# Ben-Yehuda, Pines, and the vocabulary of Modern Hebrew

Hebrew series, installment: *Milon ha-lashon ha-ivrit ha-yeshana ve-ha-hadasha* מלון הלשון העברית הישנה והחדשה, vol. 1, Jerusalem and Berlin, 1908.

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## 1. Animation script (about 88 seconds)

| Time | Voiceover | Visual | Caption (on screen, not spoken) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:04 | (silent) | Globe, pin on Jaffa | 32.05° N, 34.75° E · Jaffa · 1881 | Make: own render |
| 0:04–0:13 | "In the autumn of 1881, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his wife Devora landed at Jaffa. He had resolved to speak only Hebrew. Jews read and wrote Hebrew, and since about the second century it had been no one's mother tongue." | PEF *Map of Western Palestine*, Sheet XIII, push in on Jaffa. Dissolve to the 1905 portrait of Ben-Yehuda; the memoir line אני מדבר עברית, ורק עברית types on beside it. Then Devora's portrait, held small | Eliezer Ben-Yehuda אליעזר בן־יהודה, 1858–1922 · Devora Ben-Yehuda דבורה בן־יהודה, died 1891 · "אני מדבר עברית, ורק עברית" (I speak Hebrew, and only Hebrew), his memoir, *HaToren*, 1917–18 · *Map of Western Palestine*, Sheet XIII, 1879 | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Reignier_Conder,_Map_of_Western_Palestine_in_26_sheets_from_the_surveys_conducted_for_the_Committee_of_the_Palestine_Exploration_Fund_13_(FL199398518_2368494).jpg · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eliezer_Ben-Yehuda.1905.jpg · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deborah_Ben_Yehuda.jpg · memoir text: https://benyehuda.org/read/5692 |
| 0:13–0:25 | "In Paris in 1879 he wrote that speaking Hebrew was 'in our power, if only we wish.' On the first day of 1880 he printed what the Academy counts as his first new word. He rejected 'book of words,' a copy of German *Wörterbuch*, and made *milon* from *mila*, word, and the ending *-on*." | Globe arc Paris → Vienna → Lyck, each pin flashing its label as the arc passes. Over Paris, the clause וגם לדבר בה יש לאל ידנו אם אך נחפוץ set in a period Hebrew face. Over Lyck, the 1880 column: ספר מלים lit and struck, then the sentence that coins מלון. Then type alone: מִלָּה + ־וֹן → מִלּוֹן | 48.86° N, 2.35° E · Paris · 8 March 1879 → 48.21° N, 16.37° E · Vienna · *HaShachar* 9:7 · "שאלה נכבדה" → 53.82° N, 22.36° E · Lyck (today Ełk) · 1 January 1880 · "שתי מלות חדשות" · מִלּוֹן *milon*, "a book that holds within it the words of the language" | Essay text: https://benyehuda.org/read/257 · Column: National Library of Israel, *Magid Mishneh* title record, https://web.archive.org/web/20221123000254/https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/magidmischne (issue scan to be pulled by hand) |
| 0:25–0:34 | "In Jerusalem the family spoke only Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda called their son, born in 1882, the first Hebrew child. A community of native speakers formed a generation later, among the children of the first Hebrew schools' graduates." | Itamar Ben-Avi portrait. The phrase הילד העברי הראשון types on beside it, credited to his father. Cut to the 1912 photograph of the Hilfsverein kindergarten in Jerusalem | Itamar Ben-Avi איתמר בן־אב״י, born Ben-Zion Ben-Yehuda · 1882 by his father's account; some sources give 1885 · "הילד העברי הראשון," the first Hebrew child, his father's phrase · Hilfsverein kindergarten, Jerusalem · *Múlt és Jövő*, 15 February 1912 | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ITAMAR_BEN_AVI,_EDITOR.D396-043.jpg · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_n%C3%A9met_zsid%C3%B3k_seg%C3%A9lyegylet%C3%A9nek_h%C3%A9ber_%C3%B3vod%C3%A1ja_Jeruzs%C3%A1lemben_(1912).jpg · memoir text: https://benyehuda.org/read/4345 |
| 0:34–0:46 | "Many new words were made from Hebrew material: a root of consonants set into a pattern. The pattern of *mafteakh*, a key, marks a tool, and from the root for sling he made *makle'a*, a cannon. The dual ending for pairs turned *ofan*, a wheel, into *ofnayim*, a bicycle, on the model of *oznayim*, ears." | Typographic. Three root letters ק ל ע drop into the frame of מַפְתֵּחַ and settle as מַקְלֵעַ; cut to the same pointed word in the 1880 column. Then אוֹפָן takes the ending ־ַיִם and becomes אָפְנַיִם, with אָזְנַיִם above it as the model | שורש root · משקל pattern · מַפְתֵּחַ key → מַקְלֵעַ, proposed for "cannon," today "machine gun" · אוֹפָן wheel + ־ַיִם → אָפְנַיִם bicycle · "ע״מ אזנים" (on the pattern of *oznayim*) | Make: typographic. Column as above |
| 0:46–0:54 | "His dictionary marks these words. From 1908 it used a sign for 'words that I coined and that have already been accepted.' It stands before the bicycle, and before *glida*, ice cream." | Vol. 1 Hebrew title page, push on the date line אתת״מ לחרבן. Cut to the key of signs; the looped mark is cropped from the scan and enlarged. Then the same mark in front of אָפְנַיִם (vol. 1, p. 110) and in front of גְּלִידָה (vol. 2, p. 779) | *Milon ha-lashon ha-ivrit*, vol. 1 · Jerusalem and Berlin · "אתת״מ לחרבן," year 1840 from the destruction of the Temple (1908–09) · "מלים שחדשתי אני ושנתקבלו כבר בספרות של זמננו" · vol. 1, p. 110 · vol. 2, p. 779 | https://archive.org/details/thesaurustotiush01benj/page/n16/mode/1up · https://archive.org/details/thesaurustotiush01benj/page/n131/mode/1up · https://archive.org/details/thesaurustotiush02benj (leaf n212) |
| 0:54–1:05 | "Some new words were old ones. Ezekiel sees something 'like the look of the *khashmal*' in the fire, and the word's meaning is uncertain. The Greek translation reads *elektron*. The poet Judah Leib Gordon followed the Greek and used *khashmal* for electricity, and the dictionary credits him." | Ezekiel 1:4 set in type, הַחַשְׁמַל lit; ἤλεκτρον fades in above it. Cut to the Gordon portrait, then to vol. 4, p. 1806, footnote 2 lit line by line | חַשְׁמַל *khashmal* · Ezekiel 1:4 · Septuagint ἤλεκτρον · Judah Leib Gordon יהודה לייב גורדון, 1830–1892 · *Milon*, vol. 4, p. 1806 | https://archive.org/details/thesaurustotiush04benj/page/n408/mode/1up · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yehuda_Leib_Gordon_1.jpeg · text: https://www.sefaria.org/api/v3/texts/Ezekiel.1.4?version=hebrew%7CTanach%20with%20Nikkud |
| 1:05–1:13 | "Many of the words were made by other people. The tomato, *agvaniya*, is credited to Yehiel Michel Pines, from a root for desire. Ben-Yehuda found it immodest and said *badura*. Pines's word is in use." | Typographic. ע ג ב drops into עַגְבָנִיָּה beside the German word; בַּדּוּרָה sits opposite beside بندورة; בדורה fades | עַגְבָנִיָּה *agvaniya* · ע־ג־ב + ־ִיָּה · after German *Liebesapfel*, "love apple" · Yehiel Michel Pines יחיאל מיכל פינס, 5646 (1885–86), "apparently" (Sivan 1971) · בַּדּוּרָה *badura*, from Arabic *bandūra* | Make: typographic |
| 1:13–1:24 | "In 1913 the board of a new technical school in Haifa chose German for the sciences. Three members resigned, and by 1914 the school was to teach in Hebrew. In 1922 the Mandate made Hebrew an official language of Palestine. In 1953 the Knesset created an Academy to direct its development." | The Technikum shell under construction, 1913. The Jaffa meeting poster. Article 22 on p. 8 of the 1922 Command Paper. The 1927 two-mil coin turning to show its three scripts. The 1953 law in *Sefer HaHukkim* | Technikum, Haifa, 1913 · Neve Shalom, Jaffa, 18 November 1913: "השפה העברית־ שפת הלמוד בבתי הספר העבריים בא״י" · Mandate for Palestine, Art. 22, London, 24 July 1922 · Cmd. 1785, London, December 1922 · פלשתינה (א״י), two mils, 1927 · Knesset, 27 August 1953 · *Sefer HaHukkim* 135, p. 168 | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asefa_Nave_Shalom.jpg · https://archive.org/details/mandateforpalest00leaguoft/page/n7/mode/1up · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_Mils_Palestine_1927.jpg · https://fs.knesset.gov.il/2/law/2_lsr_208534.pdf · Technikum: see Image notes |
| 1:24–1:28 | (silent) | Globe, pin on Jerusalem. Series tag | 31.78° N, 35.22° E · Ben Yehuda Street · Jerusalem · named for him | Make: own render |

