The word warrior is to
war as what word is to
jihad?
Etymology, Etymology, and more Etymology
as well as grammar, usage, euphemism, slang, jargon, semantics, linguistics, neologism, idiom, cant, and argot.
The critically-acclaimed board game
MooT
consists of tough questions about the nuances of the English language.
Answer:
mujahid
A person who makes war is a warrior, whereas a person who
undertakes jihad - which means "struggle" in Arabic - is a mujahid; several of
them are called mujahidin.
Feedback
Semitic languages use "infixes" to
indicate semantic (and I believe, grammatical) changes. English usually uses
"affixes" (prefixes and suffixes). Anyone out there know why the root j-h-d
changes from jihad to jahid? (Not a
rhetorical question, by the way.)
jacko at lycos.com
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I know there is the word hajji for one who has done
the hajj. I thought that there is also a word jihadi for one
who does jihad, but google gives only limited support for this. Maybe it's a
neologism, or maybe I'm confusing it with the other neologism
jihadist.
lu at wischik.com
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Semitic languages use both affixes and infixes, sometimes together
and sometimes not. It all depends on the type of verb in use. The vowels in
Semitic languages are not part of the alphabet; all roots are composed of
consonants (though in transliteration to English the guttural ones often
transform into vowels), and the vowel pattern varies according to the type of
verb. A given root can usually take a number of vowelizations, each one
reflecting a different shade of meaning or syntax. For example, in Hebrew, the
root sh-b-r can be vowelized "shovER" to mean "break" or
"m'shaBER" to mean "smash." Affixes and other vowel changes come into play in
expressing different tenses, genders and plurals.
swidler at yahoo.com
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