BIBLICAL NAMES FOR MILITARY WEAPONS IN MODERN HEBREW
BIBLICAL NAMES FOR MILITARY WEAPONS IN MODERN HEBREW

Summary/Abstract: The military weapons of Israeli army includes a wide array arms, armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, plans, helicopters, missiles, and warships. Many of their names are from ancient origin, especially from Biblical Hebrew. During the process of the Hebrew language revival at the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, the restorers of the language were aware of the inadequacy of its vocabulary as existing in classical texts. They looked upon their work as a means of closing the gap between Ancient Hebrew vocabulary and contemporary needs. In field of military vocabulary as in other fields of basic vocabulary were adapted Biblical or Mishnaic words, which no longer functioned in their original meaning in the generation of revival or were unknown before the revival.In this paper will be described some modern military weapons in their Biblical context and the process of their adaptation to the modern use. The following nouns will be described: gun (rove), revolver (ekdah), cannon (totah), mortar (margema), mine (mokesh), shell, cannonball (pagaz), bombe (petzatza).Can it be said that at the time of establishment of the State of Israel and of IDF in 1948, Hebrew speech was already a complete fact, and the revival process was no longer a process of creation, but a process of expansion. The fact is that the military terminology, as other fields, were not fulfilled until the sixties of the 20th century and even later. For example, the term for "flight of airplanes" (matas) was created only in 1964.

• Details
• Contents