כמן

Forms

כַּמֹּן (kammōn) noun^[3] The Great Isaiah Scroll of Qumran writes כימן, and Mishnaic Hebrew mostly כְּמָן.^[2]

Etymology

It is an old culture word of the eastern Mediterranean, where the plant is native, according to Noonan, who thinks it unlikely to be native to Semitic although it is found in most Semitic languages.^[4] It is Akkadian kamūnu,^[5] Ugaritic kmn,^[6] Phoenician kmn,^[7] Aramaic כַּמּוֹנָא (kammônā), Classical Syriac ܟܡܘܢܐ (kammōnā), Arabic كَمُّون (kammūn) and Ge'ez ከሚን (kəmin),^[8][2][4] and Leslau takes the Ge'ez word from Greek, perhaps through Arabic.^[9] Outside Semitic there are Sumerian gamun, Hittite kappani-, Minoan ku-mi-na in Linear A and Mycenaean Greek ku-mi-no in Linear B.^[4][2] Huehnergard gives a Common Semitic *kammūn-, perhaps from the Sumerian word unless that is itself Semitic, and Ellenbogen takes the Hebrew word from Sumerian.^[10][11]

HALOT takes Ancient Greek κύμινον (kúminon) from Semitic.^[2] Beekes reports that view, and Ruijgh's, that the Greek word, with its Pre-Greek suffix ⟨-īn-⟩, came from Anatolia or the Aegean, the source the Semitic word may also have come from.^[12] Gesenius derived the noun from a root “to store up”, and BDB thinks the root doubtful.^[13][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is used only in Isaiah's parable of the farmer, in parallel with qeṣaḥ, black cumin: the ploughman “scatters black cumin and sows cumin” (wəhēp̄îṣ qeṣaḥ wəḵammōn yizrōq, Isaiah 28:25), and cumin is not threshed with a wheel but “beaten out with a stick” (Isaiah 28:27).^[3][4] Noonan takes these verses as evidence that cumin was grown in Palestine by the Iron Age.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Peshitta and the Targum all use their own forms of the word.^[4][3] Rabbinic Hebrew spells it כמון, and the Mishnah counts cumin among the produce tithed as demai everywhere.^[14] Kimhi gives its name in the vernacular, כומין.^[15] The Greek word was borrowed as Latin cumīnum, from which the modern European names come, among them English cumin.^[12][16]

Timeline

• Biblical prophecy – kammōn in Isaiah 28:25, 27.^[3]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek κύμινον (kúminon).^[17][3]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – כימן in the Great Isaiah Scroll.^[18][2]
• Rabbinic Hebrew – cumin in the tithing laws of the Mishnah.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. cumin (Cuminum cyminum), a plant grown for its seeds, used as a spice and medicine.^[2][8][19]

Descendants

• Ancient Greek κύμινον (kúminon)^[2][12]
• Latin cumīnum^[12]
• English cumin^[16]
• Modern Hebrew כמון (kamón)^[20]

References

1. ^ Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (2021), BHSA: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Amstelodamensis, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2021, github.com/ETCBC/bhsa
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. כַּמֹּן
3. ^ a b c d e Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
4. ^ a b c d e f Noonan, Benjamin J. (2019), Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible: A Lexicon of Language Contact, University Park: Eisenbrauns (Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 14), p. 123
5. ^ Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (2000), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. s.v. kamūnu
6. ^ del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. kmn II
7. ^ Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000), Phoenician-Punic Dictionary, Leuven: Peeters (OLA 90), p. s.v. kmn
8. ^ a b c Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. כַּמֹּן
9. ^ Leslau, Wolf (1987), Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. 285
10. ^ Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. s.v. kmn
11. ^ Ellenbogen, Maximilian (1962), Foreign Words in the Old Testament: Their Origin and Etymology, London: Luzac, p. 85
12. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. κύμινον
13. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm (1846), Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, transl. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, London: Samuel Bagster, p. s.v. כָּמַן
14. ^ a b Ben-Yehuda, Eliezer (1908–1959), Millon ha-lashon ha-ʿivrit ha-yeshanah ve-ha-ḥadashah / Thesaurus totius hebraitatis, 16 vols, Jerusalem; typed edition, Project Ben-Yehuda (benyehuda.org), p. s.v. כַּמֹּן
15. ^ Kimhi, David (13th c.), Sefer ha-Shorashim, ed. J. H. R. Biesenthal and F. Lebrecht (1847), Berlin: G. Bethge, p. s.v. כמן
16. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
17. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
18. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
19. ^ de Blois, Reinier, ed. (2000–), Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, United Bible Societies, sdbh.org, p. s.v. כַּמֹּן
20. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. כַּמֹּן