶצַח, murder. Over תְּרָצְּחוּ Ben Naftali and Ben Asher differ: you are all murderers, or may you all be murdered.
ר-ק-םartisanEmbroidery: a garment worked in many colours, whether in the weaving or with the needle.
ר-ש-םwritingהָֽרָשׁוּם, what is marked down in writing: a word from Aramaic, of the sense of רושם, a mark, which is like a sign and a token.
ר-ת-תtremblingTrembling: the Targum renders רָעַד, trembling, with רְתֵיתָא. At Hoshea 13:1, when Yeravam of Efrayim spoke of the calves, a great trembling was raised in Israel.
ש-א-בdrawing water · pulling and drawingTo draw water, with מַשְׁאַבִּים for the places where water is drawn.
ש-א-גanimal soundsThe lion's cry is called שאגה, a roar; the word is borrowed for a man's moaning and the voice he gives over his troubles.
ש-א-הthornsTo lie desolate, and in some forms to be astonished. A second sense is tumult, the roar of peoples or of rushing water.
ש-א-ןpeace · underworldTo be quiet and tranquil; the sense of every form is השקט ושלוה, quiet and tranquillity.
ש-א-ףpulling and drawingDrawing air into the nose or the mouth; by overstatement, swallowing; and looking and watching for a thing, which all its senses stand close to.
ש-א-רfamilyשְׂאֹר, the leaven with which the dough is leavened. To remain, be left, and leave over, with שְׁאֵרִית, the remnant; a second sense, שְׁאֵר, flesh, and from it a near relative; also food, and the kneading trough.
ש-בdrawing water · resident · return · sevenRav PappenheimReturn, to a former place or state or to the state nature calls for; and since rest is the natural state, ceasing from motion: sitting, captivity, Shabbos
ש-ב-הspoils of warTo take captive; the captive, and captives and captivity in several forms; and of this root too the shevo, one of the precious stones.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ש-ב
ש-ב-חpraiseTo praise, a sense he calls known; and in another sense, to quiet and settle, as waves and the roar of the seas are stilled.
ש-ב-טfish · staff and tribeA tribe, in sense a family but larger than one; a rod, for striking or for chastening; and, since a ruler holds a rod, the head and ruler himself.
ש-ב-לbecause · path · pathsשְׁבִיל, a way, and from it שֹׁבֶל, the leg; שִׁבֹּלֶת, an ear of grain, and the rush of water; and שַׁבְּלוּל, a creeping thing, the snail.
ש-ב-עnames of Shavuos · seven · vowTo eat one's fill and be sated, of food and of other things; to give another his fill; and the nouns שָׂבְעָה and שֹׂבַע, fullness and plenty. Seven and the seventh; seven used for many rather than the exact count; and the week. In another sense, to swear, and to put another under oath.
ש-ב-רexplanation · food · trustTo think a matter over, known from Chazal's word סברא, reasoning; and in a second sense, to hope. To break; מִשְׁבָּר, the breaking of the sea's waves; מַשְׁבֵּר, the womb; a dream's breaking, its interpretation; and שֶׁבֶר, grain or any food, bought and sold.
ש-ב-תsevenTo cease, to leave off and stop, and to make a thing cease. The noun שַׁבָּת is the Shabbos, and it can be a week, since every week has a Shabbos in it.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ש-ב
ש-ג-רangelSending: שְׁגַר־אֲלָפֶיךָ, the sending forth of your cattle, and שֶׁגֶר בְּהֵמָה, a beast's sending forth. Chazal made it their usual word for sending.
ש-ד-ךbetrothal
ש-ד-לcommunal activist
ש-ד-םgrapevineVines, as he glosses it, and in Chavakuk perhaps a sown field; by Kidron the Targum makes it a plain; and once it is like שְׁדֵפָה, blighted.
ש-ד-רangel · communal activistNo sense given here: one pasuk, וּשְׂדֵרֹת בָּֽאֲרָזִֽים (Melachim I 6:9), and s'deros with cedars, and a note that he has already explained it under the letter samech.
