בֹּהוּbohu
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Root
bwo
ideophone of a thing gaping open, of a hole yawning wide, of hollowness
Hebrew bohu descends from Shona bwo, the gaping open hollow
- Confidence
- 34/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- בֹּהוּ (bōhû)Hebrew
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative Semitics treats bōhû as a Hebrew noun of the root b-h-w, usually compared with Arabic bahw "empty wide space" and bahiya "be empty, torn open", with a significant minority holding it to be a rhyming coinage built on tōhû with no independent root. No connection to Bantu is recognised.
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