A PSM idiom is a word or phrase from a (usually foreign) language that becomes spelled and pronounced like common words of the target language but retains the semantics of its source. After formation, such idioms may become translated to other languages.
1. Idioms via PSM ‒
Phono-Semantic Matching
by
Israel “Izzy” Cohen
2. Definition of PSM
Idiom formation via Phono-Semantic Matching (PSM)
refers to a (usually foreign) source word or phrase
that becomes matched with a phonetically similar
existing native word or phrase which then becomes
an idiom with the meaning of the source expression.
3. Venn Diagram
PSM Idioms
involve the
conversion
of a foreign
expression
with similar
pronunciation
(blue) and
spelling
(yellow) but
a different
meaning (not rose) to existing words of the target language
(olive) whose new meaning is that of the foreign source.
4. Symbolic Notation
The slides use these symbols:
Ls = source language
Lt = target language
Lo = other language
ת = translated םֵג ְר ַת
צ = transliterated יל ִל ְצ
5. 7 Pattern Types
Type A: Ls צ Ls
Type B: Ls צ Lt
Type C: Lt צ Lo ת Lt
Type D: Lt ת Lo צ Lt
Type E: Lt ת {Lo צ Lo} ת Lt
Type F: Lt ת {Lo צ Lo} צ + ת Lt
Type G: [Lt צ𝟏 Lo ת1 Lt] +
[Lt צ2 Lo ת2 or צ3 Lt]
6. Type A: Ls צ Ls
by/with the skin of my teeth This idiom
is in Job 19:20 ה ָט ְל ַמ ְת ֶָאו,ָינ ִש עֹור ְב
and I escaped by the skin of my teeth
7. Type A: Ls צ Ls (continued)
beat the livin’ daylights outta ya The "liver" is
the most dense body part and "lights" was an Old
English word for lungs, the least dense body part.
8. Type B: Ls צ Lt
Count sheep! (to help one go to sleep)
Latin sopor quies (deep sleep
+ quiet) was transliterated to
Hebrew SPoR KeVeS כבש ספור
which was then translated to
English Count sheep! Compare
soporific, quiet and quiescent.
9. Type C: Lt צ Lo ת Lt
Example: British usage of the adjective bloody
instead of “damn.”
Damn! ם ָד blood + y
10. Type D: Lt ת Lo צ Lt
White rabbit, white rabbit, white rabbit
Month ש ֶחֹוד Multiply רבֹות
het = W shin = T
white rabbit
11. Type E: Lt ת {Lo צ Lo} ת Lt
Mooning
Buttocks ך ֵָרי
ַח ֵָרי moon + ing
The word you do not want to
say (buttocks) was translated
to Hebrew YaRayKH ך ֵָרי which
was transliterated to Hebrew
YaRay’akH ַח ֵָרי which was
translated to English moon +
ing to form the verb mooning.
12. Type F: Lt ת {Lo צ Lo} צ + ת Lt
Blessing ָהכ ָר ְב ך ֶר ֶב
Break a leg
This type also involves transliteration inside
another language. The input/output to that
process is transliterated and its output is
translated to the target language.
13. Type G: [Lt צ𝟏 Lo ת1 Lt] +
[Lt צ2 Lo ת2 or צ3 Lt]
Skeleton in the closet.
ת ֶסגֶר ִמ secret ת ֶגֶר ֻס ְּומ ת ֶגֶרֹס
ג > K/C, ר > L Joshua 6:1
skeleton (in the) closet
Giving the gimel a K-sound and rotating resh to L
indicates that miSGeReT & SKeLeTon are cognates
soGeReS & CLoSet are near homonyms with a
semantic connection of “closure.”
