זית

Hebrew

Olive trees

Etymology

Root
ז־ו־ת (z-w-t)

Akin to Ugaritic 𐎇𐎚𐎎 (ztm), Phoenician 𐤆𐤕 (zt), Galilean Aramaic זֵיתָא (zētā), Syriac Aramaic ܙܝܬܐ (zaytā), whence Amharic ዘይት (zäyt, “olive oil”), Arabic زَيْت (zayt, “oil, olive oil”), as well as to Old Armenian ձէթ (jētʻ), Old Georgian ზეთი (zeti), Semitic borrowings; from Northwest Semitic also Egyptian

ḏt.

Noun

זַיִת • (záyit) m (plural indefinite זֵיתִים, singular construct זֵית־, plural construct זֵיתֵי־) [pattern: קֶטֶל]

1. olive (species)
2. olive tree (an evergreen tree, Olea europaea, that produces olives as fruit)
3. olive (the small oval fruit of this tree, eaten ripe (usually black) or unripe (usually green))
4. olive (a dark yellowish-green color, that of an unripe olive)

Derived terms

• כַּזַּיִת (kazáyit)
• הַר הַזֵּיתִים (har hezeitím)

References

• H2132 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• “זית” in the Hebrew Terms Database of the Academy of Hebrew Language

Further reading

• זית on the Hebrew Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^he