### Coordinates for the globe build

- Jaffa port (landing, autumn 1881): 32.054° N, 34.749° E. The port is confirmed by the memoir; the landing point in 1881 is not known
- Paris (the essay is dated here, 8 March 1879): 48.857° N, 2.352° E. City center; Ben-Yehuda's address in Paris is not identified
- Vienna (*HaShachar*, edited by Peretz Smolenskin): 48.208° N, 16.373° E. City center; the editorial office is not located
- Lyck, today Ełk, Poland (*Magid Mishneh*, 1 January 1880): 53.824° N, 22.362° E, OpenStreetMap's point for the town. The town is confirmed as the place of publication by the National Library of Israel title record; the print shop is not located
- Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem (optional; he entered the Old City here the morning after landing): 31.777° N, 35.228° E. Confirmed from the memoir
- Ethiopia Street 11, Jerusalem (optional; his home 1909–1922, where he wrote the dictionary and died): 31.785° N, 35.221° E. OpenStreetMap places no. 11 at this point. The residence dates rest on Hebrew Wikipedia citing Itamar Ben-Avi
- Berlin-Schöneberg (Langenscheidt, publisher of vols. 1–8): 52.486° N, 13.356° E. District centroid; the publisher's address is not verified
- Haifa, the Technikum building (today the Israel National Museum of Science, MadaTech): 32.810° N, 34.996° E. The building is confirmed
- Iron Gates, Danube (optional; where Ben-Yehuda says Devora first answered him in Hebrew, summer 1881): 44.592° N, 22.261° E, the Great Kazan gorge (Cazanele Mari). The memoir names only "שער הברזל" between two cliffs; this point is a representative place in the gorge, and the stretch of river is not recorded
- Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem (closing pin): 31.782° N, 35.218° E. Confirmed as named for him

### Image notes

- The series line names the first volume of the dictionary as this installment's artifact, in the place the 1607 *Jihe yuanben* holds in the Chinese series: a printed book whose own apparatus records word-making. Its title page promises "מספר רב של מלים אשר יצר המחבר למושגים ישנים וחדשים" (a large number of words that the author created for old and new concepts), and its key of signs gives one mark to "words that I coined and that have already been accepted." The mark sits on real entries (the bicycle, p. 110). The scan is public domain and clean (Princeton Theological Seminary copy on the Internet Archive). The same front matter names the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden among the funders, which ties the 1913 dispute to the book.
- The title page reads "ירושלם" and "ברלין" and has no Gregorian year. It is dated "אתת״מ לחרבן," year 1840 from the destruction of the Temple (checked on leaf n12). Mirkin (p. 313) converts this to 5669, August 1908 to July 1909, and dates the first fascicle to early 1908. Gilboa (p. 308) gives *HaZvi*'s first issue the same era, 1816 from the destruction for 5645, which confirms the offset. Caption the book "vol. 1, Jerusalem and Berlin, 1908." The Internet Archive record's "1878" is a cataloguing error.
- The bicycle headword on p. 110 is printed אָפְנַיִם (*ofnayim*), on the model of אָזְנַיִם, as the footnote says. Today's form is אוֹפַנַּיִם. Do not retype the scan's headword with modern pointing; show today's form as a separate caption.
- The coinage mark is a small looped glyph with a tail. No Unicode character matches it. Crop it from leaf n16 or from p. 110. Do not substitute ∞, and do not use the user-made chart File:BYarticle_sign.png (CC BY-SA 2.5).
- The 1880 column: the Academy of the Hebrew Language hosts a JPEG of it (https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/shtey-milim-hadashot.jpg). The JPEG carries no mark of its own, but the Academy page that hosts it has "© כל הזכויות שמורות" in its footer. Use the National Library of Israel scan of the issue, which the NLI's *Magid Mishneh* title record declares public domain. The NLI issue page sits behind a human-verification check and must be opened by hand. The column points the cannon word מַקְלֵעַ, which shows on screen.
- *HaShachar*, 1879: no open scan was found. Set the quoted clause in type and caption the source "text: Project Ben-Yehuda, from Sivan's 1978 edition."
- The line "אני מדבר עברית, ורק עברית" is Eliezer Ben-Yehuda writing about himself. Set it beside his own portrait.
- Ezekiel 1:4: set the line in type from the public-domain "Tanach with Nikkud" text on Sefaria (source tanach.us; the link in the script selects it). Sefaria's default version and the Wikisource pointing are CC BY-SA. Leningrad Codex photographs have unclear rights.
- The Ben-Avi photograph (GPO D396-043) carries the catalog date "01/12/1933," which is the date of the negative or reproduction. Do not caption it 1933.
- The Devora portrait has weak provenance (a Rishon LeZion family album) and is 330 × 551 px. Use it small or as a held still.
- The 1912 kindergarten photograph comes from the Hungarian magazine *Múlt és Jövő*, 15 February 1912, p. 42. The Commons note that the children speak Hebrew may be the uploader's gloss; caption only the society, place and date.
- The Jaffa poster prints the day, "ביום ג׳ י״ח חשון," and no year. Commons, from the NLI's language-war poster collection, dates it 1913, and Tuesday 18 Heshvan fell on 18 November 1913. The weekday alone does not fix the year (18 Heshvan was also a Tuesday in 1912, 1915 and 1916), so the year rests on the NLI collection. The meeting was at Neve Shalom, in the synagogue "קהלת יעקב."
- For the Technikum, use https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D7%98%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9C_%D7%A7%D7%91%D7%95%D7%A6%D7%AA%D7%99_%D7%A9%D7%9C_%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%91%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%94_%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%A5_%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C_%D7%91-_1913._%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%94_%D7%94%D7%98%D7%9B%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9F._%D7%A6%D7%9C%D7%9D_%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%98_%D7%91%D7%A8-PHAL-1619662.png (1913, Albert Bär, 500 × 500 px) or the Library of Congress view of the finished building, https://www.loc.gov/item/2019693406/ (between 1925 and 1933; record readable at https://www.loc.gov/item/2019693406/?fo=json). Avoid File:Haifa,_Construction_of_the_Technion_,1912.jpg and its 1913 companion, which carry an implausible PD-USGov tag.
- The Mandate scan on the Internet Archive is the British Command Paper Cmd. 1785 (London: HMSO, "Presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty, December, 1922"), which prints the League's certified text. Article 22 is on p. 8 (leaf n7). Caption it as the Command Paper.
- The Library of Congress photograph of Jaffa harbor (https://www.loc.gov/item/2019698449/) dates from between 1898 and 1914. Do not caption it as the 1881 arrival; the PEF map is used instead. Sheet XIII prints "1879" at its foot; only a handwritten catalogue note on the Laor copy says 1880.
- The Language Committee photograph (File:First_Committee_of_the_Hebrew_Language,_Jerusalem_1912.jpg) is dated 1910–1919 by Harvard. Caption it "1910s," without "first" or "1912."
- Vols. 6 and later were published after Ben-Yehuda's death in December 1922. Vols. 9–16 are in copyright (vol. 16 carries "© 1959 by Sagamore Press, Inc."; Tur-Sinai died in 1973). For the 1959 completion, make a type card.
- Make: the globe (flat matte, one pin, monospace coordinates), the root-and-pattern animations, and the tomato beat.

