כתנת

Forms

כֻּתֹּנֶת (kuttōneṯ) noun, feminine^[1][4] Construct כְּתֹנֶת, with suffix כֻּתָּנְתּוֹ, plural כֻּתֳּנֹת, construct plural כָּתְנוֹת, with suffix כֻּתֳּנֹתָם.^[5]

Etymology

The exact origin is obscure.^[6] The word has close forms in Ugaritic ktn, a kind of tunic,^[7] in Imperial and Jewish Aramaic, in Classical Syriac ܟܘܼܬ݁ܝܼܢܵܐ (kuttīnā), and outside Semitic in Mycenaean ki-to and Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn, “tunic”).^[6][8] Noonan takes it as an ancient culture word of western origin, the varying spellings of the Greek forms pointing, for some classicists, to Anatolia.^[6] It is perhaps connected with the words for linen and flax, Phoenician and Aramaic ⟨ktn⟩, Classical Syriac ܟܸܬ݁ܵܢܵܐ (kettānā),^[9] and further with Akkadian kitû (“flax, linen”) and Sumerian GADA, but this is uncertain.^[6][8] HALOT and Klein also compare Akkadian kitintu, a linen garment, and Old Assyrian kutānu, which was however a woollen fabric.^[8][10][11] Arabic كَتَّان (kattān, “flax, linen”) is a loan from Aramaic.^[10][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun occurs 29 times, 20 of them in Genesis to Kings.^[1] In the story of Eden God makes kotnôṯ ʿôr, “tunics of skin”, for the man and his wife (Genesis 3:21), and Jacob gives Joseph a kəṯōneṯ passîm (Genesis 37:3), which BDB takes as a tunic reaching to the hands and feet.^[5][1]

Semantic evolution

It was the main everyday garment, worn next to the body by men and women: the woman of the Song of Songs has taken off her tunic for the night (5:3), and Tamar, the king's daughter, tears hers in grief (2 Samuel 13:18–19).^[5][12] Most uses are in the Priestly laws, for the linen tunic of the priests (Exodus 28:4, 39–40;^[6][5] Leviticus 16:4).^[6][5] The Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn).^[1] The Dead Sea Scrolls use it 19 times, among them the War Scroll.^[13] Modern Hebrew כותונת (kutónet) is a shirt or nightgown.^[10][4]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – the tunics of Eden and Joseph's tunic in Genesis, the priestly tunic in Exodus and Leviticus.^[1][5]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – priestly tunics among the gifts in Ezra 2:69 and Nehemiah 7.^[1][5]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn).^[14][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 19 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[15][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. a tunic, a long shirt-like garment worn next to the skin by men and women.^[5][8]
2. (cultic) the linen tunic of the priests.^[5][6]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew כותונת (kutónet)^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
4. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. כֻּתֹּנֶת
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 137
7. ^ 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. ktn
8. ^ a b c d 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. כֻּתֹּנֶת
9. ^ a b Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 663
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. כֻּתֹּנֶת
11. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 175
12. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. כֻּתֹּנֶת
13. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
14. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143