Ever felt that a familiar English word seems oddly close to a Hebrew counterpart, like map and מַפָּה in the title? Could it be just a coincidence?
As you may know, English has had a huge impact on modern Hebrew vocabulary (and sometimes even grammar), especially from the time of the British Mandate in Israel to the current widespread influence of English (mainly American English) worldwide. However, this kind of language contact doesn’t explain why we find familiar words in Hebrew that date back hundreds of years—such as מַפָּה, which already appears in the *Mishnah*.
The answer lies in ancient language contact: Hebrew’s interaction with Greek and Latin from the Hellenistic period (2nd century BCE) through the Byzantine period. Hebrew borrowed many words from Greek and Latin, like stadium (אצטדיון), ocean (אוקיינוס), theater (תיאטרון), and circus (קרקס). In these cases, the foreignness is pretty obvious from their structure and sound clusters. But the following list features older Hebrew words whose form doesn’t necessarily give away their origins. They generally have three "root" letters, making them seem right at home in Hebrew. Plus, they each have an English counterpart!
On the flip side, Latin—the language of the Roman Empire—borrowed plenty of words from its close cousin, Greek. The dialects that broke off from Latin evolved primarily into what we know today as Italian, French, and Spanish, the *Romance languages*. At the same time, English (a member of a different branch of the Indo-European family) borrowed massive amounts of vocabulary from French (and other Romance languages, and even directly from Latin). This journey of linguistic contact and shared ancestry explains why we find certain Greek and Latin words (and some of even older Indo-European origin) showing up in both Hebrew and English.
Air | אוויר
The word air appears in Hebrew Mishnah language as אוויר (showing up over 50 times!), and it’s undeniably borrowed from Greek: ἀήρ [transliterated as aer]. Scholars think it might actually derive from a dialectal variant, ἀβήρ (aber). In older manuscripts of the Mishnah, it’s even marked with a tzere vowel as אוֵיר. The Greek word then made its way into Latin (as aer), then into French (and other Romance languages), and finally into English as air.
Base, Basis | בסיס
The word base appears in the Mishnah meaning בסיס, “foundation.” In the Talmud, for example, בסיס לדבר האסור means “an object holding something forbidden to carry on Shabbat.” This word is borrowed from Greek βάσις (basis), which then made its way into Latin, and later into French and English as base. English also uses basis, directly borrowed from Latin.
Card | כרטיס
The word card, meaning כרטיס, “document, ticket, card,” is rare in classical Hebrew sources; it appears a few times in the Jerusalem Talmud. It was borrowed from Greek χάρτης (chartes). Modern Hebrew revived the word from these sources. Greek chartes made its way into Latin as charta, carta, and from there into the Romance languages and, eventually, English. The Latin form also led to the English word chart, referring to geographic or other charted information.
Hymn | המנון
The word hymn comes from Greek ὕμνος (yimnos), meaning המנון, “song of praise.” It might seem like a modern word (national anthems are a newer concept), but it actually appears in late rabbinic Hebrew as a “song of praise (to a king).” In Song of Songs Rabbah, God tells ten righteous people, “You are all worthy to sing the hymn (המנון) to Me, but David shall sing on behalf of you all because of his sweet voice.” In modern Hebrew literature, המנון took on the European meaning of a “song of praise” (compare Himne in German, гимн in Russian, hymn in English), especially a “national hymn” (in English, *anthem*). The Greek word was borrowed into Latin as *hymnus*, and it likely spread into European languages in more than one way.
Sole | סוליה / Car | קרון
The words sole (meaning סוליה, “shoe sole”) and *car* (meaning קרון, “cart”) appear in Mishnah Hebrew and are both borrowed from Latin: solea and carrus, respectively. Over time, these became sole and car in English.
Navigate | ניווט
The word navigate appears in Hazal literature with the meaning נווט, “sailor.” It was borrowed from Greek ναύτης (nautes), meaning נווט, “sailor.” In Greek, ναῦς (naus) means “ship,” with cognates in Sanskrit (nau) and Latin (navis). In modern Hebrew, the word נַוָּט led to the root נו"ט, giving us the verbs לנווט, ניווט, etc. The English verb navigate shares the same roots, also inspiring words like astronaut, navy, and nautical.
Rice | אורז
The word rice appears in the Mishnah and was borrowed from Greek ὄρυζα (oriza). It was also borrowed into other Semitic languages, such as Aramaic and Arabic (רֻז, ruz), but originated in Asian languages and is found in Sanskrit and dialects of Persian (though the exact connection isn’t clear). From Greek, it passed into Latin (oryza) and later into various European languages. From French (ris), it made its way into English as rice.
Map | מַפָּה
The word map appears in the Mishnah with the meaning מַפָּה, “cloth, cover.” In this sense, it’s known from Latin (mappa), and some thought it to be a foreign word borrowed into Hebrew. However, early records connect it to Punic, the language of the Phoenicians, suggesting it’s Semitic. In the history of geographic terminology in Greek and Latin (such as pinax, tabula, forma), mappa eventually joined the mix to mean “world map,” leading to *mappa mundi* (world map), which English and French later shortened to mappe and eventually to map.
Wine | יין / Sack | שק
A unique example involves the ancient words wine and יין and sack and שק, whose origins remain unknown. The theory is they both reached Semitic and Indo-European languages from a separate ancient source (with other theories floating around).
It’s likely that יין entered Hebrew from a form like wein (since in other languages we see a w or v sound). Hebrew lacks native words beginning with ו, and those that do are usually foreign. Over time, the initial w in Hebrew words often turned into y, as happened with יין.
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