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## 2. The post (single long-form post, no reply chain)

32.05° N, 34.75° E · Jaffa · 1881

In the autumn of 1881, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (אליעזר בן־יהודה) and his wife Devora (דבורה) landed at Jaffa. He had resolved to speak only Hebrew, at home and with anyone who understood it. Jews had read, written and prayed in Hebrew without a break, but from about the second century to the nineteenth it was no one's mother tongue, and many of its names for modern things were phrases. A newspaper was a מכתב עתי, a "periodical letter," and eyeglasses were בתי עיניים, "houses for the eyes."

He had argued the case in an essay dated in Paris on 13 Adar 5639 (8 March 1879) and printed in Peretz Smolenskin's journal *HaShachar* in Vienna. The essay is mostly about land: the nation needed a center in the Land of Israel. In one sentence he adds that Hebrew could already be written about anything, "וגם לדבר בה יש לאל ידנו אם אך נחפוץ" (and to speak it, too, is in our power, if only we wish). His son later annotated that sentence as the first hint of the demand that Hebrew be spoken again.

On 1 January 1880, in a column titled "שתי מלות חדשות" (two new words) in *Magid Mishneh*, a Hebrew weekly published in Lyck, East Prussia, he rejected ספר מלים, "book of words," as a copy of German *Wörterbuch*: "על ידי התחבולה הזאת נהיתה שפתנו כמעט לשפת אשכנזית במלות עבריות" (by this device our language has become almost German in Hebrew words). Hebrew grammar, he argued, already had the means. A prefixed mem can mark an instrument, as in מַפְתֵּחַ (key) from פתח (to open). A final ־וֹן can mark "the thing that holds within it" a concept. From מִלָּה (word) he made מִלּוֹן (*milon*), and from the root ק־ל־ע (to sling) he made מַקְלֵעַ (*makle'a*) for a cannon. Today מקלע means a machine gun. The Academy of the Hebrew Language calls מלון the first word he coined, although his son dated it to a notebook of 1879.

In Jerusalem the family kept the rule. Their son Ben-Zion, later Itamar Ben-Avi (איתמר בן־אב״י), was born in the Old City on 15 Av 5642 (31 July 1882) by his father's account; some sources give 1885. Devora kept no servant, so that the child would hear no language but Hebrew, and his father called him "הילד העברי הראשון" (the first Hebrew child). That account comes from a memoir published in 1917–18, some thirty-five years later. Ghil'ad Zuckermann calls Ben-Avi "symbolically" the first native speaker and, citing Chaim Rabin, places the first community of speakers in the early twentieth century, among the children of graduates of the first Hebrew schools. Shlomo Izre'el ties the spread of spoken Hebrew to the Second Aliyah, a wave of immigrants in that century's first decade, and he calls the picture of Ben-Yehuda as the only reviver of the language "a myth." Ben-Yehuda supplied a program, many words and a dictionary, and the first communities of speakers formed in the schools and the farming settlements.

Many of the new words followed the method of the 1880 column. A Hebrew noun is a root of consonants (שורש) set into a pattern (משקל) of vowels and affixes, and some patterns mark a class of thing. The Academy calls מַקְטֵל, the pattern of מַפְתֵּחַ, "משקל המכשירים" (the pattern of instruments), and gives מַצְפֵּן (compass), מַגְהֵץ (iron) and מַחְשֵׁב (computer) as examples. The related pattern מַקְטֶלֶת gave מַגֶּבֶת (towel), from נ־ג־ב (to dry), which Ben-Yehuda marked as his own, and מַצֶּקֶת (ladle), from י־צ־ק (to pour), which the language committee coined in 1912–13. The dual ending ־ַיִם, used for pairs, turned אוֹפָן (wheel) into the bicycle. The dictionary prints that word אָפְנַיִם and names its model in a footnote, אָזְנַיִם, ears; today it is pointed אוֹפַנַּיִם.

The dictionary records this work on its own pages. The first volume of the *Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew* (מלון הלשון העברית הישנה והחדשה) began to appear in fascicles in 1908, published in Berlin-Schöneberg by Langenscheidt. Its title page promises "מספר רב של מלים אשר יצר המחבר למושגים ישנים וחדשים" (a large number of words that the author created for old and new concepts). Its key of signs marks the period of each word, from the Bible to the literature after the Talmud, and a small looped sign marks "מלים שחדשתי אני ושנתקבלו כבר בספרות של זמננו, או בדבור העברי בארץ ישראל" (words that I coined and that have already been accepted in the literature of our time, or in Hebrew speech in the Land of Israel). It stands before the bicycle, a word that "has already been used much in the newspapers and in books," and, in the second volume, before גְּלִידָה, ice cream.

Other modern words are old ones with new senses. Ezekiel's first vision reads "וּמִתּוֹכָהּ כְּעֵין הַחַשְׁמַל מִתּוֹךְ הָאֵשׁ" (and from its midst, like the look of the *khashmal*, from the midst of the fire). The meaning of חשמל is uncertain, and the Septuagint rendered it ἤλεκτρον. The poet Judah Leib Gordon (יהודה לייב גורדון) followed the Greek and used the word for electricity. His note, which the dictionary quotes, explains: "כונתי להכח הטבעי הנקרא עלעקטריציטט שכן תרגום היוני של חשמל הוא עלעקטראן" (I mean the natural force called *Elektrizität*, since the Greek translation of *khashmal* is *elektron*). Ben-Yehuda did not mark the word as his. He called the Greek reading a homiletic gloss and accepted the usage because need had made it accepted in speech and in literature. In 1893 Yehiel Michel Pines (יחיאל מיכל פינס) ranked such words highest: "הגדולה שבמעלות למלה חדשה אם איננה חדשה" (the highest rank for a new word is if it is not new).

Several of the new words have more than one claimant. Pines put שָׁעוֹן (clock) into print in 1885, and Ben-Yehuda credited it to him in 1898, although the scholar Raphael Weiss later argued that Pines had only endorsed it. In December 1892, after the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem opened, David Yellin (דוד ילין) proposed קַטָּר for the locomotive, fitting Arabic *qiṭār* to a Hebrew pattern and to קִיטוֹר (steam). Ben-Yehuda answered with רַכֶּבֶת (train) and credited Pines with its pattern, that of the Talmud's חַמֶּרֶת and גַּמֶּלֶת, caravans of donkeys and of camels. Reuven Sivan concludes that Pines "apparently" coined the word for tomato, עַגְבָנִיָּה, in 5646 (1885–86), from the root ע־ג־ב (to desire), after German *Liebesapfel*, "love apple." Ben-Yehuda found it immodest, kept it out of his home, his papers and his dictionary, and used בַּדּוּרָה, from Arabic *bandūra*. The dictionary's sign does not settle these questions: a volume printed long after Ben-Yehuda's death marks שעון as his.

The words reached speakers through newspapers, schools and committees. Ben-Yehuda's newspaper, *HaZvi* (הצבי), first appeared on 24 October 1884 and ran, as *HaZvi* and as *HaOr*, until 1915. A society formed in Jerusalem in 1889 set up a committee to collect Hebrew words, and both soon lapsed. Because the teachers' association needed terms for its classes, a new language committee was founded in Jerusalem in 1904–05, with Ben-Yehuda, Yellin and Pines among its members. Its first bulletin, in 1912, printed a list of arithmetic terms.

The dictionary's first volume names the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden (the Aid Society of German Jews) among its funders and the society's founder, Paul Nathan, on its publication committee. The Hilfsverein was building a technical school in Haifa, the Technikum, and on 26 October 1913 the school's board resolved, in the Hebrew rendering the Academy prints, that "מדעי הטבע יהיו נלמדים בשפה הגרמנית" (the natural sciences will be taught in the German language). Three board members, Ahad Ha'am, Shmaryahu Levin and Yehiel Tschlenow, resigned, and on 18 November a public meeting in Jaffa took up Hebrew as the language of instruction in the Hebrew schools. By 1914 the school was to teach in Hebrew, and the Technion opened in 1924 teaching in Hebrew.

Article 22 of the Mandate for Palestine, done at London on 24 July 1922, reads: "English, Arabic and Hebrew shall be the official languages of Palestine." Ben-Yehuda died in Jerusalem that December, with five volumes of the dictionary in print. Four more appeared between 1925 and 1939, and N. H. Tur-Sinai completed it in 1959. On 27 August 1953 the Knesset created the Academy of the Hebrew Language, gave it the task "לכוון את התפתחות הלשון העברית על יסוד חקר הלשון לתקופותיה ולענפיה" (to direct the development of the Hebrew language on the basis of research into the language in its periods and branches), and dissolved the committee into it.

