Triliteral Root of the Day

Griffon-vulture; eagle. The Triliteral Root of the Day from OCABS, in Hebrew and Arabic, with passages from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qurʾan.

Show Notes

נ-שׁ-ר (nun–šin–resh) / ن–س–ر (nūn–sīn–rāʾ)

Griffon-vulture; eagle

In the Hebrew Bible: nešer, griffon-vulture

In the Qurʾan: nasr, and Nasr

Sound-law correspondence and an explicit cognate link. ḥurūf al-ṣafīr, at the ʿayn: sīn answering šin.

Passages

  • Deuteronomy 14:12: But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,
  • Job 39:27: Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?
  • Micah 1:16: Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!
  • Matthew 24:28: For wherever the carcass is, there is where the vultures gather together.
  • Sūrat Nūḥ سورة نوح “Noah” 71:23: And they have said: Forsake not your gods. Forsake not Wadd, nor Suwa', nor Yaghuth and Ya'uq and Nasr.

The whole card on ocabs.org · The Consolation of Consonants

Opening music: Touchia Ḥijāz, Thami Ben Abdelkrim, violin, with percussion (Morocco, 1920s), public domain. Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF, Archives de la Parole.

What is Triliteral Root of the Day?

Every day, one Semitic triliteral root heard in three scriptures: the root in Hebrew and Arabic, how it functions, and a passage from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qurʾan, read in the original languages with the English. Two or three minutes a day, from OCABS on the Ephesus School Network.