חרס

Hebrew

Root
ח־ר־ס (ḥ-r-s)

Etymology

From Hittite 𒂁 (ḫarši-, “a kind of rough pottery vessel”); in the Tanakhic passages it does not mean the material itself, but only a kind of vessel, which apparently derives from Asia Minor with the borrowing. Other Semitic languages have instead of this word a phono-semantic matching, under which are Classical Syriac ܚܶܙܦܳܐ (ḥezəp̄ā), Classical Syriac ܚܶܨܦܳܐ (ḥeṣəp̄ā, “piece of pottery”), whence Arabic خَزَف (ḵazaf), and Ge'ez ጻሕብ (ṣaḥb), ጻኅብ (ṣaḫb, “earthen vessel”).

Noun

חֶרֶס • (khéres) m (singular construct חֶרֶס־) [pattern: קֶטֶל]

1. pottery, earthenware; clay, ceramics
2. (biblical) the sun

Derived terms

• חַרְסִינָה (kharsína)

References

• Rabin, Chaim (1963) “Hittite Words in Hebrew”, in Orientalia, volume 32, number 2, →DOI, pages 118–120
• “חרס” in the Hebrew Terms Database of the Academy of Hebrew Language

Further reading

• חרס on the Hebrew Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^he