ש-ו-בreturnThree senses: to return or turn back, as from sin; quieting and giving rest, as in שָׁב שְׁבוּת, following Rabbi Yehudah; and rebellion, as in מְשׁוּבָה. To grow grey; and שֵׂיבָה, greyness, which is further on than old age, as the Mishnah says: sixty for old age, seventy for greyness.
ש-ו-חspeechSpeech, which he gives as its sense: the speech of prayer, and the telling of troubles and hardships; but at times שִׂיחַ is a man's affair and his doings. A pit, שׁוּחָה, and שַׁחַת, whose sense is like that of a grave. Of a land, as in עֲרָבָה וְשׁוּחָה, desert and waste, שׁוּחָה means desolation and ruin.
ש-ו-ךthornsTo hedge about, as a way with thorns; משוכה, a fence, called so because fences are made of thorns; שִׂכִּים, thorns; and in another sense, a bough.
ש-ו-עcrying out · salvationTo cry out, and the cry; from this root, to shut the eyes, and in the Targum, to plaster; and שׁוֹעַ, the honoured man who gives freely of his money.
ש-ו-קanimal soundsFour senses: longing and desire; vats flooding over, as water floods; the street; and the leg.
ש-ו-רcattle · gift · seeingTo sing; to look and observe; to go, from which a gift is called תְּשׁוּרָה, since one brings it; שׁוּר, a wall; and שׁוֹר, an ox. שָׂרִים, princes, and to rule as a prince; in another sense, מְשׂוּרָה, a measure, but a very small one.
ש-ו-שjoyTo rejoice, of Hashem over His people and of a man over Hashem's word and mitzvos; מָשׂוֹשׂ, joy. Chazal read יָשִׂישׂ as making others rejoice.
ש-ח-טslaughterTo slaughter. The word means drawing: shechitah is done by drawing the knife forward and back, and fine gold drawn thin is זָהָב שָׁחוּט, drawn gold. To press, ענין עצור: I pressed them into Pharaoh's cup; and in the Mishnah, of squeezing to bring the liquid out.
ש-ח-לlionThe lion; and under the same letters שְׁחֵלֶת, the spice the language of the Mishnah calls צפורן, a fingernail.
ש-ח-ןboilsשְׁחִין, an affliction that comes of heat other than fire; the Targum and the Kohen Gadol's tefillah use the word for warmth.
ש-ח-ץlionPride: בְּנֵי־שָׁחַץ, the sons of pride; and in Chazal, by his gloss, men of pride and coarseness of spirit. His entry under these letters says nothing of a beast.
ש-ח-קlaughterLaughter, which is sometimes a matter of joy and sometimes of mockery. To grind, a known sense, and more than treading; the noun שַׁחַק is dust, as the dust on the scales; of בַשַּׁחַק and שְׁחָקִים, skies, he says only that they are known.
ש-ח-רmorningBlack, and שְׁחוֹר, the black that is charcoal. In another sense the dawn: youth is named from it, and so is seeking, since the eager rise at dawn. Also brightness.
ש-ט-ףwashingWashing with force, and sweeping away: hands rinsed in water, a chariot washed down, rivers that flood a land; a galloping horse is likened to a flooding stream.
ש-ט-רdocumentשֹׁטֵר, an officer, a word he calls known; and מִשְׁטָרוֹ, his dominion; some read it as his writ, which he takes to mean his decree and statute.
ש-י-בold ageTo grow grey; and שֵׂיבָה, greyness, which is further on than old age, as the Mishnah says: sixty for old age, seventy for greyness.
ש-י-םplacingTo put or set: a mouth for man, the heart to a matter, battle ranks against a city, paint in the eyes; and a putting of the hand, a partnership.
ש-כ-חforgettingTo forget; to be forgotten; to make forgotten; and, said of the righteous, to make themselves forgotten, hiding from the wicked.
ש-כ-םshoulderTo rise early; and שְׁכֶם, the part of the shoulder against the neck. A side, a quarter or a portion is the same sense, since the shoulder is a side.
ש-כ-ןcollateral · sanctuaryTo dwell, and to make dwell, to settle; מִשְׁכָּנוֹת, dwellings; שָׁכֵן, one whose house is beside another's, or who dwells in a place. From this, the rest of death. שַׂכִּין, as in וְשַׂמְתָּ שַׂכִּין בְּלֹעֶךָ (Mishlei 23:2), and you shall put a knife to your throat; of it he says only that it is known.
