CHAT: Amen (was Re: CHAT: Tao Te Ching)

On 18 July, Andy Canivet wrote:

> >From: John Cowan <cowan@...>
> > > Amen to that!  (BTW - does anybody know the etymology of Amen?  I read
> > > someplace that the word amen had a common Indo-European heritage as
> >Sanskrit
> > > om - can anybody confirm or deny this? and are there any other similar
> > > words? in other IE descended languages?)
> >
> >It's Hebrew, not IE at all.  IIRC the triliteral root means "confirm".
> >The "verily" in Jesus's sayings ("Verily, verily I say unto you") is
> >a Greek representation of (an Aramaic relative of) "amen".
>
> I thought it sounded suspicious that they might be related...
>
    The Hebrew root aleph-mem-nun basically refers to
strength, especially along the lines of endurance and stability.
Thus, |amen| as an expression of confirmation
(ie "So be it! Let it endure like that!" ).
    From the same root, other words are derived,  such as:

    |neeman| = loyal (ie one's "trustability" is stable and enduring)

    |maamin| = believe

    |emuna| = belief, faith, religion (as a faith)

    |meamen| = coach ( ie he builds [hopefully ;-) ]  sturdy athletes)

    |amana| = pact, treaty (hopefully, it doesn't get broken ;-)  )

    |uman| (but |oman| is also commonly heard) = craftsman
                ( ie, one whose skill is "sturdy" and dependable)

    |imun| = an exercise (meant to strengthen one's skills)

    and so on.

    (Note:  I have transcribed the Hebrew words above more or less
according to how they sound to me. In the written form,
the first lettter of the root, |aleph|,  would be found at the beginning
of the words I have written as vowel-initial
and between what I have written as two consecutive vowels.
In spoken Hebrew today, |aleph| is more or less silent. )


    Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.