74:
whether it was possible to revive Hebrew, which had not been spoken for many years, and adapt it to his era. He researched and asked language experts if such a revival process had occurred in the past, but received negative responses. Ben-Yehuda argued that it was difficult but possible to accomplish. He decided to check his theory by starting to talk to himself in Hebrew but quickly found out his vocabulary was limited. He started searching for a Hebrew dictionary with suitable vocabulary for 19th-century language but did not find one.
257:) which appear in the dictionary in their Aramaic forms, "אכסניא" and "אכסדרא"). He testified that there were times when he read hundreds of pages without including a single word in the dictionary. The vocalization of the non-Biblical and non-Talmudic words was mostly based on pointed manuscripts that Ben-Yehuda got access to from those who believed in his work. At this stage, the name of the dictionary was established: "the Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew".
109:
which was published in the newspaper "Havazelet". After the value was published Ben-Yehuda realized lists like that would not be enough to accomplish the vision that the entire nation would speak Hebrew. Therefore, he decided to define each and every word, but was discouraged by the enormity of the work this would require, and decided to focus on the difficult words that were the subject of disputes regarding their meaning.
62:. He was told by his Lithuanian friends that the Jews are not a nation and cannot be a nation because they don't speak in one distinct language, That claim inspired his unique perspective that two things will fully unite the Jews into one nation: The land of Israel and the Hebrew language. He expresses that perception in the article "A Burning Question" (Hebrew: שאלה לוהטה) which was published in "
328:, "Thesaurus philologico-criticus linguae Hebraicae et Chaldaicae V.T". The etymologies and comparisons appeared in footnotes to the entries and were more detailed and thorough than was customary. Etymologically, Ben-Yehuda's dictionary is the most comprehensive of all Hebrew dictionaries written to this day. However, some of the etymologies are outdated and even incorrect.
133:, who opposed Ben-Yehuda's vision mistranslated these words as an intention to gather an army to rebel the Ottomans, reported Ben-Yehuda to the Ottmans as the editor of the paper. This caused Ben-Yehuda to be arrested before a trial in the old city of Jerusalem. According to estimates, Ben-Yehuda was under arrest for about two weeks before being released with the help of
20:
376:. Segal completed these volumes in 1931. In 1938, the "Association for Completing Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's Hebrew Language Dictionary" was established to raise funds to finance the publication of the missing volumes. The seven following volumes and the introduction volume were edited by the President of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, Professor
384:
250 biblical entries himself. Sometimes, Segal and Tur-Sinai added to Ben-Yehuda's entries information from ancient sources that had been discovered since his death. However, they made sure not to include words that were coined after his death. They separated their notes from Ben-Yehuda's notes by enclosing them in square brackets.
108:
Ben-Yehuda's original intention was not to write a dictionary like the ones we know today but to categorize words by groups: the value 'tree' would contain various names of trees, the value kitchen would contain various names of kitchen utensils and so on. the first value Ben-Yehuda wrote was "stone"
73:
Until the late 19th century, the Hebrew language was used exclusively for literature and prayer and many Jewish circles opposed Ben-Yehuda's mission to make Hebrew a spoken language. Nevertheless, Ben-Yehuda believed that it was possible to educate the people to speak the language. His only doubt was
69:
newspaper. Three years later he wrote the following in the "Havazelet" newspaper: "There was not yet time for Israel since the day of its departure from its land that unity is as needed as today. A great and weighty matter lies before us this time, which cannot be done by the strength of one man, nor
368:
in
Jerusalem, the residents of Talpiot were forced to evacuate the neighborhood for their safety. Among them were Ben-Yehuda's widow, Hemda Ben-Yehuda, and the family friend, journalist Yeshayahu Karniel. They left with a British police escort to retrieve the draft manuscripts of the dictionary from
331:
Each entry has several components: Every entry is punctuated, and next to it is a sign indicating its source. If there is an etymological note for the entry, its number is noted next to its name. Following this, the definitions are provided, followed by translations into
English, German, and French.
