Hebraism is a lexical item, usage or trait characteristic of the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

. By successive extension it is often applied to the

Jewish people Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

, their

faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...

, national ideology or

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

. Similarly, in paleolinguistics, a Semitism is a grammatical or syntactical behaviour in a language which reveals that the influence of a

Semitic language The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Modern South Arabian languages and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by mo ...

is present. The most common example is the influence of

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

on some texts written in Jewish Koine Greek.

Idiomatic Hebrew

Hebrew has many

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...

atic terms that are not easily translatable to other languages, for example בארבע עיניים ''be'arba enayim'', literally 'with four eyes,' means face to face without the presence of a third person, as in, 'The two men met with four eyes.' The expression לא דובים ולא יער ''lo dubim ve lo ya'ar'' is literally "neither bears nor forest" but means that something is completely false. The saying טמן את ידו בצלחת ''taman et yado batsalakhat'' "buried his hand in the dish" means that someone idles away his time."

Lexical items deriving from Hebrew

"Hebraism" may also refer to a lexical item with Hebrew

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

, i.e. that (ultimately) derives from Hebrew. For example, the English word ''stiff-necked'', meaning "stubborn", is a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

of Greek σκληροτράχηλος, which is a calque of Hebrew קשה עורף ''qeshēh ʿōref'' "hard of neck; stubborn". Similar calques are ''the way of women'' (דרך נשים) "menstruation" and ''flowing with milk and honey'' (זבת חלב ודבש) "abundance". Sometimes Hebraisms can be coined using non-Hebrew structure. For example, the

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

lexical item ישיבה בחור '' yeshive bokher'', meaning " Yeshivah student", uses a Germanic structure but two Hebrew lexical items. Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew.

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

. /

/ref>

Distinctive language

Beyond simple etymology, both spoken and written Hebrew is marked by peculiar linguistics, linguistic elements that distinguish its semitic roots. This hebraism includes word order,

chiasmus In rhetoric, chiasmus ( ) or, less commonly, chiasm (Latin term from Greek , "crossing", from the Ancient Greek, Greek , , "to shape like the letter chi (letter), Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses ...

, compound

prepositions Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...

, and numerous other distinctive features.

Systematic Hebraisms

Finally, the word "hebraism" describes a quality, character, nature, or method of thought, or system of religion attributed to the Hebrew people. It is in this sense that

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...

(1869) contrasted Hebraism with Hellenism, identifying

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

as his age's embodiment of the former. Feldman's response to Arnold expands on this usage.

Leo Strauss Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was an American scholar of political philosophy. He spent much of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students an ...

is also well-known for his metaphorical juxtaposition of Jerusalem and Athens in a similar light. Furthermore,

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

and Otto Weiniger thought in terms of similar dualities as well.

Idiomatic Hebrew

Lexical items deriving from Hebrew

Distinctive language

Systematic Hebraisms

See also

Notes

Further reading