Loanwords in Megillat Esther
Throughout history Jews have borrowed words from many languages, whether they were speaking/writing in Hebrew or a variant of the local language. Megillat Esther (the Book of Esther) is written in Hebrew but includes many loanwords:
saris (eunuch) from Akkadian
patshegen (copy) from Old Persian and Aramaic
ahashdarpan (satrap - a governor) from Old Persian
The names Esther and Mordechai are variants of Babylonian deities - Ishtar and Marduk.
Find out more about Jewish languages across time and in different places at www.jewishlanguages.org.
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