how to say “sand” in Hebrew
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חוֹל
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Last week, I wrote a post on the Hebrew term for mermaid and how that relates to the name of the Israeli coastal town, בַּת יָם ( ) – Bat Yam.
) – Bat Yam.Here’s a post about sand, which inspired the name for Bat Yam’s next-door neighbor town, חוֹלוֹן ( ).
).
The Hebrew word for sand is חוֹל ( ). In the plural, it’s חוֹלוֹת ( ), for example:
). In the plural, it’s חוֹלוֹת ( ), for example:זֶה הָלַךְ לְאִבּוּד בְּחוֹלוֹת הַזְּמַן.
It got lost in the sands of time.
The Israeli city חולון was named after an ancient town mentioned in the biblical book of יְהוֹשֻׁעַ ( ) – Joshua, though that town was most likely located in the Judean Hills, far from today’s metropolitan Tel Aviv area. Why transplant the name of a far-off town to one situated on the sandy coast? Because today’s חולון was built on top of small hills of sand.
) – Joshua, though that town was most likely located in the Judean Hills, far from today’s metropolitan Tel Aviv area. Why transplant the name of a far-off town to one situated on the sandy coast? Because today’s חולון was built on top of small hills of sand.The word חול referring to sand sounds and looks the same as the word חול referring to something profane or not sacred, but the two words are not related. The root of חול meaning sand is ח.ו.ל (kh.w.l), while the root of חול meaning profane is ח.ל.ל (kh.l.l).
