Evening All!
Following up a suggestion from Richard over at post #137 of the Rapture thread, here's a little bit concerning the roots of the English word 'harvest', and its derivation from the Hebrew h-r-p structure.
The origins of the word 'harvest' are to be found in the Hebrew verb charaph, meaning 'to gather, to pluck off'. This verb gives rise to the Hebrew noun choreph, meaning 'autumn'. Of course, autumn is the time of harvest, which in German is Herbst. Related words include the English 'herb', and also the verbs 'carp' and 'crop'. Other verbs related to this root seem to include 'grip', 'grope' and 'grab'; and possibly even the nouns 'grapes' and 'harp', as things that are plucked. These are variations on the primary etym, which is the r-p structure. From this come words like 'rip', 'ripe', 'reap' and 'rape'. I'm sure others could find more English words from this h-r-p structure.
For further reading, check out posts #134 and #135 of the Rapture thread, and Gesenius' comments on the word charaph, which can be found online at Blue Letter Bible.
Stephen
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