14. Additional Type B: Ls PSM Lt idioms
(Raining) cats and dogs
< שק גשם מבול'ע
Cat out (of the) bag
< Talmudic קושתאבגד
Axe to grind < German
Acht/achtung + Grund
15. When you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram
Viewer, a graph shows how those phrases occur in a
corpus of books (e.g., American English, British English)
over the selected years. The URL for the Ngram viewer is
https://books.google.com/ngrams
16. Additional Type B: Ls PSM Lt idioms
(Left) holding the bag
< ה ָיד ִג ְּהב ין ִלש ַה
Spill the beans
< רֵפ ַס + ָהני ִב
doesn’t know beans about
< ָהני ִב
Face the music < Yiddish maskone <
Hebrew ָהנ ָק ְּס ַמ (consequence) or a
reversal of exam = eKSaM > MuSiC
17. Additional Type B: Ls PSM Lt idioms
Kick the bucket
< ן ָד ִבע גֹובֲע
= make love in Eden
Hair of the dog that bit you
< ר ַע ֵש ך ָנש ִמ ב ֶֶלכ <
Latin Saccharomyces cerevisiae
= Brewer's yeast
18. SHeTZeF QeTZeF ףֶׁצֶׁק ףֶׁצ ֶׁש ‒ Isaiah 54:8
ףֶצ ֶק ףֶצ ֶש is translated as “a little wrath” by JPS.
ף ַא is a homonym that means both nose & anger
• With ש = D/T, צ = S and פ = P at the beginning
of a word, ףֶצ ֶשreverses to PiSSeD + אף oFF
• Putting a chip צ׳פ on his shoulder ף ֵָתכ ףֶצ ֶק
• Reversing the KT in ף ַא ףֶצ ֶק produces TicKS oFF
• ףֶצ ֶק GeTS uP + ף ַא = nose gets up my nose
The homonym ק ָב ָא means both dust & anger.
ק ָב ָא dust + אף up = a “dust up” or quarrel
19. ק ניט מיר האק''טשייניק ן
Hak mir nit keyn tshainik means Stop bothering me!
“Hak nit” sounds like the Hebrew verb יטִנ ְק ַה ְל
meaning “tease, provoke, annoy, irritate, vex.”
Moving "nit" to the end of
"keyn" also produces the
KNT sound of "haknit."
Reversing hak nit טינקה
produces TaiNiKa. It morphs
to tshainik = Teakettle.
Editor's Notes
A PSM idiom is a word or phrase from a (usually foreign) language that becomes spelled and pronounced like common words of the target language. This definition is compatible with the etymology of the word "idiom," from Greek ιδίωμα idioma, something that (you borrow) and make your own.
These slides illustrate 7 patterns of English idioms that were formed by Phono-Semantic Matching (PSM). Most of the examples involve Hebrew as a source or intermediate language only because English is my first language and Hebrew is my second. However, this process can occur between any languages in contact.
Type A and Type B idioms can come into existence without anyone intending to produce them.
The majority of English phono-semantic idioms are Type B.
All of the other types seem to require conscious intent by someone who knows both the target and source or other languages.
After an idiom has been formed, that idiom can become translated into any other language.
By the skin of my teeth means “barely, hardly, with difficulty” because B'3or SHinai בְּעוֹר שִׁנָּי is a near transliteration of the word B'QoSHi בְּקוֹשִׁי at a time when the aiyin had a G/K sound. I do not know if this was an existing idiom that Job used or if his words were misunderstood at some point in time before they were written down by a scribe.
This is an English to English example.
The lungs of sheep are still called “lights.” LiVer aND LighTS became transliterated and mis-divided into LiViN’ DayLighTS.
This is the most common pattern. A standard foreign language word or phrase is transliterated to existing words in a target language to form an idiom that may become translated to other languages.
In modern Hebrew we say LiSPoR K'VaSiM לספור כבשים, to count sheep, using the word for sheep in the plural. If you are counting them, there must be more than one.
A target language term that you do not want to pronounce is transliterated to a foreign language term, followed by translation of that foreign term into the target language as an idiom that has the meaning of the original target language term.
The British say bloody instead of damn. This does not occur in American English, probably because this word sounds like “dahm” in some British dialects but sounds like the dam beavers build in the United States.
British “dahm” is transliterated to Hebrew dalet-mem דָם which is translated to English “blood,” then the suffix y is added to form the adjective.
White rabbit is a phrase that someone must say, usually 3 times, before he says anything else when he wakes up on the first day of each month. It is supposed to guarantee good luck for a productive month.
The White in White rabbit was produced by translating “month” to חוֹדֶשׁ and then transliterating חוֹדֶשׁ to [w]hite . The het (without a schwa) originally had the W-sound of Greek digamma or Germanic Wynn.
Rabbit was probably produced the same way by translating “multiply, increase” to רבּוֹת and transliterating that word to rabbit.
