Interpreting haMa:LiTZ (the interpreter)

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izzy

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Jan 3, 2006, 4:32:08 AM1/3/06

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The reversal of a word root to produce a reversal of that root's
meaning seems to occur in Tanakh. For example:

When Joseph's brothers arrived in Egypt, Joseph pretended to not
understand Hebrew and spoke with them through an interpreter, Hebrew
haMa:LiTZ. This word occurs only once (hapex legomenon) in Tanakh, in
this story at Gen 42:23.

Egyptian was written with hieroglyphics/pictures. The Hebrew root for
image (make a picture) is TZ-L-M. To translate from Egyptian to other
languages is to un-picture, hence, the reversal to haMa:LiTZ.

Old joke:
Delivery Man: I have here a parrot for Mr. Poy-rot.
Poirot: It is pronounced "pwa-roe"!
Delivery Man: I'm very sorry, sir. I have a pwa-roe for Mr. Poy-rot.

This raises the question: what is the etymology of parrot. Surely it is
not derived from the French man's name Pierre.

I suspect the PRT in parrot is a reversal of the TRP in Greek trope (a
turning or return, from IE trep- to turn). The parrot returns what you
say, without understanding it. What the parrot says is tripe.

A similar explanation may provide the etymology for the pret in
interpret (which is not related to Latin pretium = price). But it is
probably derived more directly from peh-resh-shin Pa:RooSH =
interpretation at a time when the shin had a dental T-sound.

The Hebrew word for parrot is TooKi. This may be a reversal of the
sounds in Hebrew KiSHKa:SH = to prattle, when the shin had a dental
T-sound.