Some words have been around thousands of years, and their various meaning reflect cultural history. Daf is traced all the way to Sumerian (about 5,000 years ago). Its original meaning was “clay tablet,” which was the first “paper,” then later became “board, wooden panel,” to a “column on a scroll,” to a “leaf, page.”* Its most recent related word is dafdefan, for “Web browser,” stemming from, dafdef for “page through, browse.” It has been a long journey from ancient clay tablet to present-day computer tablets.
Likewise, the English word “board” has acquired other meanings: “table; meals and lodging; get onto a ship, plane, bus; members of a group of decision-makers” (similar to panel for a “thin piece,” as well as “group of experts.”
*Similar to Hebrew ’ammud “column, pillar, page.” As a child, I studied the Hebrew alphabet on a little board. The English “book” comes from “beech tree”; the Latin liber meaning “book” stems from “tree bark.”
Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA.
