Re: USAGE Re: Defining words and how they are used

>Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> wrote:
>To the best of my knowledge, it breaks down into morphemes as
>_b.ismi.llah "by (literally, with) the name of God".
The Hebrew cognate of _ism_ is _shem_.  In rabbinic theology, God is
often referred to as _Ha-shem,_ "the Name."

>...historically what is present there: Allah < al-ilah "the god".)
And the Hebrew cognate of _ilah_ is "El."

>I'm not sure whether "Salaam" (peace) is related to "Islam" and
>"Muslim", but it might be.
The denotation of the triliterate root _slm_ was "to be whole."  It
evolved into the words _salaam_, "peace," and _aslama_, "he
surrendered," from which is derived the noun _islam_, submission.
The Hebrew cognate of _salaam_ is "shalom."

An interesting bit of trivia: I have heard it said that the English
farewell "so long" is a rendering of _salaam_ brought back by
American soldiers from the Dutch East Indies after WWII.  Can anyone
verify this?

>But I think that "baal" (lord, master) is an unrelated root; it's
>got an `ayin in it, for starters.
_ba'al_ is the Hebrew for owner or master.

>"Jehovah" uses the vocalisation of "Adonai" (Lord); as far as I
>know, this is because the tetragrammaton was usually
>pronounced "Adonai" in order to avoid saying the divine name, and
>that for this reason (to remind the reader), the vowel points of
>Adonai were sometimes used alongside the consonant skeleton of the
>tetragrammaton. "Yahweh" is some scholars' idea of the most likely
>original pronunciation of the name.
You are right.

Charlie