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ArchivesRe: David does not mean "friend" or "beloved"
in reply to a message by Shay
"My Name is -----, and I'm an Israeli student."
***** Nice to met you. My name is Nanaea and I’m a Jew (among other things).
"There is another Hebrew word, which is written just the same as "David", but is pronounced: "Dod"."
**** Yep, you’re correct about there being another Hebrew word written the same as “David” and pronoucned “Dod”.
"DOD indeed means "friend or beloved" (and also "uncle"), but it is a different and UNRELATED word to DAVID."
**** This is where I think you are little mistaken, Shay. “David” is a name which is believed to be derived from the root word “dod”. By the way, “dod” doesn’t literally mean “friend or beloved” – it literally means: “to boil”, which is taken figuratively to mean “to love”. By implication it also means “a friend” but more specifically “an uncle” (as you did point out).
"I also tried to look it up in some resources (including more than one Hebrew dictionary), and asked some people (who are more learned on the subject than myself), and all agreed that "David" has no known meaning in Hebrew or in ancient Hebrew."
**** That’s correct, you probably won’t find the word “david” in your Hebrew dictionary. But, as I said, the name David is *derived* from the Hebrew root word “dod”. If you do a little more research into the etymology of names, you’ll discover that there are a lot of names which are derived from various root words, and sometimes these names bear little resemblance to the original word from whence they came.
"And to all of you - do not be confused by the fact that many web-sites say the same. On the web everyone copies from eachother, so mistakes like this spread very fast..."
**** Very true. Except that the meaning of the name David has been generally accepted by etymologists and names scholars long pre-dating the Age of the Internet.
-- Nanaea
***** Nice to met you. My name is Nanaea and I’m a Jew (among other things).
"There is another Hebrew word, which is written just the same as "David", but is pronounced: "Dod"."
**** Yep, you’re correct about there being another Hebrew word written the same as “David” and pronoucned “Dod”.
"DOD indeed means "friend or beloved" (and also "uncle"), but it is a different and UNRELATED word to DAVID."
**** This is where I think you are little mistaken, Shay. “David” is a name which is believed to be derived from the root word “dod”. By the way, “dod” doesn’t literally mean “friend or beloved” – it literally means: “to boil”, which is taken figuratively to mean “to love”. By implication it also means “a friend” but more specifically “an uncle” (as you did point out).
"I also tried to look it up in some resources (including more than one Hebrew dictionary), and asked some people (who are more learned on the subject than myself), and all agreed that "David" has no known meaning in Hebrew or in ancient Hebrew."
**** That’s correct, you probably won’t find the word “david” in your Hebrew dictionary. But, as I said, the name David is *derived* from the Hebrew root word “dod”. If you do a little more research into the etymology of names, you’ll discover that there are a lot of names which are derived from various root words, and sometimes these names bear little resemblance to the original word from whence they came.
"And to all of you - do not be confused by the fact that many web-sites say the same. On the web everyone copies from eachother, so mistakes like this spread very fast..."
**** Very true. Except that the meaning of the name David has been generally accepted by etymologists and names scholars long pre-dating the Age of the Internet.
-- Nanaea
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Replies
My father is a native of Cameroon Africa!!! I am his daughter, Tema Claudine Tita Anderson! My father David came to America to go to the college of University of Houston for his doctorial degree, and he successfully graduated! In 2010 I first looked him up on Facebook because I have not seen my father since 1996 in my grandmother yard! I have five children now I would like him to meet his grandchildren and let us really come spend our time out there with them for the rest of the yearI seen he was getting ready to graduate his Masters in Maryland Michigan for being the head of board of any hospital! In Cameroon my comes with ROYALTY SO HE'S A KING! I HAVE NEVER EVER SEEN NONE OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS I'LL TALK TO THEM BESIDES MY GRANDMOTHER FLEW HERE IN 1997 JUST TO SEE ME SHE SPEAKS FRENCH SOON AS I WALK DOWN MY ROOM MY GRANDMOTHER FROM CAMEROON STARTED CRYING AND TOUCHING ME IN MY FACE MY UNCLE NICHOLAS HAD TO TRANSLATE IN ENGLISH I WAS BORN IN AMERICA BUT I AM TRYING TO LEARN MY FRENCH LANGUAGE FROM CAMEROON AND ALSO GO THERE TO GET CROWN WHERE ARE YOU is a king my name is Tina and it knows pr
incess I'm trying to see how can I locate my father a camera and how can I also pay my royalty
incess I'm trying to see how can I locate my father a camera and how can I also pay my royalty
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Dear Nanaea, nice to meet you too :-)
I have no clue how to pronounce your name :-)
Thank you for your answer.
Of course, I'm aware that many names derive from roots of other words. I just found it very peciluar that no Hebrew resource or person I asked knew about THIS connection. I even remembered (vaguely) that my elementry school teacher in "Bible lessons" told us that the origin of DAVID is unknown. That's why I was surprised to read it here and started questioning.
