Hebraism is a lexical item, usage or trait characteristic of the Hebrew language. By synecdoche it is often applied to the Jews, their Judaism, Zionism or Jewish culture.
Similarly, in paleolinguistics, a Semitism is a grammatical or syntactical behaviour in a language which reveals that the influence of a Semitic language is present. The most common example is the influence of Aramaic on some texts written in Jewish Koine Greek.[Jonathan T. Pennington Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew - Page 105 - 2007 "This nuanced difference between a “Semitic enhancement” and a “Semitism” enables us to reconsider whether an apparent linguistic anomaly in Greek (such as plural) is truly a "Semitism" and not merely an "enhancement".]
Idiomatic Hebrew
Hebrew has many
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."
[ Bivin, David. "Hebrew Idioms in the Gospels," Jerusalem Perspective Online. ]
Lexical items deriving from Hebrew
"Hebraism" may also refer to a lexical item with Hebrew
etymology, i.e. that (ultimately) derives from Hebrew.
[ "Hebraism," Merriam-Webster online.] For example, the English word
stiff-necked, meaning "stubborn", is a
calque 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 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. / [3]]
Distinctive language
Beyond simple etymology, both spoken and written Hebrew is marked by peculiar
linguistics elements that distinguish its semitic roots. This hebraism includes word order,
chiasmus, compound
prepositions, and numerous other distinctive features.
Systematic Hebraisms
Finally, the word "hebraism" describes a quality, character, nature, or method of thought, or
Judaism attributed to the
Hebrews. It is in this sense that
Matthew Arnold (1869) contrasted Hebraism with Hellenism,
[ Arnold, Matthew. "Hebraism and Hellenism". From Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism.] identifying
Thomas Carlyle as his age's embodiment of the former.
Feldman's response to Arnold expands on this usage.
[Feldman, Louis H., "Hebraism and Hellenism reconsidered," Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, March 1994.] Leo Strauss is also well-known for his metaphorical juxtaposition of Jerusalem and Athens in a similar light.
Furthermore, Friedrich Nietzsche and Otto Weiniger thought in terms of similar dualities as well.
See also
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Christian Hebraist
-
Hebraist
-
List of English words of Hebrew origin
Notes
Further reading