260:
The dictionary's primary goal was to help revive the Hebrew language to a spoken common language. Therefore, in addition to the already existing Hebrew words the dictionary included new words to make the new Hebrew suitable to the 20th century. Those innovations were marked on the dictionary with a
402:
was published. The dictionary made significant contributions to the lexicographic research of the Hebrew language. It continues to serve as the most extensive scientific dictionary in Hebrew, and scholars of biblical and spoken Hebrew often consult it due to the numerous citations it contains from
383:
Both Segal and Tur-Sinai were responsible for writing the biblical entries that Ben-Yehuda did not write, as well as the entries that followed the Bible in the volumes assigned to them. Their contribution to completing the dictionary was significant. In the tenth volume alone, Tur-Sinai wrote over
356:
Ben-Yehuda left behind a substantial amount of material that required editing. After his death, his widow, Hemda, and his son, Ehud, worked to publish the volumes that were written but not yet published. They also sought researchers to complete the missing volumes. During this period, Ben-Yehuda's
158:
and the literature following the Talmud". This essence was different from the original essence of the dictionary which was initially intended to explain words that weren't fully translated before. It seems that this change was caused by Ben-Yehuda's realization that only a few individuals knew the
360:
At this stage, the sixth volume was already prepared for printing, the writing of the seventh volume was completed, and most of the entries for the eighth volume were written. The seventh volume was published with the assistance of the "Emunim Fund for
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda." During this period, the
317:
In addition to defining each word, Ben-Yehuda included translation to three languages: English, German, and French. This was mainly done by Ben-Yehuda's assistant, Moshe Bar-Nissim. This made the dictionary the first Hebrew dictionary to both define and translate its entries. Ben-Yehuda explained
335:
The writing of the dictionary took a long time because it was done by Ben-Yehuda alone. Some argued at the beginning of the writing that it was fitting for the dictionary to be written by a panel of experts and not by a single expert. However, Ben-Yehuda dismissed these claims and stated that
116:
in 1890 (which disbanded the next year), and continued to edit several Hebrew newspapers. In 1894, he was banned by the
Ottomans after residents of Jerusalem accused him of inciting a rebellion. When his father-in-law, Shlomo Jonas, published a cautious nationalist article in the newspaper
336:
personal work would improve the quality of the dictionary. Nevertheless, the extensive work on the dictionary affected the normal course of Ben-Yehuda's life. He slept less and less, and even considered stopping the writing. The decision to continue was influenced by his sister-in-law,
318:
that the translations are needed because many people did not know the Hebrew language well, and therefore, it would be difficult for them to understand the explanations on their own. He believed that adding translations would clarify the precise meanings of the words in the dictionary.
347:
in Berlin. This volume was actually ready earlier, but financial difficulties delayed its publication, even though Baron
Rothschild supported Ben-Yehuda financially for most of his work on the dictionary. Until 1922, the year of his death, four additional volumes were published.
285:). In a few instances, a foreign word was adopted and lightly modified, as was done with the word "בּדוּרה" (a word innovation that wasn't accepted for tomato) which was borrowed from the Arabic language. Many of Ben-Yehuda's innovations entered the Hebrew language.
296:
Defining words and providing their meanings was a main goal of Ben-Yehuda since the very beginning. He aimed not only to define each word precisely but also to differentiate it from similar words. For example, he did not settle for defining the word "מעדר"
288:
The words in the dictionary were arranged alphabetically, distinguishing it from other dictionaries. At the time, many dictionaries followed the practice of arranging entries alphabetically by the root letters, meaning that the word "אגרוף"
293:) would appear under the root letters ג-ר-ף. This system was common for many years in both foreign and Hebrew dictionaries. However, Ben-Yehuda opposed this method because he knew that very few people knew the root of every Hebrew word.
309:
did not reach a consensus regarding their meaning. In those cases, he did not include all the interpretations written for the word in the dictionary but rather wrote down the meaning that most writers used after the era of the
70:
by the strength of a thousand men, but only by the strength of the entire people. But this unity will not happen unless one language is spoken, and no other language besides its ancestral language will give him this unity".
403:
various sources. Moreover, Ben-Yehuda's dictionary serves as a historical document documenting the development of Hebrew in the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.
145:
A year later Ben-Yehuda published a sample notebook from the dictionary. The essence of the dictionary was first revealed in that notebook: "A complete, comprehensive book containing everything from the
112:
His work on the dictionary was delayed due to Ben-Yehuda's efforts to revive the Hebrew language: he worked extensively to convince Jewish families to speak only in Hebrew, founded the
46:
and his son. An important feature of the dictionary was its inclusion of various new words invented by Ben-Yehuda to describe modern objects which did not yet have words for them.