The usual name for this history is "revival." Izre'el argues that Hebrew had never died, and he quotes the linguist Haim Blanc: its unusual feature was that it "was no one's mother tongue." He calls "(re)vernacularization" probably the best term for the social change, and he uses "emergence" for the formation of the spoken language. Zuckermann argues that the language that emerged is a hybrid, with Hebrew and Yiddish as its primary contributors, and he calls it "Israeli." By his Founder Principle, the Yiddish of the first settlers shaped it.

In the Chinese series of these posts, Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi gave Euclid a Chinese vocabulary in 1607 by joining a common character to one qualifier, so that 直線 read as "straight line" on first sight. The Hebrew coiners had a more regular device: a root the reader already knew, set into a pattern that marked the class of thing. Both projects also took old words and changed their senses. 幾何, "how much," became geometry, and Ezekiel's חשמל became electricity.

If you have worked with Ben-Yehuda's papers or the posthumous volumes of the dictionary: who decided which entries in those volumes received his coinage sign, given that it stands on שעון, a word he had credited to Pines in 1898?

31.78° N, 35.22° E · Ben Yehuda Street · Jerusalem

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## 3. Vocabulary table

Romanization follows Israeli pronunciation: kh for ח and spirant כ, ts for צ, an apostrophe for a break at ע or א, and no doubled consonants. Names and titles keep their usual English spellings.

| Term (pointed) | Romanization | Root and pattern, or source word | English | Status today | Note and source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| מִלּוֹן | milon | מִלָּה "word" + ־וֹן, read by Ben-Yehuda as "the thing that holds" (his models: צִמָּאוֹן, צִיּוֹן) | dictionary | Identical (spelled מילון today) | Ben-Yehuda, "שתי מלות חדשות," *Magid Mishneh*, Lyck, 17 Tevet 5640 (1 Jan 1880); he rejects ספר מלים as a copy of *Wörterbuch*. The Academy (2018) and Weiss (p. 239 n. 46) call it his first coinage; Itamar Ben-Avi's note to the 1879 essay dates it to a small notebook of 1879 (Project Ben-Yehuda, read/257). Vol. 6, p. 3029 marks it with his sign |
| מַקְלֵעַ | makle'a | ק־ל־ע "sling" in מַקְטֵל, on the model of מַפְתֵּחַ (from פתח) and מַסְרֵק (from סרק) | cannon → machine gun | Modified (sense) | Same column, proposed for "cannon," against another writer's compound קנה און. Pointed מַקְלֵעַ in the column. Modern sense: Wiktionary, מקלע |
| עִתּוֹן | iton | עֵת "time" + ־וֹן | newspaper | Identical (spelled עיתון today) | Ben-Yehuda (Academy 2023 edition of Sivan's list; Weiss, p. 239, rejects an attribution to Klausner as an error). In *HaZvi*/*HaOr* body text from 29 Tevet 5651 (9 Jan 1891); in the paper's subtitle from 25 Tevet 5655 (Jan 1895) (Gilboa, p. 309). Replaced מכתב עתי |
| שָׁעוֹן | sha'on | שָׁעָה "hour" + ־וֹן | clock, watch | Identical | First printed by Yehiel Michel Pines, *HaZvi*, 28 Shevat 5645 (13 Feb 1885; the Academy prints 12 February). Ben-Yehuda wrote "שעון חדשה רי״מ פינס" in *HaZvi*, 21 Iyar 5658 (1898); a posthumous dictionary volume marks it as his own (Academy 2019). Weiss (p. 239 n. 45) argues that Pines only endorsed it. Credit contested. Replaced מורה שעות |
| רַכֶּבֶת | rakevet | ר־כ־ב "ride" in קַטֶּלֶת, after Talmudic חַמֶּרֶת "donkey caravan" and גַּמֶּלֶת "camel caravan" | train | Identical | Proposed in Ben-Yehuda's reply to Yellin, *HaOr*, Kislev 5653 (Dec 1892), which credits Pines with the pattern. Sivan 1966, pp. 151–153. At its own entry the dictionary gives it the sign for words coined by others (Academy 2023). Credit contested |
| קַטָּר | katar | Arabic *qiṭār* "train," fitted to קַטָּל and tied to קִיטוֹר "steam" | locomotive | Identical | David Yellin, letter to *HaOr*, dated by Sivan 28 Kislev 5653 (17 Dec 1892, a Saturday; possibly the issue date). Sivan 1966, p. 152 |
| עַגְבָנִיָּה | agvaniya | ע־ג־ב "desire" + ־ִיָּה; after German *Liebesapfel* | tomato | Identical | Pines, "ככל הנראה" (apparently), in his translation of Anderlind on agriculture in Syria, Jerusalem 5646 (1885–86). Ben-Yehuda kept it out of his home, papers and dictionary as immodest. The press hardly used it for about twenty years; A. M. Luncz printed עגבוניות in *Luah Erets Yisrael*, Jerusalem 5655 (1894–95), p. 46. Sivan 1971, pp. 79–84 |
| בַּדּוּרָה | badura | Arabic *bandūra* (from Italian *pomodoro*) | tomato | Failed | Used in Ben-Yehuda's home and papers; *HaZvi* printed בדורה in 5657 and בנדורה in 5658 (1890s). Sivan 1971, pp. 81–83 |
| גְּלִידָה | glida | Mishnaic גְּלִיד "frost, ice" in קְטִילָה, the pattern of לְבִיבָה | ice cream | Identical | Ben-Yehuda, with his sign, vol. 2 (1909–11), p. 779: "יקראו בא״י המדברים עברית ממתק עשוי מסכר וביצים ונקפא וקר כגליד"; note "משקל לביבה" |
| מִבְרָק | mivrak | בָּרָק "lightning" in מִקְטָל | telegram | Identical | Ben-Yehuda, with his sign, vol. 6 (posthumous), p. 2775: "הודעה באה מרחוק במהירות הברק בכח חשמלי"; first used "ב״האור״ גליון א׳ שנה לב" (issue not dated) |
| מִבְרָשָׁה | mivrasha | colloquial Arabic *mibrasha* | brush | Later form (מִבְרֶשֶׁת) | Ben-Yehuda, with his sign, vol. 6, p. 2775 and n. 2: "נהוג בדבור העברי בא״י." Today's form is מִבְרֶשֶׁת (Academy 2023); who changed it is not known |
| מַגֶּבֶת | magevet | נ־ג־ב "dry" in מַקְטֶלֶת | towel | Identical | Ben-Yehuda, in Sivan's list of words he marked as his own: "מטפחת של בד וכדומה לנגב הידים" (Academy 2023 edition of Sivan 1960–61). First use not dated |
| מַצֶּקֶת | matseket | י־צ־ק "pour" in מַקְטֶלֶת | ladle | Identical | Hebrew Language Committee, list of cooking terms, 5673 (1912–13): "כַּף גְּדוֹלָה לִיצֹק בָּהּ אֶת הָאֹכֶל אֶל הַקְּעָרָה." Academy, *100 מילים* (2012), entry 6 |
| מַצְפֵּן | matspen | צָפוֹן "north" in מַקְטֵל, "משקל המכשירים" | compass | Identical | David Yellin, listed under 5688 (1927–28). Academy, *100 מילים*, entry 13, which names מַגְהֵץ, מַבְרֵג and מַחְשֵׁב as other new words in the same pattern |
| אָפְנַיִם | ofnayim | אוֹפָן "wheel" (Ezek. 1:16) + dual ־ַיִם, on the pattern of אָזְנַיִם "ears" | bicycle | Modified (pointing: אוֹפַנַּיִם) | Ben-Yehuda, with his sign, vol. 1, p. 110: "וכבר השתמשו הרבה במלה זו בהעתונים ובספרים"; n. 1 "מן, אופן, ע״מ אזנים." In the posthumous entry עֲגָלָה the editor M. Z. Segal wrote "אבל לדעתי יש לנקד אוֹפַנַּיִם" (Academy 2023) |
| מִשְׁקָפַיִם | mishkafayim | ש־ק־ף "look out" + dual | eyeglasses | Identical | Chaim Leib Hazan, *HaTsefira*, 1890, who wrote that he chose it partly for its likeness to Greek *skopeo* (Rosenthal 2005; Sivan c. 1981). Vol. 7, p. 3418 marks it with the post-Talmudic sign, so the dictionary does not claim it. Replaced בתי עיניים |
| חַשְׁמַל | khashmal | Ezek. 1:4, 1:27; Septuagint ἤλεκτρον | electricity | Modified (sense) | Judah Leib Gordon, poem "שני יוסף בן שמעון" (in the form הַחַשְׁמַלָּה, as in Ezek. 8:2), with his note quoted in vol. 4, p. 1806, n. 2. The dictionary gives the sense the post-Talmudic sign and credits Gordon. Date of the poem not established |
| מְכוֹנָה | mekhona | 1 Kings 7:38 "stand, base," given the sense of μηχανή, *Maschine* | machine | Modified (sense) | No single coiner. *HaMagid*, 1857: "מכונה (מאשינע)" (Academy 2011). Sivan: chosen "מפאת צלצולה הדומה לצלצול המלה הלועזית" |
| מְכוֹנִית | mekhonit | מְכוֹנָה + ־ִית, shortened from עגלה מכונית | car | Identical | Itamar Ben-Avi, by his own claim: "המילה 'מכונית' היא שלי" (Avneri 2020). Earliest Academy citation *HaZvi*, 1909; Bialik's poem "המכונית" (1932) spread it (Academy 2011) |
| אֲוִירוֹן | aviron | אֲוִיר "air" + ־וֹן, after French *avion* | airplane | Replaced in formal use (מטוס); survives in children's songs | Ben-Avi per the Academy (page dated 17 October 2010) and Sivan c. 1981; Ben-Yehuda's dictionary lists it among his own (Academy 2023). Contested |
| מָטוֹס | matos | ט־ו־ס "fly fast," from יָטוּשׂ (Job 9:26) | airplane | Identical | Hayim Nahman Bialik, with טִיסָה and טַיָּס from the same root (Academy 2010; Avneri 2020). Year not established |
| מִטְרִיָּה | mitriya | מָטָר "rain" + ־ִיָּה | umbrella | Identical | Ben-Yehuda (Weiss, p. 233; Sivan c. 1981). Not in Sivan's list of words the dictionary marks. Bialik objected to the suffix and proposed סוֹכֵךְ, which failed (Avneri 2020) |
| אֶקְדָּח | ekdakh | Isa. 54:12 אַבְנֵי אֶקְדָּח, a gemstone; tied to ק־ד־ח "kindle, drill" | pistol | Modified (sense) | Ben-Yehuda: "הצעתי השם הזה בהצבי לכלי הנשק הדוחה בכח האש, וגזרתיו מן השרש קדח" (Sivan's list, Academy 2023). Issue of *HaZvi* not established |
| בֻּבָּה | buba | בָּבָה "pupil of the eye" (Zech. 2:12), first vowel changed | doll | Modified (form and sense) | Ben-Yehuda's dictionary: "בשנוי התנועה הראשנה, מן השם בָּבָה" (Sivan's list, Academy 2023) |
| רִבָּה | riba | Arabic *murabbā* | jam | Identical | Ben-Yehuda, 1888. Zuckermann 2009, p. 43 |
| סִפְרָה | sifra | ס־פ־ר "count," matched by sound to German *Ziffer* (from Arabic *ṣifr*) | digit | Identical | Hebrew Language Committee, listed under 5672 (1911–12), the year of the first bulletin of *Zikhronot Va'ad HaLashon*, which carried arithmetic terms. Academy, *100 מילים*, entry 2 |
| מֵימָן | meiman | מַיִם "water" + ־ָן | hydrogen | Identical | Pines shortened Ben-Yehuda's compounds אַבְמַיִם, אַבְחֶמֶץ, אַבְחֶנֶק to מימן, חמצן, חנקן (Sivan c. 1981; *Akadem* 47). Ben-Yehuda's forms failed |
| שַׂח־רָחוֹק | sakh-rakhok | שָׂח "talks" + רָחוֹק "far" | telephone | Replaced (טֶלֶפוֹן) | The word in Ben-Yehuda's home; Mandate post-office forms read "הדואר, המברקה והשח-רחוק." The loan won. Sivan c. 1981 |
| מַחְשֵׁב | makhshev | ח־ש־ב "think, reckon" in מַקְטֵל | computer | Identical | The Academy names it as a new word in "משקל המכשירים" (*100 מילים*, in the entry for מַצְפֵּן). No source opened names a coiner or a year |

