The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the BibleNOUNS.......................................................................................................................
The most common noun form is the use of the two or three letter root. From the parent
root FE (AB), meaning a tent pole, comes the noun FE (av) meaning "father". As
was mentioned previously, all nouns are action oriented and the full understanding of
the noun FE is "the one who holds up the tent/house". Just as the tent pole supports
the tent, the father supports the family within the tent. The root LXT (PTHh) is the
base for the verb LXT (patahh) meaning "to open" and the noun LXT (petahh)
meaning a door.
Noun Derivatives
Additional nouns are also formed out of the base root by adding specific letters as
prefixes, infixes and suffixes, in specific places within the root. The noun derivative
LXTQ (maph'teach) meaning a key is formed by adding the letter Q to the front of
the noun LXT (petahh - a door). Some of the most common noun derivatives are
formed by placing a Q(m) or X(t) before the root or a M (i) or J(o or u) within the root.
Feminine Derivatives
In Hebrew all nouns are either masculine or feminine. In most cases the nouns and noun
derivatives are masculine and are converted into feminine nouns by adding one of four
suffixes; I (ah), 8 (et), 8J (owt), or XM (iyt). Generally, masculine nouns are concrete
while feminine nouns are abstract.
Combination Derivatives.......................................................................................
Additional noun derivatives are formed by combining different prefixes, infixes and
suffixes. The four feminine suffixes can also be added to any of the other noun
derivatives resulting in a wide variety of possible nouns.
Plural Nouns
Nouns are made plural by adding the suffix QM or XJ. Generally the QM is used for
masculine nouns and XJ for feminine nouns. In some cases masculine words, usually
very ancient words, will use the XJ suffix. The Hebrew words FE (av - father) and
VJE (or - light) are masculine words but are written as XJFE and XJVJE in the
plural. In all modern languages the plural is always quantitative while in Ancient
Hebrew a plural can be quantitative or qualitative. For instance the word "trees" refers
to more than one tree (quantitative) while in Hebrew the plural word QM]S
(etsiym - trees) can mean more than one tree (quantitative) or one very large tree
(qualitative). An example of this is the word XJQIF (behemot or usually transliterated
as behemoth in Job 40:15). This word is the plural form of the singular IQIF
(behemah), meaning beast, but refers to a very large beast rather than more than one