Avvakum

[William Ryan]

Not from Hebrew directly but from the late Greek Abbakoum, from the 
Septuagint Ambakoum = Habacuc (the 8th minor prophet) in the Vulgate and 
Habbakuk in the King James version. Beta in Greek is regularly rendered 
as v in Church Slavonic. The phonetic progression of mb(mv) to bb(vv) is 
unproblematic. A direct borrowing of a biblical name from Hebrew in Old 
Russian or Church Slavonic would be very surprising since few if any 
Orthodox Slavs knew Hebrew but did of course know the Church Slavonic 
translations of the books of the Septuagint.
Will Ryan


Margarita Orlova wrote:
>> Avvakum = AVVA + KUM
>
> cf. English ABBA: In the Old testament, 'Father',  In the New 
> Testament, 'God'.
>
> [  from Late Latin "abb", from Greek; from Hebrew 'father', cf. 
> English  "abbot"]
>  However, in the Middle-Age Greek, the phonetic transformation 
> happened: [b->v], thus, the word came into Slavic languages as AVVA, 
> [Old Slavonic = "Otche", Vocative of "Otetc" = 'Father']
>
> Hebrew root [qum] included in the word formations, which are 
> signifying the act of 'bending' to somebody.
>
> Just my two cents.
>
> Margarita
>
>
> On Thursday, November 1, 2007, at 10:42  AM, Katz, Michael wrote:
>
>> Dear colleagues:
>>
>> A student asked me about the origin/etymology of the name Avvakum. Can
>> anyone enlighten me so I can pass the information along?
>>
>> Michael Katz
>> Middlebury College
>> mkatz at middlebury.edu
>>
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