2701: Gardens, Orchards, and Paradise May 13, 2024

It’s lovely to sit in an orchard, though far less lovely sounding to sit in a wort-yard, yet this is what it would have been called in Old English ortgeard. 'Wort' in this case simply means ‘plant’, still seen at the end of many plant names, like butterwort, woundwort, and spearwort. However, etymologically speaking, there is an even better sounding orchard-word: paradise. 

Paradise comes to English ultimately from the Avestan (Persian) word pairidaēza, meaning “enclosed garden” but in Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos) meant “palace gardens”. Because of this lofty definition, this word became associated with the Garden of Eden and by extension heaven (e.g. Dante’s Paradiso), displacing the enigmatic Old English word ‘neorxnawang’. These biblical connotations to ‘paradise’ do not exist in the doublet ‘parvis’ (i.e. “cathedral gardens”) but coincidentally came in the Hebrew פרדס (pardes) took on extra, spiritualism, while in Modern Hebrew still denotes an orchard.

2637: Rashi Script Mar 7, 2022

Rashi, perhaps the most famous Jewish biblical commentator, is known for being printed in a font called Rashi script, though he did not write in it himself. For one thing, it was used about four centuries after he wrote, and it is a Sephardic semi-cursive script; Rashi was not Sephardic. A tradition developed where all primary scriptural texts were written in traditional Hebrew block-letters, and all secondary texts like commentaries were in script font. This was eventually standardized into Rashi script, which is still used for many commentaries and translations.

2631: Demetrius, Demi, & Demeter Feb 28, 2022

There are a number of names, like Demi, Demitri, or Dimitri to identify a few, all come from the same source. These are all based from the Greek harvest deity Δημήτριος (Dēmḗtrios), latinized Demeterius, but as some of you will notice, this name is masculine. Unlike other names like 'Martin' (from 'Mars'), this is because the name refers to a (male) devotee of Demeter, not naming after Demeter herself. Demi, which is traditionally a feminine name, is from Demetria, the same word but for a female follower of the deity.

2621: AD-CE Feb 17, 2022

The system of BCE-CE for dating years as opposed to BC-AD is in some ways older than most people would likely imagine. While the abbreviations themselves are fairly new, the terminology has been found since the 18th century. However, it is exactly the same in everything but name, including quirks like not having a year 0. Since in the religious context this is based off of a fixed event, or at least intends to be, the lack of 0 makes sense with AD.

2613: Pagan Origins of Martin, Mark, and Mario Feb 9, 2022

There have been saints and popes named Martin, but it actually has its roots in pagan religion. The name Martinus in Roman culture was fairly popular, and derives from the Roman god of war Mars. Moreover, this is also the origin for the name Marcus, and its derivative like Mark. At the same time as the Roman Martinus, there was also Marius of the same source, which remains as it was in some cultures but also became the Spanish Mario, but not the feminine Maria which is ultimately Semitic.

2577: charm & charisma Jan 3, 2022

The words 'charm' and 'charisma' are not related, though this fact is often confused in particular because of how they are used for certain Biblical translations as it pertains to the Holy Spirit. 'Charisma' is from the Ancient Greek χᾰ́ρῐσμᾰ (khárisma) for 'grace; gift', ultimately from χαίρω (khaírō) meaning 'I am happy'. 'Charm' on the other hand, both as it relates to magic and to personality types comes from the Latin 'carmen' which meant both 'song' and 'incantation', or as it were 'chant' and 'enchant'. Both terms have been used for translating ideas of speaking in tongues or other trance-like experiences.

2536: Bad Censorship (by Catholics) Nov 22, 2021

Catholic censors of the Talmud (the compilation of Jewish oral-law) were tasked with removing sections that the Church didn't like, but often with a clear lack of understanding of the language. In one instance, these censors were told to replace any use of גוי (goi) which literally just means 'nation' with עכו"ם (akum), an acronym עבודת כוכבים ומזלות (avdos cochavim u'mazlos) meaning 'worshiper of stars and constellations', including replacing a quote from Exodus גוי קדוש (goy kadosh) meaning 'holy nation' referring to the Jewish people. This resulted in a quote from the Bible being rewritten as "holy star worshipers" by the Catholics.