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## 4. Sources

**Primary texts**
- Ben-Yehuda, "שאלה נכבדה" (his title, by his son's account: "שאלה לוהטה"), *HaShachar* 9, no. 7 (Vienna, Nisan 5639, 1879). Text with Itamar Ben-Avi's notes, from *החלום ושברו: מבחר כתבים בענייני לשון*, ed. Reuven Sivan (Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 1978): https://benyehuda.org/read/257
- Ben-Yehuda, "שתי מלות חדשות," *Magid Mishneh* (Lyck), 17 Tevet 5640 (1 January 1880). NLI title record: https://web.archive.org/web/20221123000254/https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/magidmischne (the live page, https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/magidmischne, refuses scripted requests). Academy reproduction and page, read for verification only: https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/shtey-milim-hadashot.jpg ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250422193919/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2018/01/07/המילה-העברית-הראשונה-שחידש-בן־יהודה/
- Ben-Yehuda, *החלום ושברו* (memoir, first printed in *HaToren*, 1917–18), same edition: https://benyehuda.org/read/5692 ; https://benyehuda.org/read/4345 . Letter to *HaPoel HaTzair* on Mendele and the committee: https://benyehuda.org/read/6537
- Ben-Yehuda, *מלון הלשון העברית הישנה והחדשה* / *Thesaurus totius hebraitatis et veteris et recentioris* (Berlin-Schöneberg: Langenscheidt, vols. 1–8, 1908–1929; vol. 9, 1939; completed 1959). Vol. 1: https://archive.org/details/thesaurustotiush01benj (n12 title page, n16 key of signs, n19 funders and committee, n131 p. 110). Vol. 2: https://archive.org/details/thesaurustotiush02benj (n212 p. 779). Vol. 4: https://archive.org/details/thesaurustotiush04benj (n409 p. 1805, n408 p. 1806). Vol. 6: https://archive.org/details/milonhalashonhai61beny (n48 p. 2775, n304 p. 3029). Vol. 7: https://archive.org/details/thesaurustotiush07benj (n215 p. 3418). Vol. 16: https://archive.org/details/milonhalashonhai161beny . Transcription: https://benyehuda.org/dict/24412
- Pines, "דבר לעוסקים בתחית שפתנו," *HaOr*, 10 Shevat 5653 (27 January 1893), as reprinted in Salmon and Dubnov, *Akadem* 47 (2013), below
- Ezekiel 1:4, 1:27, 8:2, public-domain text ("Tanach with Nikkud," from tanach.us): https://www.sefaria.org/api/v3/texts/Ezekiel.1.4?version=hebrew%7CTanach%20with%20Nikkud . Pointed text, CC BY-SA: https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/יחזקאל_א/ניקוד . Septuagint Ezekiel 1: https://www.bibelkommentare.de/bibel/lxx/export/hesekiel/1
- *לקט תעודות לתולדות ועד הלשון והאקדמיה ללשון העברית תר״ן–תש״ל* (Jerusalem: Academy of the Hebrew Language, 1970), section "מלחמת השפות," p. 106 and n. 3: https://web.archive.org/web/20131013180225/http://hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il/archive/MH1913-1914/Documents/MH1913-1914.pdf
- Mandate for Palestine (London, 24 July 1922): https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp ; as printed in *Mandate for Palestine, together with a note by the Secretary-General*, Cmd. 1785 (London: HMSO, December 1922): https://archive.org/details/mandateforpalest00leaguoft . Palestine Order in Council, 10 August 1922, Art. 82: *London Gazette* 32772 (1 December 1922), p. 8510, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/32772/page/8510 (full issue: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/32772/data.pdf)
- חוק המוסד העליון ללשון העברית, תשי״ג–1953, law no. 65, *Sefer HaHukkim* 135, pp. 168–169: https://fs.knesset.gov.il/2/law/2_lsr_208534.pdf ; consolidated text https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/חוק_המוסד_העליון_ללשון_העברית
- Images: the Commons, Internet Archive and Library of Congress items listed under Rights

