Page:A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, Volume 1 (1903).djvu/9

 flying locks' (Sabbath 57$b$), i. e. a hair-band worn, as we further learn from the discussion concerning isṭ'ma, under the hair net or cap. To uncover the (Isaiah XLVII, 2) therefore means to throw off the matron's head-cover and appear as a slave. The variant for  in these forms is a common phenomenon in Talmudic orthography.

In connection with this noun formation it may not be out of place to note that Ithpaal or Ithpeel nouns sometimes drop the initial Aleph, in which case they may resume the regular order of consonants, which is inverted in the verb. Thus (M'naḥoth 41$a$) is formed from, the Ithpaal of , 'to justify one's self (compare Genesis XLIV, 16), and means justification, excuse. Another is formed from the root, and means split, breaking through, damage (Baba Kamma 56$a$). (Giṭṭin 86$a$) is an Ithpeel noun of (=), and means a shining white spot, a suspicious symptom of leprosy; and, indeed, Alfasi reads. The Mandaic dialect offers analogies to these formations (see Noeldeke, Mand. Gramm. § 48, sq.).

The enlargement of stems by the prefix is well known in the Aramaic Shafel, but evidences of this same process are to be met with also in classical Hebrew. We have and,  and ,  and , and many more. More frequent is the use of the prefix for the formation of verbal nouns, as, , &c. Such verbal nouns may again become the basis for the formation of nominal verbs, as, 'to pray', which only by a stretch of the imagination can be explained as a plain Hithpael. So also, 'to shout' (Ps. LXV, 14; LX, 10; CVIII, 10), is to be taken as a derivative of. The Talmudic Hebrew offers these formations in abundance, as from,  from  (see Abraham Greiger, Die Sprache der Mischnah, § 7).

On this principle of enlarged stems many words in this Dictionary have been regained from foreign origin for Semitic citizenship, e. g., 'shield', and its derivatives in Hebrew and Aramaic, and  (see the Dictionary s. vv.).

The letter is an equivalent of  in the Shafel forms in the later Hebrew as in the Aramaic; hence words like, Piel  from ;  from ;  from ; , 'to be empty', from , and many more.

A further development of Safel stems consists in formations which for convenience' sake may be defined as 'Ispeel' nouns, of which the aforementioned and  may serve as examples.

The same letters,, , , and also , are used as intensive suffixes. The Biblical and  have been explained by some as enlargements of  ( = ) and  respectively. Be this as it may, the Talmudic Hebrew and the Aramaic possess such intensive suffixes. belongs to, 'to crush, grind, scrape', and the various significations of this enlarged stem and its derivatives can easily be traced back to the fundamental meaning (see Dict. s. v. I and II). Only to