935:
305:). Many times he consulted with experts to define words in their field to ensure the accuracy of the dictionary. However, sometimes he encountered difficult words where even
245:
The words included in the dictionary are Hebrew words from the above sources. Occasionally, Ben-Yehuda also added some Arabic, Greek and Latin words from the Mishna and the
101:
and spoke with the Jewish community only in Hebrew which improved his language skills. After he recovered he left
Algiers and moved to the land of Israel which was under
314:. If there was an agreement about the meaning of a particular word but it was used with a different meaning in literature, he wrote down both meanings side by side.
321:
Furthermore, Ben-Yehuda included etymologies and comparisons to other languages in the dictionary. This part of his work heavily relied on the book of the German
493:
862:
159:
majority of words in the Hebrew language, leading him to believe that the only solution to this problem was to write a complete Hebrew dictionary.
936:"Ben-Yehuda's Dictionary – Author's Copy, with Numerous Corrections and Additions Handwritten by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda | kedem Auction House Ltd"
793:
242:
and science books from his time. about half a million notes containing excerpts from various Jewish sources were found in Ben-Yehuda's house.
137:. However, he was not allowed to re-publish his newspaper "Hatzevi" which gave him time to devote himself entirely to writing the dictionary.
77:
At this point, Ben-Yehuda decided to write a book that would include useful Hebrew words. He started by writing the name of the vessels from
380:. Tur-Sinai completed the dictionary in 1959. In the end, Ben-Yehuda's dictionary comprises 17 volumes, including the introduction volume.
842:
746:
602:
340:(the sister of his late wife, whom he later married), who encouraged him to continue writing and took care of all his needs.
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Ben-Yehuda's dictionary was the most popular and comprehensive dictionary of the Hebrew language among the people until "
421:
306:
970:
332:
The main body of the entry is a structured compilation from the various sources that existed before Ben-Yehuda.
817:
497:
372:
Entries for the sixth and seventh volumes were edited by the biblical and
Talmudic language scholar, Professor
227:
113:
273:). Some of the words were created by using the structure of other words, as was done with the word "גלידה" (
965:
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85:, and later he wrote some less common words he encountered. Before he decided how to name the book he got
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134:
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269:. In some cases the meaning of a word was altered to suit the era, for example the word "אקדח" (
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377:
843:"Eliezer Ben Yehuda: The Revival of the Hebrew Language – David Hyman – Israel Tourist Guide"
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8:
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218:'s book and studied those as well. He also used other important sources such as ancient
39:
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598:
567:"תה ית -־ שפת ;עבר ית — חבצלת 5 מאי 1882 — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים"
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43:
738:
The
Revival of Classical Tongue: Eliezer Ben Yehuda and the Modern Hebrew Language
594:
The
Revival of Classical Tongue: Eliezer Ben Yehuda and the Modern Hebrew Language
301:) merely as a tool for digging but explained how it differed from the word "אֵת" (
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1893 as a holiday of Jewish heroism against the backdrop of the awakening of
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186:'s "Aruch HaShalem". Moreover, Ben-Yehuda read all the Jewish sources: the
86:
129:, he signed with the words: "Let us gather strength and go forward", The
668:"הקדמה ל"מבוא הגדול" למלון בן־יהודה / אליעזר בן־יהודה – פרויקט בן־יהודה"
519:"הקדמה ל"מבוא הגדול" למלון בן־יהודה / אליעזר בן־יהודה – פרויקט בן־יהודה"
35:
620:"Hebrew and Judaism: An ancient and endless relationship | Rosen Blog"
219:
692:
42:, while the last was published long after his death, in 1958 by his
239:
215:
162:
To write the dictionary Ben-Yehuda consulted, among other sources,
122:
518:
357:
assistant, Moshe Bar-Nissim, continued to work on the dictionary.
343:
The first volume of the dictionary was only published in 1908, by
911:
643:
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that he believed were necessary (for example the words "אכסניה" (
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https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/BY-UNESCO.pdf
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94:
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dictionary acquired the nickname "Ben-Yehuda's
Dictionary."