**Scholarship**
- Mirkin, Reuven. "פרקים בתולדות המילונות העברית החדשה, מאמר שני: מילון בן־יהודה." *Leshonenu* 54 (5750, 1989/90): 311–323. https://web.archive.org/web/20230701091937/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/RMirkin2.pdf
- Ne'eman, Pinhas. *היוצר ויצירתו: במלאות חמישים שנה לפטירתו של אליעזר בן יהודה*. *Leshonenu la-Am* 25, nos. 4–5 (244–245), Tevet 5734 (1973/74). https://web.archive.org/web/20240802214642/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/היוצר-ויצירתו.pdf
- Sivan, Reuven. "מחיי המלים: א. קטר ורכבת." *Leshonenu la-Am* 17 (5726, 1965/66): 151–153. https://web.archive.org/web/20251108011121/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/לשוננו-לעם-מחזור-17-קונטרסים-קסג-קעב-תשכו.newocr-157-161.pdf
- Sivan, Reuven. "העגבנייה ומה שעוללו לה שמותיה." *Leshonenu la-Am* 22, no. 3 (213) (Shevat 5731, 1971): 75–104. https://web.archive.org/web/20240706031823/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/העגבנייה.pdf
- Sivan, Reuven. "חידושי המלים של אליעזר בן־יהודה לפי מילונו." *Leshonenu la-Am* 12, nos. 2–3 (Kislev–Tevet 5721, 1960–61); new edition as "חידושי בן־יהודה לפי מילונו," Academy of the Hebrew Language, 19 April 2023: https://web.archive.org/web/20250424204958/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2023/04/19/חידושי-בן־יהודה-לפי-מילונו/
- Sivan, Reuven. "התפתחותה של העברית המדעית והטכנית." *Mada* 25, nos. 5–6 (c. 1981). Transcript: http://hebreunet.free.fr/Sivan-Em.pdf
- Weiss, Raphael. "שיטתו של אליעזר בן־יהודה בחידושיו (סיום)." *Leshonenu la-Am* 12 (5721, 1960–61): 232–240. Quotes Ben-Yehuda's letters to Wilhelm Bacher, ed. D. S. Loewinger (1944). https://web.archive.org/web/20251108005928/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/לשוננו-לעם-מחזור-12-קיג-קכב-תשכא.newocr-234-242.pdf
- Merhavia, Y. P. "לתולדות חידושי לשון." *Leshonenu la-Am* 9 (5718): 203–205. https://web.archive.org/web/20251108020236/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/lla9-7-p.203-205.pdf
- Gilboa, Menucha. *לקסיקון העיתונות העברית במאות השמונה־עשרה והתשע־עשרה.* Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik and Tel Aviv University. Entry "הצבי / האור (1884–1915)," pp. 308–310. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211014/http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/newspapers/hazevi/html/hazevi.pdf
- Salmon, Yosef, and Keren Dubnov. "לזכר יחיאל מיכל פינס (תר״ג–תרע״ג)." *Akadem* 47 (Adar 5773, 2013). https://web.archive.org/web/20251114014304/https://old.hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/kerenakad47.pdf
- Avneri, Shmuel. "ביאליק ובן־יהודה — מחלוקת בין מחדשים." *Akadem* 66 (Sivan 5780, June 2020). https://web.archive.org/web/20250426143711/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2020/06/24/ביאליק-ובן־יהודה-מחלוקת-בין-מחדשים/
- Academy of the Hebrew Language. *100 מילים: מאה של מילים בעברית תרע״ב–תשע״ב*, ed. Ronit Gadish. Jerusalem, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20240912165303/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/100milim.pdf
- Academy of the Hebrew Language, web pages read through the Wayback Machine:
  - "ועד הלשון העברית": https://web.archive.org/web/20250913101756/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/ועד-הלשון-העברית/
  - "שעון מתקתק בעברית" (27 October 2019): https://web.archive.org/web/20250418094648/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2019/10/27/שעון-מתקתק-בעברית/
  - "אווירון ומטוס" (dated 9 Heshvan 5771, 17 October 2010; posted 8 November 2010): https://web.archive.org/web/20140805002137/http://hebrew-academy.org.il/2010/11/08/אווירון-ומטוס/
  - Gadish and Katz, "מכונית מן המוכן" (2 January 2011): https://web.archive.org/web/20151211061817/http://hebrew-academy.org.il/2011/01/02/מכונית-מן-המוכן/
  - "כלי תחבורה קטנים" (24 August 2010): https://web.archive.org/web/20250514054235/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2010/08/24/כלי-תחבורה-לילדים-ולנוער/
  - "חשמל" (27 November 2024): https://web.archive.org/web/20250417215632/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2024/11/27/חשמל/
  - Newsletter, 21 Tevet 5778 (8 January 2018): https://web.archive.org/web/20260208183313/https://hebrew-academy.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2018.01.08-newsletter.pdf
- Rosenthal, Ruvik. "הזירה הלשונית: עוץ לי תשמוץ לי." NRG / *Maariv*, dated 7/1/2005 on the page. https://web.archive.org/web/20250510135036/https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/1/ART/849/257.html
- Zuckermann, Ghil'ad. "Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns." *Journal of Language Contact* Varia 2 (2009): 40–67. http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf
- Zuckermann, Ghil'ad. *Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew.* Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. ISBN 978-1-4039-1723-2. doi:10.1057/9781403938695
- Zuckermann, Ghil'ad. *Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond.* Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0-19-981279-0. doi:10.1093/oso/9780199812776.001.0001
- Izre'el, Shlomo. "The Emergence of Spoken Israeli Hebrew." In Benjamin H. Hary, ed., *Corpus Linguistics and Modern Hebrew: Towards the Compilation of the Corpus of Spoken Israeli Hebrew (CoSIH).* Tel Aviv University Press, 2003. Author's PDF: https://www.tau.ac.il/~izreel/publications/Emergence_Hary2003(corr).pdf . Volume: LINGUIST List 14.1945, https://linguistlist.org/issues/14/1945/
- Menges, Franz. "Nathan, Paul." *Neue Deutsche Biographie* 18 (1997): 746–747. https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz68030.html
- Wiktionary, "מקלע": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/מקלע (modern sense "machine gun")
- Haifa City Museum. "War of the Languages: Founding of the Technion/Technikum" (exhibition page). https://www.hcm.org.il/eng/Exhibitions/432/War_of_the_Languages:_Founding_of_the_Technion%7Cfs%7CTechnikum . Center for Israel Education, "The Technion," https://israeled.org/timeline/the-technion/
- Further reading, identifiers confirmed, not cited for any claim above: Fellman, Jack. *The Revival of a Classical Tongue.* Mouton, 1973. doi:10.1515/9783110879100. Harshav, Benjamin. *Language in Time of Revolution.* University of California Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-520-07958-8. Glinert, Lewis. *The Story of Hebrew.* Princeton University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0-691-15329-2. Sáenz-Badillos, Angel. *A History of the Hebrew Language.* Cambridge University Press, 1993. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139166553. Halperin, Liora R. *Babel in Zion.* Yale University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-300-19748-8. Henig, Roni. *On Revival: Hebrew Literature Between Life and Death.* University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024. doi:10.9783/9781512826593. Ramati, Ido. *Lingua Ex Machina: Media in the Revitalization of Modern Hebrew.* University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025. doi:10.9783/9781512826548. Mock, Keren. *Hebrew: From Sacred Language to Mother Tongue.* Columbia University Press, 2025. doi:10.7312/mock21711