ש-כ-רdrunkenness · gift · wineTo hire, with שָׂכִיר, a hired man, and שָׂכָר, a wage. In another sense, שֶׂכֶר goes with stopping up, under the samech, or it may be a net. To be drunk, with שִׁכָּרוֹן, drunkenness, and שִׁכּוֹר, a drunkard; שֵׁכָר, wine, called so because it makes drunk, and any drink that does; and אֶשְׁכָּר, a gift.
ש-ל-הpeaceTo be at ease and quiet, with שַׁלְוָה, ease; a second sense is error and leading into error; and from the same root the שליא, the sac the unborn child stands in.
ש-ל-ה-בfireA blaze, like לְהֶבֶת, a flame; and שַׁלְהֶבֶתְיָה, one word with the sense of two, a great blaze, since Scripture magnifies a thing by setting it beside the Name.
ש-ל-חangel · spring · sword and knife · tableTo send, and to see off; close to it, to let loose; to drive out; to stretch out the hand, and close to it, branches spreading. Also שֶׁלַח, a sword; שֻׁלְחָן, a table.
ש-ל-ךthrowingTo throw and cast down, the sense of all its verbs; used of casting people out of their dwellings, and of casting a lot.
ש-ל-לspoils of warTo take spoil, and the spoil taken; שׁוֹלָל, stripped. Close to this sense is שֹׁל־תָּשֹׁלּוּ, letting ears of grain fall from the bundles.
ש-ל-םcompleteness · names of Shlomo HaMelech · peaceשַׂלְמָה, a garment, as though שִֹמְלָה with its letters turned about. To repay, in requital and payment. In another sense, to be complete or finished. In a third, peace, שָׁלוֹם, and from it the shelamim offering is named.
ש-ל-ףslipping offTo draw out, a sword from its sheath or a shoe from the foot; and, as a verb that takes no object, to come out.
ש-מ-א-לcompass directions
ש-מ-דhereticTo be destroyed, and where the verb takes an object, to destroy; of the sense itself he says only that it is known.
ש-מ-חjoyJoy: to rejoice, to gladden another, one who is glad, and שִׂמְחָה, joy; and by way of borrowing, increase.
ש-מ-טslipping offTo leave a thing and abandon it, which he gives as the sense of all its forms: to release, to let drop; and of the oxen at the aron, to slip out from under it.
ש-מ-לclothingThe left, and to turn or use the left; he thinks the word likely one of four letters. What belongs to this root without doubt is שִׂמְלָה, a garment.
ש-מ-םdestructionDesolation, שממה, all of it one sense: some of it ruin, a place lying waste, and some of it astonishment. The שְׂמָמִית of Mishlei: to Rabbi Yonah the swallow, to some a creature kept in kings' palaces for sport; it may be the spider, and Radak argues it is not the swallow.
ש-מ-ןfat · oilOil, and close to it, growing fat; שָׁמֵן, fat, and of land, rich. Another sense is eight, שְׁמֹנֶה.
ש-מ-עhearingTo hear. All of it is hearing: hearing alone, hearing to accept, and hearing that understands. Also to gather men so that they heed, and to sound an instrument.
ש-מ-רguarding · remember · thornsTo keep and to guard. Close to it, the watches of the night. In other senses, the lees of wine; שָׁמִיר, a hard stone; and שָׁמִיר, a kind of thorn.
ש-נ-אenemy · Mount SinaiTo hate, a sense he calls known; some uses are not real hatred but loving another more, as Leah was called hated.
ש-נ-יredTo change. A second sense: second, two, and doing a thing again; and from it שָׁנָה, the year, named for the sun's return a second time. Scarlet he treats under shen.
ש-ע-הtimeTo turn to. Other senses: to trust in; to be alarmed and afraid; to leave off; and delight, or else telling.
ש-ע-לpath · pathsA fist, that is, a fistful; מִשְׁעוֹל, the vineyard path, so called because it is no wider than a man needs to walk in; and שׁוּעָל, the fox.
ש-ע-ןstaff and tribe · trustTo lean, on a thing or on Hashem. The nouns are a stay and support, and מִשְׁעֶנֶת, a staff.
