Interesting. I always find it funny when the management at my office sends around a message that they are holding a הרמת כוסית לרגל a particular festival (which I facetiously translate in my diary as "lifting of the cup for the leg of ..."). Little did I know that I was close to the truth!
I was also thinking this morning about the etymological connection between זמן and להזמין and הזדמנות. The first two are understandable - you "invite" someone or "reserve/book" something at a particular time, but "opportunity"? Is there a semantic connection between "chance" and "time" that I'm not seeing? I do note that in English, the word "occasion" can be used in both contexts (to "occasion upon" something vs a "special occasion").
Literal translations can be very funny. Ever think about "af al pi"?
I'm not sure this is exactly the answer you're looking for, but Klein suggests "prepared, made ready; invited, summoned" for זימן, and "chanced, met, happened, to occur, made ready" for הזדמן.
Something a bit random I just thought of: The formal Arabic word for man is Rajul. Any ideas?
BTW, If you want a really good source for Arabic, use the Hans-Wehr Dictionary (it's required for my Arabic classes at GSU). It isn't etymological, but it covers all definitions.
I always thought that the English word "regular" influenced the meaning and use of רגיל in Modern Hebrew...
Zvika - Stahl says that the Arabic Rajul is related to regel and even has a parallel in Hebrew: Shmot 12:37 - כשש מאות אלף רגלי
Joel - I think you'll see I agree in my post on "sargel"...
I didn't think of that. But I think that's the only time Ragli is used in that way.
Zvika, there are a few other places in Tanach where "ragli" is used in the same kind of context ("x thousand ragli," or "x thousand men ragli") - for example, I Shmuel 15:4.
Now granted, the general understanding (see Metzudas Tzion there) is that "ragli" in this context means simply "on foot" or "infantry." Still, though, that might easily have drifted semantically to mean "man" (by way of "[potential] soldier") in general.
Just found out something interesting - in chess, the Hebrew word for "pawn" is רגלי ragli.
okay, I stand corrected.
Interesting parallel: The word פעם means time or event, as does רגל - but פעם also means foot or step, as in מה יפו פעמיך.
After my post above I saw the balashon listing for paam, which pretty much renders my post irrelevant. Ah, well.
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