Both these forms (c and d) indicate customary occupations, inhering in the subject, like Greek nouns in της, τεύς, e.g. πολίτης, γραμματεύς.
[e] 3. Nouns with מ prefixed, denoting the place where a thing is (cf. § 85 e), or its neighbourhood, e.g. מַעְיָן a place of fountains, from עַ֫יִן; מַרְגְּלוֹת the place about the feet, מְרַֽאֲשׁוֹת the place about the head, from רֶ֫גֶל, רֹאשׁ; מִקְשָׁה (for מִקְשְׁאָה) a cucumber field, from קִשֻּׁא cucumber. Cf. ἀμπελών from ἄμπελος.
[f] 4. Nouns with the termination ־ָן or וֹן expressing adjectival ideas: קַדְמוֹן eastern, from קֶ֫דֶם; אַֽחֲרוֹן posterior, from אַחַר; חִיצוֹן exterior, from חוּץ; probably also לִוְיָתָן coiled, hence coiled animal, serpent, from לִוְיָה a winding; נְחֻשְׁתָּן brazen, from נְח֫שֶׁת brass. Also abstracts, e.g. עִוָּרוֹן blindness, from עִוֵּר. Cf. § 85 u.— With a double termination (ôn or ân with î) אַדְמֹנִי reddish, יִדְּעֹנִי a knowing (spirit); צִפְעֹנִי basilisk; רַֽחֲמָֽנִיּוֹת merciful [fem. plur.].
[g] וֹן appears to be used as a diminutive ending (cf. the Syriac וּן) in אִישׁוֹן little man (in the eye), apple of the eye, from אִישׁ[1]; on the other hand שְׁפִיפֹן adder, which was formerly regarded as a diminutive, is properly an adjectival form from שָׁפַף to rub (hence, as it were, a rubbing creature); in the same way יְשֻׁרוּן is a denominative from יָשָׁוּר (=יָשָׁר), properly upright (righteous people), and not a diminutive (pious little people, and the like); finally, שַֽׂהֲרוֹן is not lunula, but an artificial moon (used as an ornament), and צַוְּרֹנִים not little neck, but necklace (from צַוָּאר neck). Cf. Delitzsch on Ct 4.
[h] 5. Peculiar to denominatives is the termination ־ִי, which converts a substantive into an adjective, and is added especially to numerals and names of persons and countries, in order to form ordinals, patronymics, and tribal names; e.g. רַגְלִי footman, plur. רַגְלִים, from רֶ֫גֶל foot; אַכְזָרִי cruel, נָכְרִי strange, from נֹ֫כֶר strangeness, תַּחְתִּי lower, from תַּ֫חַת below, fem. תָּחְתִּית and תַּחְתִּיָּה, plur. תַּחְתִּיִּים, תַּחְתִּיּוֹת; שִׁשִּׁי the sixth, from שֵׁשׁ six; מֽוֹאָבִי Moabite, from מוֹאָב, plur. מֹֽאָבִים, fem. מֽוֹאֲבִיָּה and מֽוֹאָבִית, plur. מֽוֹאֲבִיּוֹת; עִבְרִי Hebrew, plur. עִבְרִים and עבְרִיִּים, fem. עִבְרִיָּה, plur. עִבְרִיּוֹת; ישְׂרְאֵלִי Israelite, from יִשְׂרָאֵל When the original substantive is a compound, it is resolved again into two words, e.g. בֶּן־יְמִינִי Benjamite, from בִּנְיָמִין (cf. on the use of the article in such cases, § 127 d).
[i] Instead of ־ִי we find in a few cases (a) the ending ־ַי (as in Aram.), e.g. כִּילַי (crafty, or, according to others, churlish) if it stands for נְכִילַי and is not rather from a stem כלא or כלה; חוֹרָי white cloth, Is 19 in pause; perhaps also גֹּבַי a swarm of locusts, Am 7 (גּוֹבָ֑י Na 3); hardly נְגִֽינוֹתַי Is 38, Hb 3; but certainly in proper names as בּרְזִלַּי (ferreus) Barzillai;[2] and (b) ־ֶה,
- ↑ Cf. Barth, § 212; König, ii. 1, 413. Diminutives in Semitic languages are, however, most commonly formed by inserting a y after the second radical, e.g. Aram. עוּלֵּימָא, Syr. ܥܰܠܝܡܳܐ, Arab. غُلَيِّمٌ a very young man, kulaib, a little dog, &c. Since Olshausen (§ 180), זְעֵיר a little (Is 28, Jb 36) has commonly been regarded as an example of the same form, to which others have added שְׁבִיסִים Is 3 (as though a foreign dialectical form for šumais, little sun), and אֲמִינוֹן 2 S 13, as a contemptuous diminutive form of אַמְינוֹן; cf. Ewald, § 167, W. Wright, Arab. Gramm.2 i. § 269, De Lagarde, Nominalbildung, pp. 85–87, König. ii. 1, p. 143 f. The existence of the form in Hebrew is disputed by Barth, § 192 d.]
- ↑ On ־ַי as an old fem. ending, see above, § 80 l.
