Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/102

 96 Hebrew Words in Gryphius Horribilicribrifax Lamentations, and the Song of Songs are called "Megilloth" n1/ n 3D "scrolls," and are read in the synagogue, each on its special occasion. Gryphius uses the word in the derived meaning of " books." 25) Bacek here I am utterly at a loss for an explanation or a derivation. Tittmann very courageously, probably trusting en- tirely to the context, gives the meaning of the word as "dorthin," "yonder," but fails to give the slightest indication of how the word comes to this meaning. Of one thing we may be certain: there is no such word as "bacek" in Hebrew or Talmudical Ara- maic. Furthermore, there is no such word, as far as I can ascer- tain (and I have consulted several whose knowledge of such matters is thorough) in any form of Judaeo-German. The word is plainly either a corruption of some Hebrew form or an invention of Gryphius.' If it is the former, several suggestions might be manu- factured. The word "betoch"--7j iH3 for example, comes to mind. But its meaning, "in the midst of," absolutely precludes its being applied here. The riddle, then, must apparently remain unsolved, unless we are willing to believe that Gryphius invented the word himself. 26) Aggan pN "bowl," "basin." The plural form of this word occurs in Exodus 24, 6. 27) Keseph F|D3 " silver." The regular Old Testament word. 28) Thaharn the Judaeo-German form of the Old Testament verb "thaher" IHCO "to cleanse," a causative form derived from the adjective "tahor" 1 HID "dean," "pure." Most of these words and expressions, as we can readily see, offer practically no difficulty, with the exception of an occasional slip which may be attributed either to incorrect editing on the part <of Tittmann or to an error on that of Gryphius. The three doubt- ful expressions are still as doubtful as ever, although a little new light may have been shed upon them here. The whole scene be- tween Rabbi Isaschar and Frau Antonia constitutes one of the many philological points of interest to be found in Gryphius' "Horribilicribrifax." AARON SCHAFFER. The Johns Hopkins University.