Words have meaning II Something that I am very interested in is language. Language can be considered the conduit by which thoughts and thus culture is expresses. What I notice, when I am watching and listening to Tucker Carlson, he uses frequently the word Chutzpah.  This is a Jiddish word for gal, bloody cheek, audacity. boldness. Why does he not use the proper language but resorts to these kind of words?  Thinking about it, we use the word: "Verboten", and especially the way we say it, as a means to express an authoritarian directive with negative connotation. It is perhaps a sign of the times, when words from our own language are replaced by loan words to denote a certain phenomenon. A Holy war seems not to denote the right intensity. But Jihad does. Kosher, nah .... Hallal is in vogue. It is fascinating how this process works.  Of course, due to the composition of our societies, it is unavoidable that certain words are being incorporated into the body of everyday speech, especially since integration happens between the sheets.  It has happened before. Simply consider all the words in English of Latin and French origin. Even today, we use Roman expressions in law: sua sponte, ad infinitum, etc.  Mass immigration has also rendered meaningless the designation English, German, French, Western, etc. It denotes a citizenship of a country, not a Nation anymore. To designate such we now need to go out of our way to circumscribe it: African American. Really? Somali Dutch? Turkish German? Afghan Fin? I am sure African Russian is very popular! The Chinks (Han) must be livid by being lumped in with Asian Americans .... And, we also live in a time where words are used while changing the meaning. Confusion abounds. And I have to say: confuse the language, and society will disintegrate (Gen 11).  The word jew.  Now, normally, you would not think of this word as something special, since it is used in the bible to denote people of a certain background. The word Jew is in there, right? But what does it mean? ..... No, it is not what you think, although many if not most people think this way. I did too, until I started to research it, because something has always bugged me about it.  When you ask a people, how do you call yourself, some people will denote themselves as: our people. one people would call themselves: Dakota: friendly, ally, whereas others would denote them as Sioux: foreigners or little snakes. Many peoples in Northern Europe are known by the names the Romans gave them. Take the people from The Netherlands, usually called Dutch. It is a bastardization from the word Dietz, Germanic. Dutch is ""pejorative label pinned by English speakers on almost anything they regard as inferior, irregular, or contrary to 'normal' . See Dutch courage, Dutch treat, Dutch uncle, Dutch concert, flying Dutchman, and worse: Double Dutch ... you get the drift.  I am not sure all these designations are naturally negative. Dutch courage refers back to Jenever and it's effects. A Dutch treat is you pay your own fare, instead of expecting to be doted upon. Dutch uncle: kind but direct. Dutch concert ... yeah ... cacophony, and double Dutch is gibberish.  Pennsylvania Dutch is not "Dutch" at all but actually platt German.  Another funny thing I found. As you will know Africaans is a derivative of the Dutch language. Under the entry of Spanjool, meaning Spaniard, the word Spanjool was also used to designate syphilis, as the story goes, they were the first to introduce this into the low lands, Netherlands pre 1581. As to their trading tactics, it was called underhanded.  spanjool s.nw. Geslagsiekte. Uit Ndl. spanjool (1746), so genoem omdat die Spanjaarde, veral weens die onderduimse optrede van hulle handelaars, as 'n slegte nasie beskou is wat vir die oorsprong van die siekte verantwoordelik was. Eerste optekening in Afr. by Mansvelt (1884) in die vorm spanjóól. Ndl. spanjool uit Sp. español 'Spanjaard'. Die verskynsel dat slegte eienskappe aan ander volke as jou eie toegeskryf word, blyk ook bv. daaruit dat die Engelse 'n kondoom 'n French letter ('Fr. brief') noem, terwyl die Franse uit selfverdediging dit 'n capote anglaise (''n groot Eng. jas met 'n kap') noem; die Duitsers noem dit soms Parysenaars. The latter entry about the condom is funny as well. Apparently, the English called it a French letter, while the French called it a capote anglaise, an English coat, and the Germans called it Parisian.  It is amazing, how for instance in the realm of sex, ethnicity is prevalent: French kiss, Greek .....  anyway ... enough to spur your imagination.  So, back to jew. In Latin, the correct designation of the people from Judea was Judeans or Judeas in old English. Jew seems like an abbreviation of Judeas. This abbreviation usually denotes something negative. Whereas they themselves would denote themselves as Jehudi. This is often translated with praisers, from Judah, from yadah: throw, cast, confess, give thanks, praise, thank. It is related to hod: authority, honor, majesty, splendor, or hdwy: leader.  It is easy to see how mixing up the two, supports a narrative to control language. See also the above mentioned example of Dakota and Sioux.  How about names? Like Joseph.  When you look at the root itself, from strongs dictionary, root yzp: it denotes: credit and interest. It is not lost on me that the story of Joseph is mired in slavery, 7 good years with taxation and 7 bad years where people would sell all they had to survive. (Crazy sleepy creepy sniffing uncle Joe ....) I am not sure whether this is prophetic. Some will say so. But these are stories written after the "fact". A narrative to convey an idea. But what if there is a huge pun? Something that cannot easily be seen?  Manasseh: means “causing to forget", and reading the story about the naming, it makes sense, does it not? But when you look at the root, and see how the word is used in biblical text ....forget, deprive, exact, remit, remove, and: to lend, become a creditor, creditor, lending, loaned, make the loan, borrow on security or interest, creditor, exact, extortioner, lend, usurer, lend on usury. See Psalm 109: 11 Levi: lavah: to join, be joined and to borrow, borrowed, borrows, lend, lender like the borrower, lends, probably has something to do with contract and bonds. And it is not lost on me that a 10th had to be given to the temple = tax to the levites.  continuation in comments.