טוֹבtov
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Root
-toba
to be soft, to be soaked soft, to become tender
Hebrew tov descends from Shona toba, to be soft, tender, yielding
- Confidence
- 62/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- טוֹב (ṭôḇ)Hebrew
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative Semitics derives Hebrew טוֹב from a Proto-Semitic hollow root *ṭ-y-b (variant *ṭ-w-b) meaning to be good, sweet or pleasant, with cognates in Arabic ṭayyib, Aramaic and Syriac ṭāb, Ugaritic ṭbt and Akkadian ṭābu. No relationship to Bantu is proposed or entertained.
The working behind this.
The full descent — 5 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
- בראbara (kubara)to beget, to bring forth, to give birth; in Karanga and Ndau craft use also to pare or hollow out
- Edenhudendeabundance, plenty, superfluity; from -dende, gourd or large calabash
- Nekevahnengovenotch, grooved cut; one bearing a notched or bored thing (variant nhengove)
- ZakhárZikirato know thoroughly, to recognise, to be acquainted with, to hold in mind (applicative of -zika / -ziva, to know)
- Pesachpesato pass, to pass by, to go past, to swerve aside; kupesana, to pass one another without meeting
- Megiddogudurato knock off, to break off, to dislodge a piece