2529: sinai Nov 15, 2021

Sinai is certainly a famous place due to its significance in the Bible, but the etymology of it is unclear. The area was known in Ancient Egypt as a place for mining turquoise as was called 'Biau' (mining). It is therefore thought that the Hebrew סיני (sinei) is from the name of the moon-deity of the Mesopotamian pantheon (and its ancient Egyptian equivalent Thoth), who was ‎associated with the area by locals, given that the desert on the peninsula around the mountain in Hebrew is known as מדבר סין (midbar sin) and nearby is the desert מדבר סיני (midbar sinei).

2507: Candace: Mistaken for a Biblical Name Oct 23, 2021

Candace is ostensibly a (New Testament) biblical name, but it was not actually a name. Referred to as a queen in the text, the word was written as Κανδάκη (Kandakē) in Greek, from Kdke in the Meroitic language of the Cushites, was a specific title for the sister of a king. This sort of terminology was commonly used around the region, especially around what is now Ethiopia, but later Greek and Roman sources misunderstood this and treated it as her personal name in Acts. This is how it came to be a name in English, despite it not technically being a biblical name, per se.

2432: θεός & Deus: Unrelated Aug 18, 2021

The Greek θεός (theos) meaning 'god' or 'divine' and the Latin 'deus' meaning 'god' are not related, despite the clear similarity in sound and meaning. θεός comes from a root meaning 'to place' in Proto-Indo-European while 'deus' is from a root meaning 'sky' and is related to the Greek 'Zeus' and 'Iupiter' as well as the 'Tiw' of 'Tuesday'. The Greek word is also related to the Latin 'fēriae' (festival), 'fānum' (temple), and 'fēstus' (festive).

2402: palm Jul 17, 2021

The word for the palm of one's hand and palm of palm trees are from the same root, but while these trees do not grow in Northern Europe, this pattern is common pattern across Germanic languages. The trees are named for the way the fronds fan out like fingers—though notably then these are not finger-trees—but the concept was imported due to Christian biblical imagery. Phrases like 'palm-sunnandæg' in Old English here or also Old Norse existed, but technically this was via Latin 'palma' (palm tree).

2379: Variations in the 7 Deadly Sins Jun 23, 2021

The 7 deadly sins (a.k.a. capital vices) are an aspect fo Christian theology, are not found in the Bible and are thus subject to a certain amount of flexibility. For instance, nowadays these would usually be listed as pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, and gluttony but throughout history this had been slightly different. Originally it began with the Ancient Greeks anyway, but even into the Middle Ages this list included 'acedia' (spiritual neglect), vainglory (vanity; boasting, etc.) and tristitia (sorrow; despair). Different theologians from the 4th century onwards would be known to have their own lists with slight variations like this.

2373: Biblical Loan Words Jun 17, 2021

Over the years, a number of collections have been arranged of word in Biblical Hebrew that are from other sources, including non-Semitic ones. Of course, some of these will be obvious, such as פרעה‎ ('pharaoh') from Ancient Egyptian probably or קוף (qof) meaning 'monkey' from either Tamil or Sanskrit, considering that these concepts would not be native. Considering also the timespan of Bible, some of these sources will be found later historically after centuries of contact with other civilizations in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean. However, even in the Writings (כתובים‎) which has the greatest percentage, even a inclusive estimate would put total loan words from any language at less than 2% of all vocabulary.

2355: fascinate May 30, 2021

The fascinus was a device used in Roman pagan religious practices that led to the word 'fascinate'. The device was actually idol representative of the divine phallus. This was seen as seen as a medical instrument in some ways but particularly to ward off the evil eye (invidia). It is in this sense of magic and being under this spell to refocus attention that the sense in English of 'fascinate' was established, which had been used as such even in Ancient Rome.

