שמואל

Hebrew

Etymology

Compound of שֵׁם (šēm, “name”) and אֵל (ʾēl, “god”). The first part is often said to be שָׁמַע (šāmáʿ, “to hear, to listen”) since elistic names tend to derive from exhortations from verbs, however this is unlikely since the third radical ע (ʿ) of the verb is absent. Other interpretations posit derivation from roots meaning “God” as in Heaven or the upper sky (see שָׁמַיִם (šāmáyim)) and “high” (see עלי (literally “elevation”)) giving “God is high”.

Pronunciation

• (Modern Israeli Hebrew) IPA^(key): /ˈʃmu.el/
• (Ashkenazi Hebrew) IPA^(key): /ʃmu.ejl/
• (Sephardi Hebrew) IPA^(key): /ʃemuˈel/
• (Yemenite Hebrew) IPA^(key): /ʃæ̆muˈʔel/
• (Tiberian Hebrew) IPA^(key): /ʃămuˈʔel/
• (Biblical Hebrew) IPA^(key): /ʃəmuːˈʔeːl/

• Audio:

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Proper noun

שְׁמוּאֵל • (šəmūʾḗl) m

1. (biblical) Samuel (the primary author and central character of the first book of Samuel)
2. Samuel (one of two books of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh)
3. a male given name, equivalent to English Samuel

Descendants

• → Ancient Greek: Σαμουήλ (Samouḗl)
  • → Latin: Samūēl
  • → Old Armenian: Սամուէլ (Samuēl)
• → Arabic: سَمَوْأَل (samawʔal)

References

• H8050 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible

Further reading

• שמואל on the Hebrew Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^he

Yiddish

Proper noun

שמואל • (shmuel) m

1. (biblical) Samuel
2. a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English Samuel

Derived terms

• שמוליק (shmulik)
• שמעלקע (shmelke)