Behemoth
While reading through Borges’ Seven Nights, I came across a reference in his discussion of the Kabbalah in which he mentions that Behemoth is actually plural, meaning “the animals.” Looking this up in the ever-reliable Wiktionary, I learned that
It may be an example of pluralis excellentiae, a Hebrew method of expressing greatness by pluralizing a noun; it thus indicates that Behemoth is the largest and most powerful animal.
Behemoth is so big that it has to be plural. Language is great.
This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 6:12 pm and is filed under books, language, old dead white guys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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