LEVI

From Book of Mormon Onomasticon
Revision as of 19:32, 20 November 2015 by JKeenerInd (talk | contribs) (Added Name Index)
Jump to navigationJump to search
Jaredite PN 1. JAREDITE king (Ether 1:20, 21; 10:14, 15)
Biblical PN 2. Son of JACOB (3 Nephi 24:3)

Etymology

Until possible language affinities for JAREDITE names can be determined, all suggestions for etymologies of JAREDITE names must remain more speculative than substantive. With that caveat, the onomasticon does offer etymologies for some JAREDITE names, especially if it is possible that some JAREDITE names were translated into NEPHITE, or were otherwise related to one or more Semitic languages.

If JAREDITE names can be traced to Semitic roots, one may suggest the biblical PN LEVI. The HEBREW root lwh, "to accompany" in the qal,[1] and the Mari (Old Babylonian) PN lawi-AN[2] with the Old South Arabic lwʾ, “priest,” might suggest a meaning such as “pledged/priest of God.” The biblical PN LEVI may or may not derive from the latter root.

A less likely etymology for LEVI would derive it from the HEBREW noun lābīʾ, "lioness," where the b is pronounced as a v (in linguistic terminology, the intervocalic spirantization of a stop).[3]

Variants

Deseret Alphabet: 𐐢𐐀𐐚𐐌 (liːvaɪ)

Notes


  1. HALOT. The niphal would not produce the Book of Mormon form.
  2. Huffmon, 225.
  3. Edward Lipinski, Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar (Leuven: Peeters, 1997), 96-99.
<< Levi >>

Name Index

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z