ἸησοῦςIesous

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Ancient Greek

Root

washa

to loosen, to untie, to set free, to release

Ἰησοῦς descends through Semitic wṯʿ to Shona washa, to set free

Confidence
62/100
Root language
Shona
Descent begins
ἸησοῦςAncient Greek

The consensus position

Mainstream comparative linguistics holds that Greek Ἰησοῦς is a Hellenisation of Aramaic Yēšūaʿ, a post-exilic short form of Hebrew Yəhōšuaʿ, "YHWH is salvation", built on the Semitic root Y-Š-ʿ. Shona Jesu is regarded as a nineteenth-century missionary loan into Shona, with no genetic relation between Semitic and Bantu.

The working behind this.

The full descent — 6 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.

An account opens 10 entries in full, free.

Elsewhere in the corpus