2341: shavuous May 16, 2021

The holiday of Shavuos (associated in Christian theology as 'Pentecost'), one of the major Jewish holidays, goes by many names in the Bible is first mentioned as חג הקציר (Chag haKatzir) literally 'holiday of the reaping' as it is based around a grain harvest festival followed shortly after with the name used today חג השבועות (Chag haShavuos) meaning "holiday of the weeks" since it is measured by 7 weeks after the second day of Pesach. This term is also used more often in the Bible. Later after that though there is יום הבכורים (Yom haBikkurim) which is often translated as 'First Fruits' but this word is used for any first-born offspring including for sons and doesn't relate to 'fruit' per se. Outside of the 5 Books also, it is referred to as עצרת‎ (Atzeres) meaning 'conclusion' as it is a conclusion of a 50-day counting process and זמן מתן תורתנו (Zman Matan Toraseinu) or 'Time of Giving of Our Torah' as this is the date for the revelation on Mount Sinai.

2324: manna Apr 29, 2021

The Biblical substance known as 'manna' in English is מָן (mon) in Hebrew, and I likewise in Arabic does not have this added [ə] at the end. This was definitely added in by the time of introduction of Greek to the region (which happened long before Arabic even existed) with the Greek μάννα (mánna) using this extra vowel and long [n]. This was probably not from Aramaic nor especially an Aramaic phrase though many early writings have claimed this origin for the word and particularly the added extra syllable from Greek.

2323: auspice, auspicious, & augur Apr 28, 2021

'Auspice' on its own is a legitimate albeit rare word, but referring to a prophetic object or sign, but in the phrase "under the auspices of..." meaning "with the support and oversight of..." it's fairly common. It is in the first way, unsurprisingly that we see its semantic relation to the word 'auspicious', meaning 'sign of success'. Originally though, rather than the general meaning those have now, this was particular to divination, and is related to the word 'augur' which initially was an actual Roman officer whose job was as a diviner.

2314: psycho-: psychotic vs. psychopomp Apr 18, 2021

Words like 'psychopath', or 'psychotic', could give an impression that the combining form 'psycho-' related to problems in mental health, but as can be seen in the word 'psychopomp', this is not the case. A psychopomp is the name for a guide through the underworld, as might be said of Anubis in Egyptian mythology, Mercury in Greek mythology, Valkyries in Norse mythology and even the Grim Reaper. The origin of this word is Greek ψυχοπομπός (psychopompós) with 'psycho (psūkhḗ) meaning 'soul', and 'pompós' here meaning 'sender; conductor'. Thus in its purest sense, 'psycho-' as a combining form means 'soul' or 'mind'.

2312: The Use of the Term 'Byzantine Empire' Apr 15, 2021

The name for the Byzantine Empire as such really only came after the fall of the empire itself for complex religious and political reasons. For its near eleven centuries of existence after the fall of the city of Rome (and with it, the western half of the classical Roman Empire) it was known as the Roman Empire, or in Medieval Greek, Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων (Basileía Rhōmaíōn). It was only in the Renaissance that Europeans—now with a goal of reviving and adapting many aspects of Classical Greek and Roman culture and thought—wished to draw a distinction between the ancient Latin-speaking, pagan Rome and later Christian, Greek-speaking Roman Empire, that the term Byzantine, from the Ancient Greek 'Byzantion', was renewed. That said, this term actually predates (ancient Roman) Emperor Constantine's move of the capital from Rome, and renaming of the city of Byzantion as Constantinople.

2308: Nuns vs Sisters Apr 11, 2021

Christian nuns and sisters (in the ecclesiastical sense) may have more or less the same roles, they actually are different. Nuns take solemn vows while religious sisters take simple vows, one main difference of which is that sisters can own property and other capital. This means they are free to make endeavors in certain vocational areas like charity, education, and health. Nuns—the term for which comes from the Latin 'nonna': literally (female) monk—tend to live in the enclosure of an order and are not involved in those affairs.