However, you seem to speak from knowledge, so I tend to take your word and stand corrected.
Next week I will also call "The academy of the Hebrew Language" (they have a phone service for the public) and ask them - to be absolutely positive.
BTW - the meaning of "to boil" is also not lost in modern Hebrew. The word (pronounced as DUD) is used today for the thing on the roof that makes the water hot in the shower ("Boiler"?)...
DOD - in modern Hebrew is used only as "uncle".
Thanks again!
PS - please forgive my English spelling mistakes.
Shay ("gift")
I have no clue how to pronounce your name :-)
Thank you for your answer.
Of course, I'm aware that many names derive from roots of other words. I just found it very peciluar that no Hebrew resource or person I asked knew about THIS connection. I even remembered (vaguely) that my elementry school teacher in "Bible lessons" told us that the origin of DAVID is unknown. That's why I was surprised to read it here and started questioning.
However, you seem to speak from knowledge, so I tend to take your word and stand corrected.
Next week I will also call "The academy of the Hebrew Language" (they have a phone service for the public) and ask them - to be absolutely positive.
BTW - the meaning of "to boil" is also not lost in modern Hebrew. The word (pronounced as DUD) is used today for the thing on the roof that makes the water hot in the shower ("Boiler"?)...
DOD - in modern Hebrew is used only as "uncle".
Thanks again!
PS - please forgive my English spelling mistakes.
Shay ("gift")
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Shay, please do come back and let us know what The Academy tells you when you ask them next week. I'm curious.
Oh heck, don't wait a whole week to come back. Stick around. You sound like someone with a real interest in names, and we could use an Israeli correspondant on this message board.
We're pretty international already. Pavlos posts from Greece, Nancy from Australia, Merriment from Wales, Barb and Mike C. from Canada, and others from elsewhere. I'm in New York, myself.
Oh, and I think your English is excellent.
-- Nanaea (nan-NEE-ah)
Oh heck, don't wait a whole week to come back. Stick around. You sound like someone with a real interest in names, and we could use an Israeli correspondant on this message board.
We're pretty international already. Pavlos posts from Greece, Nancy from Australia, Merriment from Wales, Barb and Mike C. from Canada, and others from elsewhere. I'm in New York, myself.
Oh, and I think your English is excellent.
-- Nanaea (nan-NEE-ah)
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P.S.
You might be interested to know that names authorities Leslie Dunkling (founder of the Names Society in 1969)and William Gosling (another Names Society official) do admit that the meaning of the name "David" is disputed -- although they seem to accept the theory of it meaning "beloved friend", as shown in the entry in their collaborative work on names. Another theory they give is that the meaning of the name is "also explained as a vocative roughly akin to 'darling'."
-- Nanaea
You might be interested to know that names authorities Leslie Dunkling (founder of the Names Society in 1969)and William Gosling (another Names Society official) do admit that the meaning of the name "David" is disputed -- although they seem to accept the theory of it meaning "beloved friend", as shown in the entry in their collaborative work on names. Another theory they give is that the meaning of the name is "also explained as a vocative roughly akin to 'darling'."
-- Nanaea
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A belated welcome from another Jew (among other things)
Hello, David.
I, like Nanaea and yourself, am Jewish. I'm sorry for such a belated welcome, but, as a college student who has to use the computers in the computer lab on campus, things can kind of "slip through my fingers" as it were.
I, too, am very curious as to what your response will be (I've been around cats too long. Their curiosity has "rubbed off" on me.)
Concerning this forum, it can be extrememly interesting most times, but quite dull others, but that is true of all forums everywhere (some more than others.) :)
Phyllis (aka Sidhe Uaine or Gaia Euphoria)
Hello, David.
I, like Nanaea and yourself, am Jewish. I'm sorry for such a belated welcome, but, as a college student who has to use the computers in the computer lab on campus, things can kind of "slip through my fingers" as it were.
I, too, am very curious as to what your response will be (I've been around cats too long. Their curiosity has "rubbed off" on me.)
Concerning this forum, it can be extrememly interesting most times, but quite dull others, but that is true of all forums everywhere (some more than others.) :)
Phyllis (aka Sidhe Uaine or Gaia Euphoria)
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Hello to Phyllis too!
And THANK YOU too! (no need for any apologies!)
I'm a student myself, so I know what just you mean...
Well, I called The "Acadamy for the Hebrew Language." Their answer was that indeed most researchers believe there was a connection between the two words (DAVID and DOD), although not everyone agrees, and there are other theories.
Just one for example: DAVID was named after "a god of the sun" called DODO, that some people(s) in the area worshiped. (Although it's also possible that DODO's name itself was derived from the same root/meaning...). And there are more theories.
But the bottom line is: it's probably true.
So I have to apologize to Mike C., and make a little note to myself: research harder before you correct other people...
And THANK YOU too! (no need for any apologies!)
I'm a student myself, so I know what just you mean...
