The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the BibleRECONSTRUCTION OF ROOTS.....................................................................................
By comparing the various aspects of a parent root, the original meaning of the parent
can be determined. For example, the two child roots UUQ (MQQ) meaning "to rot"
andUJQ (MQ) meaning "to stink" are formed out of the parent root UQ. These two
ideas are connected in that something that rots begins to stink. When we examine the
letters which form the parent root, Q and U, we find the original meaning. The Q is a
picture of water and the U is a picture of the sun at the horizon representing the
gathering or condensing of light. When we combine the meaning of these two letters we
have "water condensed". When the water of a pond condenses, such as dries up, the
vegetation and fish that lived in that water die and begin to rot and stink. We know have
a picture which will help us better understand the meaning of these words. One
additional piece to the puzzle is the adopted root UQ] (TsMQ), an adopted root
meaning "dry".
Many times the adopted roots alone can help to reconstruct the meaning of a Parent
root. The original meaning of the parent root LF (BHh) is very difficult to determine
as the only word derived from it is the word ILFE (av'hhah) from the child root
LFE (ABHh) meaning "sharp point". The adopted roots in Table 8 clearly show the
original meaning of the parent root LF as "slaughter" and the "point" is in reference to
the knife that is used to slaughter.
Table 8
Hebrew Meaning
LFYSlaughter
LF^Slaughter
VLFChoose (through the idea of choosing a sacrifice)
RLFTest (through the idea of testing for the choicest)
VOF*Firstborn (the firstborn of the flock is chosen for sacrifice)
* - The letter L has been exchanged for the similar sounding O