The verb פרנס (to distribute, supply) has four root letters. This makes us think it did not originate in Hebrew as Hebrew roots normally have only three root letters. This word and the words deriving from this root (such as “parnasa”) are not biblical words. Where did they come from?

(There is an expression that making a “parnasa” is hard. As we will see, figuring out the origin of the verb פרנס may be even harder!)

“Parnas” and “parnasa” are found in the Mishna and Tosefta. (In the Mishna, at Challah 3:8-9, Temurah 3:5, and Ketuvot 7:1.) Words from this root are also found in Targum Yonatan and Targum Onkelos. (For the latter, see, e.g., Genesis 15:2.)

Based on their existence in other Aramaic sources earlier than the Targumim, the scholarly view is that this root was present in Aramaic—perhaps as early as 200 BCE—and that this root was then adopted into Hebrew. (See the article by A.M. Butts cited below.) Early meanings of the verb in Aramaic are: “distribute” and “supply,” and there are nouns: “maintenance,” “steward” and “guardian.”

(The root is also found in letters from the time of the Bar Kochba revolt, 132-135 CE. Most of these letters are in Aramaic, but some are in Hebrew.) But the fact that our root was present in Aramaic from around 200 BCE does not answer our original question. Like Hebrew words, Aramaic words too are supposed to have only three root letters. So where did this root come from?

Here are a few suggestions for the root’s origin:

It derives from the Greek word “pronoetes” which means “supervisor, administrator.” (But why did the “t” drop?)

It derives from the Greek word “pronoeo—to perceive, foresee, provide, take care of.” An infinitive form of this word is: “pronoesai.” (Butts—see below—argues for this origin.)

It derives from the Greek word “phronis” which means “thought, prudence.”

It derives from the Latin “pensum—payment” (the source of the English word “pension”). A “resh” was added later. (Additions of “resh” are common, but Aramaic and Hebrew borrowings from Latin are not.)

It derives from the word פרן, and its variants, which refers to a “wife’s settlement, dowry.” This is the view of Jastrow, page 1231. A dowry is something that is “supplied” into a marriage. The word “parnasa” is sometimes used in rabbinic literature with the meaning of dowry. See, e.g., Ketubot 50b and 68a. But where does the word פרן come from? Ernest Klein—in his etymological work—derives it from a Greek word “pherein” that means “to bear, carry.” (Something “carried” into the marriage.) (Jastrow disagrees with this Greek origin for פרן.)

Similarly, a scholarly online site, “The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon,” suggests that it derives from a Greek word “phernizo” which means “to provide an endowment.” (I did not see this word in my Greek dictionary, but perhaps my dictionary, “Liddel and Scott,” Intermediate Greek-English lexicon, seventh edition, is not comprehensive enough.)

In this suggestion, the first letter is not the Greek letter π, but the Greek letter ϕ (phi), which makes our “f” sound. This site writes that suggestions that offer an initial Greek letter π (like some of the above) are “totally unconvincing.” It does not explain why.

Finally, I have seen the suggestion that the root פרנס derives from the Aramaic and Hebrew root פרס. (This is the view of Ernest Klein.) An early meaning of this word was “half of something” (from the verb “divide, break”). This meaning of פרס then evolved into a meaning like “food portion.” Jastrow’s main definition of the word is “fare,” which is a word for food provided to a worker. (But how can we explain the addition of the “nun?” This would be rare.)

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Now, let us briefly discuss the possibility of four-letter roots in Hebrew. Radak’s sefer “HaShorashim” suggests a three-letter root for most biblical words. But at the end of the section for each letter and its three-letter roots, he has an additional section. There, he lists words beginning with that letter which—at least superficially—seem to have four or five letter roots.

As one example, let us look at his additional section for the letter ב:

בלעד: He mentions this word, always in the plural: בלעדי. But this word is, probably, a combination of בל plus עד (“not” plus “as far as”). So it is not a four-letter root word.

בליעל: Here, he points out that he has already written about this word in his entry for בל and בלי—as this word is a combination of בלי plus יעל equals without worth.

בעבע: Here, he points out that he has already written about this word in the root בעה. The latter means “to bubble.” Our word is a reduplicative form (the first two root letters are repeated for emphasis). It is not a word with a four-letter root.

בעליל: He believes the root here is בעל (owner). Others believe it is עלל. This word only appears at Tehillim 12:7.

בקבוק (flask): This word sounds like the gurgling sound that occurs when the flask is in use. I think Radak is taking this approach. Ernest Klein certainly means this when he writes that the word is of “imitative origin.”

ברבר: This word only appears once in Tanach (at Kings 1 5:3), and it is in the plural: “barburim.” Traditionally, it has been understood as a type of fowl. It may derive from בר with its “open field” meaning or from ברא and ברה, with the meaning “fat, healthy.” The modern day scholar, Y. Feliks, argues for geese, which have white feathers. “White” in his view, is the implication of בר here: “pure.”

ברזל: “iron.” Ernest Klein points out that this word is of non-Semitic origin, from the Hittite language. (This etymology was not known to Radak.)

There is only one word in Radak’s ב list here which may be a Semitic word with four root letters: בדלח. This word only appears two times in Tanach: at Genesis 2:12 and Numbers 11:7. The main suggestions made have been that it is a precious stone, or that it is the spice “bdellium” (originally called “bdellion” in Greek). “Bdellium” is a gum resin obtained from a tree. The most recent scholarly work concludes that it is the spice later called “bdellium” but that בדלח is, undoubtedly, not a Semitic word, and that the word originated in the language of the region, “Chavilah” (see Genesis 2:11). Most likely, this was a region in Eastern Africa or Southern Arabia. See the entry for בדלח in Benjamin J. Noonan, “Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible,” (2019).

(In future columns, I can go through Radak’s additional material at the end of other letter sections and see what we find.)

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One reason I wrote this column is to share the following joke on Parshat HaMan (“The Chapter of Manna”—a prayer for parnasa; see “The Complete ArtScroll Siddur,” page 181c.) Some recite this every day. The recital is of Exodus 16:4-36. Here is the joke: “A reciter said to his friend. I am going to recite the words of this prayer, but I am not going to do it from a text. His friend: ‘Why not?’ The response: “I want parnasa but I want it ‘off the books!’””

I would like to acknowledge the post at balashon.com on “parnasa” of Jan. 27, 2010, and the article by A.M. Butts in the “Journal of the American Oriental Society,” 137.2 (2017). Also, I would like to acknowledge the help of Rabbi Ezra Frazer.

Mitchell First can be reached at [email protected]. He is one of the small number of columnists in this paper who is not regularly writing about his parnasa.