Loanwords in Megillat Esther

Haggadah Section: Commentary / Readings

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. 

Source:  
Jewish Language Project - www.jewishlanguages.org

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