OMNI
| Lehite PN | NEPHITE historian and scribe (Jarom 1:15, Omni 1:1) |
Etymology
OMNI may be derived from the Hebrew root ʾmn, meaning "to be true, faithful" as well as "to confirm, support," and may be linked to the segholate form ʾomen, "faithfulness, trust." The name could be a hypocoristic form of *ʾomniyyahu, "faithfulness of the Lord," with a hireq compaginis, or, alternatively, without a hireq compaginis, "the Lord is my trust," (JH) “the Lord is (the object of) my trust,” or the substantive ʾomen with a first common singular pronominal suffix, thus ʾomnī, "my faithfulness, my trust," “(the object of) my faithfulness, trust,” or as a gentilic “Faithful, Trustworthy.” It could also be a diminutive form in -î.[1]
The form for OMNI may follow the Omri/Zimri pattern. If OMNI follows the Omri pattern, then we should note that Winfried Thiel suggests that ˤomrî may be hypocoristic for hypothetical *ˤomrîyyāhû “Yahweh is my life; (the) life, which Yahweh (has given).”[2] On that analogy, we might translate *ʼomnîyyāhû “Yahweh is my faith, Yahweh is (the object of) my faith; (the) trust that Yahweh (has given).”
Cf. Book of Mormon OMNER, AMMON, AMNIHU, ANTIOMNO, et al.
Variants
Deseret Alphabet: 𐐉𐐣𐐤𐐌 (ɒmnaɪ)
Notes
- ↑ Noth, Martin Noth. Die israelitischen Personennamen im Rahmen der gemeinsemitischen Namengebung. Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament, III, 10. (Stuttgart, 1928 /reprint: Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1966.) 38.
- ↑ Thiel, “Omri,” in D. Freedman, ed. Anchor Bible Dictionary. vol. 5. (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1992.), 17; she likewise sees Zimri as short for Zimriyyahu “Yahweh is (my) protection.”; Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. vol. 2. revised by W. Baumgartner and Johann J. Stamm. (Leiden: Brill, 1994.), 850, comparing Arabic ˤamara “to live.”