ש-ע-רgate · hair · sheep and goatsTo dread, with the noun שְׂעָרָה, a storm. Also שָׂעִיר, a he-goat, and the demons called שְׂעִירִם; fine rain; hair, and a hairy man; and barley. To reckon and estimate; in another sense, foul and filthy, said of figs; and שַׁעַר, a gate, a whole land being called by its gate, its entrance.
ש-פ-הlanguageThe lip itself in some places and a side or edge in others; and language, as שָׂפָה אֶחָת, one language, with lips of song read as words of song. To break and crush, as also in the Targum and in Chazal; another sense, height; and שְׁפוֹת בָּקָר, cheeses of milk, or as some say, the cows' udder.
ש-פ-חfamily · handmaidThe שִׁפְחָה, a maidservant, a word with no masculine; and in another sense the מִשְׁפָּחָה, a family, a name given also to a tribe and to a nation. He gives no sense here. The entry is one pasuk of Yeshayahu, with a note that the word is treated at the letter samech.
ש-פ-טlawTo judge, with the nouns for judgment and for judgments carried out; and, in a sense close to it, the statute, the law and the proper order of a thing.
ש-פ-ףsnakeOne line: שְׁפִיפֹן עֲלֵי־אֹרַח (Bereishis 49:17), a shefifon on the path, with no meaning given, only the word's form.
ש-פ-רgood · hornTo be fair, as the Targum renders יְפֵה תֹאַר by שַׁפִּיר; the shofar; and אֶשְׁפָּר, a portion of meat, which may be a fair portion.
ש-פ-תhookTo set in place, which he glosses תערוך: peace set for us, a pot set on the שְׁפַתַּיִם, the hearth it stands on; and the מִשְׁפְּתָיִם, two loads, one on each side.
ש-צ-ףangerA little: בְּשֶׁצֶף קֶצֶף (Yeshayahu 54:8), in a little wrath, as he reads it from its place.
ש-ק-דalmondTo be quick, diligent and constant at a thing. The almond, שָׁקֵד, takes its name from this sense, since its tree hastens to blossom before the other trees. Bound or joined: that is the sense its place gives נִשְׂקַד עֹל פְּשָׁעַי (Eichah 1:14), the yoke of my transgressions is bound fast.
ש-ק-טpeaceTo be quiet and still, with שֶׁקֶט for quiet; and where the verb takes an object, to give quiet. The sense he gives is rest and repose.
ש-ק-לcoinsTo weigh: the mountains in a balance, silver weighed out, a man's vexation weighed; מִשְׁקָל, weight, in several forms; and the שֶׁקֶל, the shekel.
ש-ק-ףseeingWatching and peering, as one looks out from a height; the lintel, so called because it is always looked at, or because the door strikes it; and poles set in rows.
ש-ק-ץidolsTo hold a thing in abomination, and the abomination itself, in two forms of the noun. The sense of them all, he says, is abomination.
ש-ק-רfalsehoodFalsehood and treachery: to deal falsely, to break faith; the noun שֶׁקֶר, a lie, which in some pesukim means for nothing, without cause. Of the eyes: to sharpen them and hint with them; the Targum renders a glimpsing eye with this root, and Chazal call a woman who gazes about סקרנית.
ש-ר-גgrapevineשָׂרִיגִם, branches of the vine; as a verb, to become entangled; and the Targum and the Mishnah use the word of lattice work and interlacing.
ש-ר-דsurvivorSurvivors, a sense he calls known; also the carpenter's marking thread, and בִּגְדֵי הַשְּׂרָד, cloths that covered the mizbeach, shulchan and menorah on the march.
ש-ר-הnames of the Jewish people · plain · princessשָׂרִיתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִים, you contended with Elokim, and its noun, הַמִּשְׂרָה, dominion. He calls the sense known and does not define it. שִׁרְיָן, a coat of mail; מִשְׁרַת עֲנָבִים, a steeping of grapes, known from Chazal's usage; and הַשָּׁרוֹן, which has been explained as level land and a fat place.
ש-ר-ףangel classes · snake · uncleTo burn. The serpents called שְׂרָפִים are named for burning with their breath; the שְׂרָפִים who stand are angels of fire.