214:
were revealed, he obtained fragments of the Hebrew text of
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19:
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boxes just before the Arab rioters reached the house.
387:
794:"Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the Making of Modern Hebrew"
470:"Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the Making of Modern Hebrew"
644:"על דבר החינוך / אליעזר בן־יהודה – פרויקט בן־יהודה"
277:), which was derived from the Aramaic word "גליד" (
957:
422:"Eliezer Ben-Yehuda & the Revival of Hebrew"
222:, coins, prayers, Jewish poems (also known as
54:In his youth, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda studied in a
697:Arabic and Semitic Linguistics Contextualized
690:
38:. The first volume was published in 1908 by
23:Several volumes of the Ben-Yehuda Dictionary
93:. There he first heard Jews reading the
89:, stopped studying medicine and moved to
18:
775:
734:
693:"Eliʿezer Ben-Yehuda and Algerian Jews"
590:
352:The dictionary after Ben Yehuda's death
958:
818:"Ben-Yehuda's Hebrew language progeny"
140:
776:Hacohen, Mordecai ben Hillel (1922).
760:
758:
597:. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 12–17.
863:"מפני שהוא למעלה מכוח בן יהודה אחד"
419:
13:
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388:The contribution of the dictionary
121:, in which he called to celebrate
16:Hebrew dictionary compiled in 1908
14:
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782:(in Hebrew). Bi-defus ha-Madpis.
307:Jewish commentaries of the bible
206:, the Jerusalem Talmud and the
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618:R, Arie Elbelman (2022-02-28).
261:special mark and were based on
58:where he was introduced to the
822:The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com
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543:"תחיית השפה העברית בארץ ישראל"
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265:, Mishnaic Hebrew and even on
1:
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281:) in the pattern of "לביבה" (
49:
735:Fellman, Jack (2011-07-19).
691:Tirosh-Becker, Ofra (2015).
591:Fellman, Jack (2011-07-19).
496:. 2012-08-02. Archived from
426:www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
7:
10:
987:
166:'s "Machberet Menachem,"
114:Hebrew Language Committee
234:time, literature of the
170:'s modern dictionary of
912:"ישעיהו קרניאל דף הבית"
395:Even-Shoshan Dictionary
99:Sephardic pronunciation
971:1908 non-fiction books
940:www.kedem-auctions.com
892:Jewish Women's Archive
779:תולדות אליעזר בן יהודה
624:Rosen School of Hebrew
450:Jewish Women's Archive
378:Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai
24:
916:karnielazmaveth.co.il
741:. Walter de Gruyter.
105:control at the time.
29:Ben-Yehuda Dictionary
22:
711:"Ben-Yehuda Eliezer"
400:Avraham Even-Shoshan
366:1929 Palestine riots
966:Hebrew dictionaries
888:"Hemdah Ben-Yehuda"
446:"Hemdah Ben-Yehuda"
283:en': potato pancake
184:Hanoch Yehuda Kohut
180:Rabbinic literature
141:The writing process
798:My Jewish Learning
494:"Young Ben-Yehuda"
474:My Jewish Learning
202:, the Babylonian
164:Menachem Ben-Saruk
40:Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
25:
748:978-3-11-087910-0
715:The Jewish Agency
604:978-3-11-087910-0
267:foreign languages
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364:During the
303:en': shovel
210:. When the
960:Categories
945:2023-11-02
921:2023-11-02
897:2023-11-02
873:2023-11-02
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431:2023-10-14
407:References
255:en': porch
251:en': Motel
226:), Jewish
50:Background
36:dictionary
291:en': fist
230:from the
220:epigraphy
119:"Hatzevi"
81:from the
65:Ha-Shaḥar
299:en': hoe
279:en': ice
271:en': gun
228:responsa
216:Ben Sira
131:Charedim
123:Hanukkah
236:Karaite
208:Aggadah
196:Tosafta
176:Aramaic
156:Midrash
127:Zionism
103:Ottoman
91:Algeria
56:Yeshiva
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601:
338:Hemeda
312:Chazal
240:Kabala
238:, the
232:Geonim
224:piyyut
204:Talmud
198:, the
194:, the
192:Mishna
190:, the
172:Hebrew
152:Talmud
83:Mishna
33:Hebrew
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247:Gmara
188:bible
148:bible
95:Torah
867:הארץ
743:ISBN
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