how to say “image” in Hebrew – part 1
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The word image has several meanings in English. There’s the image of something physical or that which is formed in the mind (a mental image using the imagination), there’s the psychological image that a person perceives of him/herself and projects to the world, as well as others.
Hebrew has different words for these various meanings.
In Biblical Hebrew, the content of a vision is a דְּמוּת (deh-MOOT), while a visual representation of something either physical or imagined is a תְּמוּנָה (teh-moo-NAH).
In today’s spoken Hebrew, תמונה refers to a physical image or picture, including those images stored digitally on a computer (files ending in .jpg, .png, etc). דמות, on the other hand, today refers primarily to a character or figure in a story or public arena. For example, הַיֶּלֶד מֵחֵיפָה הוּא הַדְּמוּת הַמֶּרְכָּזִית בַּסִּפּוּר – the boy from Haifa is the main character in the story (hah-YEH-led meh-kheh-ee-FAH hoo hah-deh-MOOT hah-mehr-kah-ZEET bah-see-POOR).
The root of דמות is ד.מ.ה (d.m.h), meaning image or likeness. For another application of the root as well as another definition of image, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
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