If there were evidence of this expression originally being used by Hebrew speakers, then the initial translation step would be unnecessary and the idiom becomes a simple Type B Hebrew to English transliteration.
Mooning refers to the impudent display of one’s buttocks. This action is described by Flavius Josephus in The Wars of the Jews … or the History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, Book II, Chapter 12, paragraph 1.
The word you do not want to say (buttocks) was translated to Hebrew YaRayKH יָרֵך which was transliterated to Hebrew YaRayakH יָרֵחַ which was translated to English moon with ing added to form the verb mooning.
Break a leg! This blessing is often said to an actor prior to his performance. English blessing was translated to B'RaKHa בְּרָכָה which was transliterated to BeRekH בֶּרֶך (leg). B'RaKHa בְּרָכָה was then transliterated to English break and BeRekH בֶּרֶך was translated to a leg.
The analogous German blessing is Hals und Beinbruch!, literally, break a neck and leg! Hals is a metathesis of Yiddish (from Hebrew) HatSLakha הַצלָחָה, success.
Skeleton in the closet. Here, the English word secret was transliterated twice, first to Hebrew miSGeReT מִסגֶרֶת (framework, skeleton) and then to Hebrew סגרת SaGaRT סָגַרְתְּ (shut, close, 2 Kings 4:4) or more likely soGeReS umsooGeReS סֹגֶרֶת וּמְסֻגֶּרֶת (shut up tightly, Joshua 6:1) which together produce skeleton in the closet.
Giving the gimel a K-sound and letting the resh rotate to L indicates that miSGeReT and SKeLeTon are cognates and soGeReS and CLoSet are near homonyms with a semantic connection of “closure.” So it is difficult to tell if soGeReS was translated or transliterated to “closet.”
Type A and B idioms can be formed without anyone intending to produce them. The usually foreign words sound like existing target language words or phrases, the meaning is understood in context, and that meaning is treated as a referent of the existing sound-alike word or phrase.
However, formation of the other idiom types seems to require the conscious intention to create an idiom by someone who is able to translate and transliterate to and from another language.
The input for “axe to grind” is probably German acht or achtung (pay attention, be aware, beware) + Grund (reason, basis, grounds). Compare German Beweggrund which means “motive”. He has an ulterior motive.
“Raining polecat and dog” is the earliest known attestation of “raining cats and dogs”. Giving a D-sound to the shin and a G-sound to the aiyin makes shin-kuf-aiyin sound like DoCGa, the Old English word for a 4-legged dog.
Aramaic kuf-shin-tof, the truth, is the input for “cat out”.
Bet-gimel-dalet , to betray, provides the “bag” in this idiom and the first idiom on the next slide.
The URL for the online Ngram viewer is https://books.google.com/ngrams
This graph displays ‘axe to grind’ and ‘ax to grind’ for American & British English merged together.
Everyone else got away. The one who was betrayed got caught and was “left holdin’ the bag.”
BiNa seems to provide the input for spill the beans and doesn’t know beans about.
Yiddish MaSKoNa from Hebrew MaSKaNah (inference, deduction, consequence) may be the “music” in face the music. But it may simply be a reversal of the sounds in the word “exam(ination)”.
It seems that the input phrase, to make love in Paradise, is still a Semitic euphemism for death, but not a Jewish one.
Brewer’s yeast is an ancient remedy for a hang-over. Compare CeRBerus, the 3-headed KeLeV = dog that guards the entrance to Hades.
English has a lot of idioms relating to anger. Many of them are related to a very alliterative phrase in Tanakh: SHeTZeF QeTZeF.
שצף appears in Tanakh only 1 time. Its translation varies from “a little” to “overflowing.”
קצף appears 34 times as a verb (to be angry) and another 29 times as a noun (anger).
Hak mir nit keyn tshainik is a Yiddish idiom that literally translates to “Don't knock a teakettle at me.” It means “Don’t annoy me.”
Removing the “mir” from “Hak mir nit” produces הַקְנִיט, a Hebrew verb that means “annoy”.
Moving “nit” to the end of the word “kein” produces the KNT sound of that same word.
Reversing “hak nit” produces טינקה TaiNiKa which becomes tshainik.
Tshainik means “teakettle” in Russian, Polish and Yiddish.