{"id":74363,"date":"2020-05-06T12:35:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T09:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=74363"},"modified":"2020-05-06T12:35:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T09:35:54","slug":"true-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/true-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"True Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"74363","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"475","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Believe it or not, the Tanach didn\u2019t have a word for it\r\n\r\n","content":"

In chapter 23, Ezekiel tells the story of two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah. Oholah represents Samaria and Oholibah represents Jerusalem. He goes on to tell the story of their infidelity and adultery, and God\u2019s angry reaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

In verse 40, the prophet describes how Oholibah prepared herself for her suitors: \u201cyou bathed, painted your eyes, and donned your finery.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The verb for \u201cpainted\u201d is <\/span>kachal<\/span><\/em>. This is the only appearance of this verb in the Bible, and it specifically means painting the eyes (and eyelids). In post-biblical literature, it also refers to cosmetics, and a related word is <\/span>mikchol<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 originally a painting stick for makeup, and is now a general term for paintbrush.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Arabic cognate, <\/span>kuhl<\/span><\/em>, meant powder used to darken the eyelids, and entered English as \u201ckohl.\u201d In Arabic, when the definitive article was added (\u201cthe\u201d), it was pronounced <\/span>al-kuhul<\/span><\/em>. First referring to a fine powder, it eventually came to refer to the \u201cpure spirit of anything.\u201d In English it became \u201calcohol\u201d and was used to describe the intoxicating spirit of wine, the \u201calcohol\u201d of the liquor. Later it became the name for the chemicals we are familiar with today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arabic also turned the same root into the word <\/span>kakhli<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>for the color navy blue (presumably a common color for eyeliner.) Based on this word, in the late 19<\/span>th<\/span> century, the linguist Rabbi Zeev Yavetz coined the word <\/span>kachol<\/span><\/em>\u00a0for the color blue.<\/span><\/p>\n

This may be surprising \u2013 could Hebrew have existed for thousands of years without a word for the color blue?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, first of all, there is a word for a shade of blue \u2013 <\/span>techelet<\/span><\/em>. <\/span><\/i>However, while today <\/span>techelet<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is a much lighter blue, like the color of the sky, in biblical Hebrew it was a shade of violet.<\/span><\/p>\n

But secondly, scholars have discovered that over the course of their development, languages introduce words for colors following a common pattern. They always start off with words for \u201cblack\u201d and \u201cwhite\u201d (or \u201cdark\u201d and \u201clight\u201d). If they only have three words for colors, the third is almost always \u201cred.\u201d The fourth color word to be introduced is yellow or green. Only after those colors do we find words for blue (and brown).<\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say that speakers of those languages couldn\u2019t see more than two or three colors, but they simply didn\u2019t have words to describe them.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a major debate among linguists about how the presence or absence of a word in a language affects the thought process of the speakers. Some say it has a major effect, some say much less so. One example given to show the impact is that speakers of languages with different words for light and dark blue, like Modern Hebrew (and Russian), are more likely to see them distinctly on a spectrum.<\/span><\/p>\n

So while ancient Hebrew (like ancient Greek and Sanskrit) did not have a word for dark blue, in modern Hebrew <\/span>kachol<\/span><\/em>\u00a0takes a central place \u2013 with the national colors of Israel being white and blue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":74364,"id":74364,"title":"ez23-blue","filename":"ez23-blue.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez23-blue.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/true-blue\/ez23-blue\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez23-blue","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":74363,"date":"2020-05-06 09:34:23","modified":"2020-05-06 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