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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage

Afikoman

I noticed in surfing my OED online, that the word "afikoman," the matzo that put aside to be eaten at the end of the Seder meal, derives from Greek. This seems odd, and I was wondering is someone could relate to me how this word came to borrowed into Hebrew from Greek.
  

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[nq:1]I noticed in surfing my OED online, that the word "afikoman," the matzo that put aside to be eaten at ... story The Passover seder as we know it was codified by rabbis in Roman-ruled Jerusalem around the second century Common Era. It was modeled on the Greek symposium, a ritual meal wherein the foods eaten served as springboards for philosophical discussion.

— Usenet

  • [nq:1]I noticed in surfing my OED online, that the word "afikoman," the matzo that put aside to be eaten at ...
  • story The Passover seder as we know it was codified by rabbis in Roman-ruled Jerusalem around the second century Common Era.
  • It was modeled on the Greek symposium, a ritual meal wherein the foods eaten served as springboards for philosophical discussion.
  • The first references to an afikomen date from this period.
  • However, afikomen is a Hebrew transliteration of the Greek "epikomion," which, according to Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, a religion professor at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, connoted the after-dinner revelry concluding the symposium.
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22 Answers
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[nq:1]I noticed in surfing my OED online, that the word "afikoman," the matzo that put aside to be eaten at ... and I was wondering is someone could relate to me how this word came to borrowed into Hebrew from Greek.[/nq]
From a recent Newsday article:

http://www.newsday.com/fe
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[nq:1]"It was a convention at the time - after the meal there would be drinking, ***, general carousing."[/nq]
...
[nq:1]Scholars don't know when the afikomen was transformed from an undesirable activity[/nq]
Undesirable activity? Most desirable, I should think.
[nq:1]into a harmless piece of matzo.[/nq]
Like Dennis. When he was turned into a newt.
But they haven't got bett
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[nq:1]I noticed in surfing my OED online, that the word "afikoman," the matzo that put aside to be eaten at ... and I was wondering is someone could relate to me how this word came to borrowed into Hebrew from Greek.[/nq]
Some of the Passover customs, such as reclining, are derived from the Greeks and Romans. The Jews of those times borrowed other words for things they didn't have words for in
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[nq:1]I noticed in surfing my OED online, that the word "afikoman," the matzo that put aside to be eaten at ... and I was wondering is someone could relate to me how this word came to borrowed into Hebrew from Greek.[/nq]
Since the afikoman is a latecomer among Seder traditions, a Greek (there are those who derive it from Aramaic or a Hebrew acrostic, but the Greek derivation seems more convin
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[nq:1]Some of the Passover customs, such as reclining, are derived from the Greeks and Romans. The Jews of those times ... be surprised if the Hebrew of that time had no word for something eaten at the end of a meal.[/nq]
A couple of other Greek words in Hebrew: "irgun" (organization), from "organon", & "orlog" (big clock), from "horologion".
Joe Fineman (Email Removed)
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[nq:2]I noticed in surfing my OED online, that the word ... how this word came to borrowed into Hebrew from Greek.[/nq]
[nq:1]Some of the Passover customs, such as reclining, are derived from the Greeks and Romans. The Jews of those times ... prefix "epi-" came into Hebrew once as "'api" and once as "'afi", or "'aphi" if you like. Jerry Friedman[/nq]
The name Jerusalem seems to derive from
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[nq:1]A couple of other Greek words in Hebrew: "irgun" (organization), from "organon", & "orlog" (big clock), from "horologion".[/nq]
Irgun is a Modern Hebrew coinage. "Orlogin" (not "orlog"), however, is not.
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Hebrew phonology is such that word-initial (epi) is impossible. (p) and (f) are allophonic (variants of the same phoneme), with (p) appearing only after a consonant, or doubled after a short vowel, or in word-initial position.

The "a" in "afikoman" is an "interrupted vowel" (Hataf), a fairly common occurence in Hebrew in this position. "Efi-" (with "interrupted" e) is possible, but the on
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Do you have a source for that? You have a morpheme boundary smack in the middle one of the two morphemes that make up the Hebrew word. In fact, Jerusalem is often referred to in scripture simply as "shalem". And the notion of "sacred pig" is very, very foreign to Hebrew culture. Are you suggesting that a Greek name somehow predated the semitic one?
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[nq:2]The name Jerusalem seems to derive from the Greek iero-os-ulemi meaning "sacred pig forest".[/nq]
[nq:1]Do you have a source for that?[/nq]
Don't listen to him. It's actually from Franco-Germanic "J'ai rues sales-heim" referring to pre-Roman times (Romans brought sanitation, along with peace, roads, etc. Even the Peoples' Front of Judea admitted to that)
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