• As in many Hebrew words the stress is on the last syllable, thus on ..ver.
• The word in modern Hebrew means: friend, member, comrade, mate, but also boyfriend.
• The meaning of the word has changed from time to time.
• The ancient semitic meaning of the root of the word is "join", "bind", "unite".
• In the Bible the meaning was: companion, fellow.
• The above mentioned word [yedid(i)] was in ancient time much more intimate than ; in Ugaritic (see the first lesson) the root ydd meant "love", and in the Bible the meaning was "beloved".
• During the last forty years the two words have changed meaning; if today a daughter says to her parents "I have a haver (yesh li haver) that will be a reason for happiness or anger (depending on the age of the daughter) but if she announces I have a yedid (yesh li yedid) it isn't important news at all, but in other contexts the word still has the meanings "member" and "companion".

• Company = hevra
• Syntax = tahbir
• Connection, composition = hibbur
• Note-book = mahberet
• Traffic = tahbura
• Socialization = hivrut
• friendship = haverut , the word without vowels is written the same as the former and only from the context it is possible to know which word is meant.
• Author = mehabber

This feature of derivatives from a root of mostly three consonants is one of the main characteristics of semitic languages, although we also see this phenomenon in other languages, for example in English "gold" and "gild"; from the same root in Dutch "geld" (money) the same as in German; "vergelden", in German "vergelten" (take revenge ie. pay for it).

Back to lesson two for further explanations of the characters.

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