Well, I called The "Acadamy for the Hebrew Language." Their answer was that indeed most researchers believe there was a connection between the two words (DAVID and DOD), although not everyone agrees, and there are other theories.
Just one for example: DAVID was named after "a god of the sun" called DODO, that some people(s) in the area worshiped. (Although it's also possible that DODO's name itself was derived from the same root/meaning...). And there are more theories.
But the bottom line is: it's probably true.
So I have to apologize to Mike C., and make a little note to myself: research harder before you correct other people...
1
Hi Shay! I may not be Jewish, but I'm trying harder :P
Actually you got really excited with your mantion of the Sun-God Dodo. I wonder if Dodo may be somehow related to the Dodona oracle of Zeus in Greece. A long-shot, but who knows :) I checked all my sources, but have been unable to come up with a satisfying elymology for Dodona! Herodotus wrote that an old oak tree there became an oracle when a black dove from Egypt settled on it. Circumstantial evidence or wild-goose-chasing? Will try and look into it further...
Actually you got really excited with your mantion of the Sun-God Dodo. I wonder if Dodo may be somehow related to the Dodona oracle of Zeus in Greece. A long-shot, but who knows :) I checked all my sources, but have been unable to come up with a satisfying elymology for Dodona! Herodotus wrote that an old oak tree there became an oracle when a black dove from Egypt settled on it. Circumstantial evidence or wild-goose-chasing? Will try and look into it further...
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hello
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Hi Shay :)
Still no hard evidence on my Dodo - Dodona theory :(
However I strongly belive in a relation between Zeus and the verb *zeo* (to live), from which Zoe developed as well favorite Sunday passtime, the Zoo. Zeus in classical Greek also appeared as "Zen" (See Liddell Scott Greek-English Lexicon). Zen also happens to be a noun of "zeo" :)
The plot thickens however because the genitive case of "Zeus" is "Dios" which sounds strikingly like the Sanskrit god Dyeus mentioned by Mike C meaning "sky". Related to the above is also the Latin Deus and its derivatives (the French Dieu etc etc).
More action items: to fit in the word "Theos" (as in theology)in the above context...
Still no hard evidence on my Dodo - Dodona theory :(
However I strongly belive in a relation between Zeus and the verb *zeo* (to live), from which Zoe developed as well favorite Sunday passtime, the Zoo. Zeus in classical Greek also appeared as "Zen" (See Liddell Scott Greek-English Lexicon). Zen also happens to be a noun of "zeo" :)
The plot thickens however because the genitive case of "Zeus" is "Dios" which sounds strikingly like the Sanskrit god Dyeus mentioned by Mike C meaning "sky". Related to the above is also the Latin Deus and its derivatives (the French Dieu etc etc).
More action items: to fit in the word "Theos" (as in theology)in the above context...
1
Hi Shay :)
Still no hard evidence on my Dodo - Dodona theory :(
However I strongly belive in a relation between Zeus and the verb *zeo* (to live), from which Zoe developed as well favorite Sunday passtime, the Zoo. Zeus in classical Greek also appeared as "Zen" (See Liddell Scott Greek-English Lexicon). Zen also happens to be a noun of "zeo" :)
The plot thickens however because the genitive case of "Zeus" is "Dios" which sounds strikingly like the Sanskrit god Dyeus mentioned by Mike C meaning "sky". Related to the above is also the Latin Deus and its derivatives (the French Dieu etc etc).
More action items: to fit in the word "Theos" (as in theology)in the above context...
Still no hard evidence on my Dodo - Dodona theory :(
However I strongly belive in a relation between Zeus and the verb *zeo* (to live), from which Zoe developed as well favorite Sunday passtime, the Zoo. Zeus in classical Greek also appeared as "Zen" (See Liddell Scott Greek-English Lexicon). Zen also happens to be a noun of "zeo" :)
The plot thickens however because the genitive case of "Zeus" is "Dios" which sounds strikingly like the Sanskrit god Dyeus mentioned by Mike C meaning "sky". Related to the above is also the Latin Deus and its derivatives (the French Dieu etc etc).
More action items: to fit in the word "Theos" (as in theology)in the above context...
1
Thanks for the info, Shay!
I don't think you were completely incorrect regarding the name of David -- it is, afterall, a name with a debatable meaning. Same as the name Mary (click on the blue link to that one, to check it out).
Interesting that bit of info you found about the David from scriptures having possibly been named after a sun god. There is a belief that the story of Esther is actually an allegorical tale about the goddess Ishtar.
Again, thanks for checking things out with the Academy. Much appreciated! :)
-- Nanaea
I don't think you were completely incorrect regarding the name of David -- it is, afterall, a name with a debatable meaning. Same as the name Mary (click on the blue link to that one, to check it out).
Interesting that bit of info you found about the David from scriptures having possibly been named after a sun god. There is a belief that the story of Esther is actually an allegorical tale about the goddess Ishtar.
Again, thanks for checking things out with the Academy. Much appreciated! :)
-- Nanaea
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