**Rights**
- Dictionary vols. 1–8 (Internet Archive, Princeton and Duke copies): the item pages carry no rights statement. Ben-Yehuda died in 1922, and vols. 1–5 (1908–1914) are public domain in Israel and the US. Vols. 6–8 (1925–1929) are public domain in the US by date; their posthumous editorial matter (Hemda Ben-Yehuda, who died in 1951; M. Z. Segal, editor of vol. 8 per Mirkin p. 315) should be checked for Israel. Vols. 9–16 are in copyright (Segal's and Tur-Sinai's editing; "© 1959 by Sagamore Press, Inc."). The Commons PDF of the whole set (CC0) and the Internet Archive set marked Public Domain cannot cover those volumes.
- *Magid Mishneh*: public domain per the NLI title record ("This item is part of the public domain and is not subject to copyright restrictions in the State of Israel"). The Academy's page that hosts its JPEG of the column carries "© כל הזכויות שמורות" in its footer; do not use the JPEG.
- Portraits on Commons: Ben-Yehuda 1905 (File:Eliezer_Ben-Yehuda.1905.jpg) and with Hemda, `{{PD-Israel}}`; Ben-Dov portrait 1918–23 (File:Portrait_of_Eliezer_Ben-Yehuda_(id.34235240).jpg), `{{PD-Israel}}`; Devora (File:Deborah_Ben_Yehuda.jpg), `{{PD-Israel}}`; Itamar Ben-Avi, GPO D396-043, `{{PD-Israel}}`; Judah Leib Gordon (File:Yehuda_Leib_Gordon_1.jpeg), `{{PD-old-100-expired}}`. Ben-Yehuda at his desk (Narinsky, c. 1912), `{{PD-Israel}}`, but its Israeli status depends on the publication rule; prefer the Ben-Dov portrait.
- PEF *Map of Western Palestine*, Sheet XIII (printed 1879): Eran Laor copy `{{PD-old-assumed}}`; the NLI copy (File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.13.jpg) `{{PD-scan}}`.
- Hilfsverein kindergarten, 1912: `{{PD-US-expired|PD-HU-unknown}}`. Technikum under construction, 1913 (Albert Bär, CZA PHAL\1619662): `{{PD-Israel}}`. Technion, LOC 2019693406: "No known restrictions on publication."
- Jaffa poster, 18 November 1913 (File:Asefa_Nave_Shalom.jpg): CC BY-SA 3.0, from the NLI collection. Attribute the NLI and share alike unless the NLI item page says otherwise.
- Mandate for Palestine, Cmd. 1785: Internet Archive "possible-copyright-status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT"; Commons DjVu of the same scan `{{PD-scan|PD-LN}}`. Two-mil coin, 1927: `{{PD-author-FlickrPDM}}`; 3-mil stamp, 1927: `{{PD-UKGov}}`.
- 1953 law: Israeli statutes carry no copyright (Copyright Act 2007, §6: "לא תהא זכות יוצרים בחוקים"). The Wikisource transcription is CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Ezekiel: the Sefaria "Tanach with Nikkud" version is marked Public Domain; Sefaria's default version and Wikisource are CC BY-SA.
- *HaZvi*, GPO D396-032, if used: `{{PD-Israel}}`. Language Committee photograph: `{{PD-Israel}}` on Commons, with the Central Zionist Archives named as rights contact by Harvard; credit the CZA.
- Text sources only, in copyright: the 1913–14 documents PDF (watermark "האקדמיה ללשון העברית – מוגן בזכויות יוצרים"); the Gilboa pages ("© כל הזכויות שמורות למוסד ביאליק"); the Academy's PDFs and web pages (footer "© כל הזכויות שמורות"); the Sivan c. 1981 transcript.
- In copyright or unusable as images: covers and pages of modern scholarship; the 1959 volumes; Haifa City Museum exhibition images from a private collection; File:BYarticle_sign.png. Make instead: type cards for cited claims, the globe, and the root-and-pattern animations.

---

## 5. Fact-check list

**Verified against a primary or scholarly source**
1. The 1879 essay: dated "פאריז, י״ג אדר" (8 March 1879), printed in *HaShachar* year 9, no. 7, Nisan 5639, signed "בן־יהודה"; the quoted sentences on land and on speech; Ben-Avi's note calling the speech sentence "the first hint." Sivan 1978 edition via Project Ben-Yehuda (read/257).
2. "שתי מלות חדשות," *Magid Mishneh*, 17 Tevet 5640 (1 January 1880): the attack on ספר מלים as a copy of *Wörterbuch*; the rule for prefixed mem and final ־וֹן; מלון from מלה; מקלע for "cannon" on the model of מפתח and מסרק, against another writer's compound קנה און. Scan; Academy page (2018), which calls מלון his first coinage. The column points the word מַקְלֵעַ (checked on the scan). Modern sense "machine gun": Wiktionary.
3. Arrival at Jaffa before Sukkot 5642 (autumn 1881) and the carriage to Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate; the line "אני מדבר עברית, ורק עברית" (Eliezer about himself); Devora keeping no servant so the child would hear only Hebrew; the son's birth on 15 Av 5642 by Ben-Yehuda's account; the phrase "ונולד הילד העברי הראשון" in Ben-Yehuda's own text (read/5692, read/4345). The memoir appeared in *HaToren* in 1917–18 (Ne'eman 1973/74; Project Ben-Yehuda's notes read "כך ב'התורן'").
4. Dictionary vol. 1: title page "ירושלם," "ברלין," "אתת״מ לחרבן" (year 1840) and the promise of words "אשר יצר המחבר" (leaf n12); Mirkin's conversion to 5669 (August 1908 to July 1909) and the first fascicle in early 1908 (Mirkin, p. 313); Gilboa's era count for *HaZvi* issue 1 (p. 308) confirms the offset. The key of signs (n16) as quoted. Funders including the Hilfsverein, and the committee of Philippson, Nathan and Warburg (n19). Published by Langenscheidt (n6 imprint; Mirkin, p. 313).
5. Dictionary entries: vol. 1, p. 110, the sign before the headword printed אָפְנַיִם, "already used much in the newspapers and in books," and n. 1 "מן, אופן, ע״מ אזנים"; vol. 2, p. 779, גְּלִידָה with the sign and "משקל לביבה"; vol. 6 (posthumous), p. 2775 (מברק, מברשה) and p. 3029 (מלון) with the sign; vol. 7, p. 3418, משקפיים with the post-Talmudic sign. Hazan as coiner of משקפיים, *HaTsefira*, 1890: Sivan c. 1981; Rosenthal 2005. מגבת and Segal's note on אוֹפַנַּיִם: Academy 2023 edition of Sivan's list.
6. חשמל: Ezekiel 1:4 (Sefaria, public-domain version) and Septuagint ἠλέκτρου; vol. 4, pp. 1805–1806 (a lifetime Langenscheidt printing): the Septuagint and Vulgate note, the post-Talmudic sign on the electricity sense, Gordon's poem and note, and Ben-Yehuda's comment that the Greek reading is a derash and that need made the usage accepted.
7. The letter to Wilhelm Bacher on the purpose of the sign, "ואם לא תישר בעינו יחשבנה כאילו לא היתה ולא נבראה" (and if it does not seem right to him, he may treat it as if it had never been and never been created), available for a caption and not used in the post: Weiss 1960–61, p. 237, quoting the letters ed. Loewinger (1944), p. ו.
8. קטר: Yellin's letter "בכ״ח בכסליו" after the railway's opening was reported in *HaOr* on 9 Tishrei 5653; רכבת in Ben-Yehuda's reply crediting Pines with the caravan pattern (Sivan 1966, pp. 151–153, p. 151 footer checked). עגבנייה: Pines "apparently," in the Anderlind translation of 5646 (1885–86); Ben-Yehuda's ban from his home, papers and dictionary; his בדורה; the press's near silence for about twenty years; Luncz's עגבוניות, 5655 (Sivan 1971, pp. 79–84).
9. שעון: Pines, *HaZvi*, 28 Shevat 5645 (13 February 1885 by Hebcal; the Academy prints 12 February); Ben-Yehuda's credit to Pines, *HaZvi*, 21 Iyar 5658 (1898); the posthumous volume's mark (Academy 2019). Pines's rule, *HaOr*, 27 January 1893 (*Akadem* 47 reprint). The replaced phrases מכתב עתי (Weiss, p. 233), מורה שעות (Academy 2019) and בתי עיניים (Sivan c. 1981).
10. Newspapers and committee: *HaZvi* issue 1 dated 5 Heshvan 5645 (24 October 1884), and the paper as *HaZvi* and *HaOr* to 1915 (Gilboa, p. 308). Safa Berura and its word committee of late 1889, soon lapsed; the committee founded in 5665 (1904/05) after the teachers' association saw the need, with Ben-Yehuda, Yellin and Pines among its members; the first bulletin of *Zikhronot Va'ad HaLashon* in 5672 with arithmetic terms; סִפְרָה (5672), מַצֶּקֶת (5673), Yellin's מַצְפֵּן (5688) and the "משקל המכשירים" with מחשב (Academy page "ועד הלשון העברית"; *100 מילים*, entries 2, 6, 13, checked on the page images). Mendele's mockery of the committee, "באנשים שמתקבצים ויושבים ומחדשים מלים" (at people who gather, sit and coin words), available for a caption and not used in the post: Ben-Yehuda's own report (read/6537).
11. Technikum: Paul Nathan founded the Hilfsverein on 20 May 1901, and its schools in Palestine ran up to the Technikum in Haifa (NDB). The board's decision of 26 October 1913, clause ג as quoted, and the resignations of Ahad Ha'am, Levin and Tschlenow (*Leket teudot* 1970, p. 106 n. 3; the quotation is a Hebrew rendering of a German original not seen). The Jaffa meeting on Tuesday 18 Heshvan at Neve Shalom (poster; year in item 20). Hebrew the language of instruction by 1914 (Center for Israel Education). The dispute in 1913–14 and the opening in 1924 (Haifa City Museum).
12. Mandate Article 22 text and the London date of 24 July 1922 (Avalon; Cmd. 1785, p. 8, title page checked); Order in Council of 10 August 1922, Art. 82 (*London Gazette*, 1 December 1922, p. 8510). The two-mil coin of 1927 in English, Arabic and Hebrew (Commons image). The 1953 law: passed 16 Elul 5713 (27 August 1953); section 2 as quoted; section 12 ends the language committee (Knesset PDF).
13. The dictionary's course: five volumes in Ben-Yehuda's lifetime (1908–1914); vols. 6, 7 and 8 in 1925, 1926 and 1929, vol. 8 edited by M. Z. Segal; vol. 9 prepared in Berlin in 1930 and printed in Palestine in 1939; Tur-Sinai took over, beginning with the prolegomena volume of 1940, and eight more volumes appeared, the last in 1959 (Mirkin, pp. 313–316, p. 315 checked on the scan); vol. 16 title pages. Ben-Yehuda's dates, 1858–1922 (Gilboa, p. 308; death 16 December 1922, Mirkin, p. 314).
14. Framing: Zuckermann 2009, pp. 42–47 (Ben-Avi "symbolically" the first native speaker; Rabin on the children of school graduates; the three positions; "no one's mother tongue" from the second to the nineteenth century; the Founder Principle, pp. 46–47). Izre'el 2003 ("must not be regarded a dead language"; Blanc 1968, p. 237; "(Re)vernacularization" "would probably be the best term for this sociolinguistic change," while "the term 'emergence' is preferable" for his discussion; spoken Hebrew spreading after the Second Aliya; the single-reviver picture "a myth"). The Academy's "חזרה העברית והייתה לשפה חיה" (newsletter, 8 January 2018).
15. Images: PEF Sheet XIII prints "1879" at its foot; the Internet Archive Mandate scan is Cmd. 1785; GPO D396-043 catalog date "01/12/1933"; the kindergarten photograph's source and date; the Technikum photograph's date and photographer; LOC dates for the Jaffa harbor and Technion views (Commons and LOC records).

