In Hebrew: 'To Publish'

|

December 17, 2012, 3 PM ET

Print

לְהוֹצִיא לָאוֹר, לְפַרְסֵם

Two themes of חֲנֻכָּה are light and the making public of miracles, so this entry is particularly appropriate for this last day of the beloved festival.

In English, one can publish a book, a blog entry, an article, etc. In Hebrew, we distinguish between two types of publishing. 1. לְהוֹצִיא לָאוֹר

is to publish a substantial work, such as a book. The term means literally, to bring out to the light, since one brings a book out to the light of day bypublishing it. להוציא

, to take out, is an active-causative הִפְעִיל verb, while אוֹר

is the noun meaning light. Likewise, the act of publishing a book is הוֹצָאָה לָאוֹר

, and a publishing house is a בֵּית הוֹצָאָה לָאוֹר

. 2. The other type of publishing refers to works of small volume, such as newspaper articles, blog posts and even tweets. To publish in this sense is לְפַרְסֵם

, - an active-intensive פִּעֵל verb - also meaning to publicize. For example: פֵּרְסַמְתִּי אֶת הַכַּתָּבָה שֶׁלִּי בָּעֲלוֹן הַחָדְשִׁי. I published my article in the monthly leaflet.

Visit Ktzat Ivrit.