ש-ר-קgrapevine · red · whistleשׂוֹרֵק, the choicest of the kinds of vine; and שְׂרֻקִּים, patterned in colours, or, as some explain, groomed with a comb. To whistle or hiss: the moving of the lips with a sound.
ש-ר-רnames of Yaakov · princessTo rule and be master; and to make oneself a prince over others. The navel. In another sense, בִּשְׁרִרוּת לִבִּי is the looking of my heart and my thoughts; some explain it as strength.
ש-ר-תworkTo minister and attend; he gives no gloss of the sense, only the pesukim and notes on their forms. The מַשְׂרֵת, a pan: the Targum's word for מַחֲבַת, a pan, is מַסְרִיתָא, and in the vernacular it is sarten.
ש-ת-הdrinking · mealTo drink, with מִשְׁתֶּה, a feast, and הַשְּׁתִיָּה, the drinking; and in the same letters שְׁתִי, the warp, the thread that runs the length of a garment.
ש-ת-קsilenceTo fall silent, to be quiet: of strife, of the sea. The sense of silence, he says, is known.
ת-ב-הark · wordThe ark, תֵּבָה, whose sense is known; its root may be תיב, though Rabbi Yonah files it under this one.
ת-ג-רmerchant
ת-ה-הnothingDesolation: הָֽיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (Bereishis 1:2), it was tohu and vohu; he has explained it already at the root בָּהָה.
ת-ו-רspying · teachingTo search out and explore; also the turtledove; a time; and תכונה, the set measure or order of a thing, which may be the sense of the Torah itself.
ת-ח-םborder
ת-י-שsheep and goatsThe he-goat, a known word; in Mishlei 30:31 the או beside it stands in place of "and", or it may be a plain "or".
ת-כ-ךpovertyA sense of breaking: תֹּךְ וּמִרְמָֽה is breaking a man who trusts in one and deceiving him by mouth. Rav Saadiah Gaon reads אִישׁ תְּכָכִים as a man of middling means.
ת-כ-ףimmediately
ת-ל-עteeth · wormA worm, and Israel likened to one in exile; crimson, named for the worm, or else תולע itself means colour; another sense, the thick teeth, with letters transposed.
ת-מ-םcompletenessTo come to an end, be finished; and, in a sense he calls close to it, to be whole: in body, with no limb lacking, or in views and good traits.
ת-מ-רJerichoThe palm, even and straight, with no branches until its crown; from it, carved palm figures, and columns of smoke, a tall straight thing being likened to the palm.
ת-נ-ןfish · snakeThe tannin: on dry land a kind of snake, in the water a kind of great fish shaped like a snake; it is written too with a mem in place of the nun.
ת-ע-הstraying and errorTo stray, a sense he calls known: of a heart, of a lost sheep, of a man in a field or in strong drink; and to lead another astray.
ת-ע-רrazorתַּעַר, a razor, which he calls known and does not gloss; and תַּעַר again for the sheath, the case of the sword.Rav Pappenheim takes it from ע-ר
ת-פ-לphylacteriesTafel: a building that has no standing, and raw meat or fish, not eaten without much salt; and תִּפְלָה, a poor thing with no sense to it.
ת-ק-עdivine judgmentTo blow the shofar; in another sense to pitch, set or drive a thing in place; and, near to that, to strike palm on palm in surety or in joy.
ת-ק-ףstrengthTo overpower, and to take hold of a man; תֹּקֶף, power; and תָּקִיף, strong, which is the Targum's word for חָזָק.
ת-ר-נ-ג-לrooster
ת-ר-עgateA single word, תִּרְעָתִים, explained as gatekeepers, and the Targum of a gate is תַרְעָא; Radak allows that it may be the name of a family.
ת-ר-ףidolsTerafim: images in which the future would be seen. In Hoshea the eifod is for Hashem and the terafim for idolatry, as the sacrifice and the pillar are.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel. The pesukim he cites are from Sefaria: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC-BY-SA); Torat Emet 357 (Public Domain).
Rav Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo (Shorashim), first printed from his manuscript by Moshe Tzuriel, Bnei Brak 5777. The English is our account of his entry.