**Contested, flag in the post or caption**
16. "First Hebrew child" and "first native speaker": Ben-Yehuda's own phrase, printed in 1917–18, about thirty-five years after the birth. Ben-Avi's birth year: 1882 (memoir; he.wikipedia citing Karni 1973 and Lang 2008) against 1885 (first edition of his autobiography, per he.wikipedia; Gilboa lists him as 1885–1943). Zuckermann also calls Dola Ben-Yehuda Wittmann "one of the first native Israeli-speakers."
17. Ben-Yehuda's individual role against the schools and settlements; "revival" against "(re)vernacularization" or "emergence"; Zuckermann's hybrid thesis. No published critique of the hybrid thesis was opened; if the post names critics, check first.
18. Credit for particular words: רכבת (Pines's pattern, Ben-Yehuda's word; Sivan adds Yellin's inspiration; at its own entry the dictionary gives it the sign for words coined by others); שעון (Pines per the Academy 2019 and Ben-Yehuda's 1898 note, against Weiss, p. 239 n. 45, who argues Pines only endorsed it); אווירון (Ben-Avi or Ben-Yehuda); מלון as the first coinage (the Academy and Weiss say 1880; Ben-Avi points to an 1879 notebook and names רודה and בעלי השתפות in the 1879 essay as earlier creations); the coinage sign in posthumous volumes.
19. The committee's founding and first list: 1890 with the name ועד הלשון (he.wikipedia) against late 1889 as Safa Berura's committee and 5665 (1904/05) as the founding (Academy). *100 מילים* calls the 1912 arithmetic list "רשימת המילים הראשונה," while the Academy's committee page says several lists had already appeared in Ben-Yehuda's papers before 1912. The post says "formed in 1889" and "founded in 1904–05," and calls the 1912 list the first bulletin's list.
20. Conflicts inside the sources. Ben-Yehuda's letter to Bacher calls the sign "סימן יד או כוכב" (a hand or a star), while vol. 1 prints a looped mark. The Academy's 2024 page on חשמל attributes the "no basis" comment to Tur-Sinai, while vol. 4 (1912–13, a lifetime printing) prints it in Ben-Yehuda's own text. The memoir dates the *HaHavatzelet* issue with his first article "ערב שבת י״ב תשרי תרמ״ב," but 12 Tishrei 5642 was a Wednesday; the memoir gives no day of arrival, only "before Sukkot." Yellin's letter date, 28 Kislev 5653, was a Saturday, so it may be the *HaOr* issue date. The Jaffa poster prints no year: Commons, from the NLI collection, gives 1913, but Tuesday 18 Heshvan also fell in 1912, 1915 and 1916.

**Unverified, check before publishing**
21. Who coined מחשב, and when. Whether מַקְטֶלֶת as such is a tool pattern: grammar reference sites say so (for example https://elon.io/grammar/hebrew/roots/mishkal-overview), but no scholarly source opened states it; the post therefore claims a tool sense only for מַקְטֵל, on the Academy's authority.
22. Dates of first use for עיתון (a search snippet gives *HaMagid*, 13 Tevet 5641, December 1880), אופניים (the Academy's 2023 list quotes the dictionary "נתחדשה בהשקפה," in *HaShkafa*, issue not found), מגבת, and מברק (*HaOr*, "issue 1, year 32"); whether עיתון was modeled on *Zeitung*; who changed מברשה to מברשת; the date of Gordon's "שני יוסף בן שמעון"; the precise reversal date at the Technikum (22 February 1914, he.wikipedia only); Paul Nathan's own vote in October 1913; the German wording of the decision.
23. Life dates taken from Wikipedia and used in captions (Devora died 1891, Gordon 1830–1892); the Ethiopia Street residence of 1909–1922; counts of coinages (Avneri gives about 220 for Ben-Yehuda and about 300 for Bialik; he.wikipedia says Ben-Yehuda's do not exceed 300; Weiss gives Bialik more than 500), so the post gives no number. Dola Ben-Yehuda Wittmann's birth year (the draft's "1902" is not in Zuckermann; omitted).
24. Bibliographic and rights details: Rosenthal's claim that גלידה was chosen to sound like *gelati*, and the reported Academy public vote; the GPO *HaZvi* page's date (the page reads December 1899, the Commons Date field reads 1889); Izre'el chapter pages (85–104, from a search listing only); Gilboa's *Lexicon* year and ISBN; *HaShachar* page numbers; page numbers of the memoir passages in the 1978 edition; the Princeton receipt stamp on vol. 1; rights on the NLI item pages for the Jaffa poster, the 1912 kindergarten photograph and the *Magid Mishneh* issue scan; Israeli status of the Narinsky photograph and of the posthumous volumes' editorial matter.
25. Cut for lack of a source, do not restore without one: that the settlers of the Second Aliyah took up עגבנייה (Sivan 1971 does not say so; he quotes a poem on the Third Aliyah's suspicion of the fruit); the Cecil Roth line "Before Ben-Yehuda, Jews could speak Hebrew; after him, they did"; "דבר עברית והִבָּרֵאתָ" attributed to Ben-Yehuda.