Hebraism �hiːbreɪz(ə)mis a lexical item, usage or trait characteristic of the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. By successive extension it is often applied to the

Jewish people Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, their

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

, national ideology or

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these grou ...

Idiomatic Hebrew

Hebrew has many

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...

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 () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...

, 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 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 ''Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew'' is a scholarly book written in the English language by linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, published in 2003 by Palgrave Macmillan. The book proposes a socio-philological framework for the an ...

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 off ...

. /

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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 Greek , , "to shape like the letter Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of wor ...

, compound prepositions, 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 who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, li ...

(1869) contrasted Hebraism with Hellenism, identifying

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, ...

as the 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.
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Idiomatic Hebrew

Lexical items deriving from Hebrew

Distinctive language

Systematic Hebraisms

See also

Notes

Further reading