Avvakum

[William Ryan]

Perhaps I should have been more specific and said that it was the direct 
borrowing of Hebrew biblical names _for use by Russians as baptismal 
names_ which would be surprising. The question of the appearance of 
Hebrew words in specific texts is another matter - I avoided mentioning 
the 'Judaizer' texts referred to by Olga since they are a special case 
with very limited circulation in most cases, and forms found there can 
hardly be described as loan words. An exception might be the Tainaia 
tainykh and the extract from it which is known in lechebniki as Nauka 
Moiseia Egiptianina - but without checking exhaustively I can't say if 
the relatively wide availability of this text actually led to any 
lexical loans. For colleagues interested in this topic, Arkhipov has 
indeed made good contributions to this study; see also important studies 
and editions by Moshe Taube, some in conjunction with Horace Lunt, and, 
more controversially, some of the older work by N. A. Meshcherskii. On 
the lexical material, including Hebrew and Arabic via Hebrew, in the Old 
Russian translation of the Hebrew version of the medical works of 
Maimonides, which are interpolated in the Tainaia tainykh, see my own 
article 'Maimonides in Muscovy: Medical Texts and Terminology', Journal 
of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 51, 1989 (in JSTOR).
Will Ryan

Olga Meerson wrote:
> Will is correct about this particular name. For the direct Hebrew borrowings in OR and OCS, and R, however, see the research on the Judaizers (zhidovstvuiushchie) and their texts and translations, e.g., the Psalter. The best work done so far, I believe, is by Andrey Arkhipov, the greatest scholar of the problem known to me, sadly and scandalously currently unemployed. I don't believe he is on SEELANGS but I can give his email to anyone interested in these etymological questions.
> o.m.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: William Ryan <wfr at SAS.AC.UK>
> Date: Thursday, November 1, 2007 9:18 pm
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Avvakum
>
>   
>> 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
>>>>
>>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>         
>> -------- 
>>     
>>>>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your 
>>>>         
>> subscription>>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the 
>> SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>>     
>>>>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>         
>> -------- 
>>     
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>       
>> -------
>>     
>>> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your 
>>>       
>> subscription>  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS 
>> Web Interface at:
>>     
>>>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>       
>> -------
>>     
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -----
>> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your 
>> subscription  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS 
>> Web Interface at:
>>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -----
>>
>>     
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>   

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------