חַמָּנִיָּה (khamaniya) — sunflower
Etymology
The word חַמָּנִיָּה is derived from חַמָּה, the Hebrew word for "sun" or "heat," and reflects the plant's characteristic of turning its face toward the sun (heliotropism). There may also be an influence from the biblical word חַמָּן, a solar cult object mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, though its exact nature remains unclear.
The sunflower is native to the Americas and was unknown in the Old World before Columbus's 1492 voyage. It arrived in the Land of Israel only in the late 19th century, prompting a scramble among Hebrew language revivalists to find a suitable name. The plant's Arabic name, עַבַּאד אלשַמְס ("servant of the sun"), inspired many of the proposed Hebrew names.
The competition for the word was remarkable. Between 1897 and 1922 no fewer than nine different names were proposed: עובד השמש (Meirovich, 1897), שִׁמְשִׁי (Sokolov, 1904), חַמָּנִית (St. Petersburg reader, 1905), שִׁמְשׁוֹנִית/שִׁמְשׁוֹנִיָּה (Bialik, 1909), אֲחוֹת הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ (Einhorn/Ben-Yehuda, 1910), זְהָרָה and חַמָּן (Lifshitz, 1912), שִׁמְשׁוֹנָה (Gman, 1913), פֶּרַח הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ (Aharoni, 1917), and חַמּוֹן (Bialik again, 1919). Mendele Mocher Sforim and Yosef Klausner both championed rival forms.
The winner was determined by demographic change rather than any committee decision. Immigrants of the Second Aliyah from Ukraine knew the plant well and called it חַמָּנִיָּה — the form used in their home region. When this form appeared in print in 1922 in the journal Ha-Sadeh, it was already the living language of the new agricultural settlements, and it has remained the standard form ever since.
Key Quotes
"שם באחת הגינות ילבלבו הקשואים, יבשילו האבטיחים, וזו החמנית, גבוהת הגבעול, זוקפת פניה השזופים ומוקפי עלים צהובים כלפי חמה וחונטת" — Mendele Mocher Sforim, ספר הזיכרונות, 1917
"מבין האצבעות מבצבים ונשפכים ארצה זרעוני פול ועדשים ושמשוניות" — Chaim Nachman Bialik, מאחורי הגדר, 1909
Timeline
- 1492: Columbus reaches the Americas; sunflower unknown in the Old World before this
- 1897: First attempt to name the plant in Hebrew: עובד השמש (Meirovich, Ha-Ikkar Ha-Ivri)
- 1904: Sokolov coins שִׁמְשִׁי in describing a Belgian landscape
- 1905: Form חַמָּנִית first appears in a St. Petersburg children's reader
- 1909: Bialik uses שִׁמְשׁוֹנִיָּה in מאחורי הגדר
- 1910: אֲחוֹת הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ proposed, based on a medieval source (actually referring to a different plant)
- 1912: זְהָרָה and חַמָּן proposed by Lifshitz
- 1917: Mendele uses חַמָּנִית; Klausner endorses זְהָרָה and חַמָּן
- 1919: Bialik coins yet another form, חַמּוֹן
- 1922: חַמָּנִיָּה appears in Ha-Sadeh; Second Aliyah immigrants from Ukraine establish this as the de facto standard
- 1923: Agricultural journalist Elchanan Zussman explains how Ukrainian immigrants brought sunflower cultivation (and the name) to the country
Related Words
- חַמָּה — sun, heat (the root of the word)
- חַמָּן — biblical pagan solar object; possible secondary influence
- חַמּוֹן — Bialik's 1919 coinage, not adopted
- שִׁמְשׁוֹנִיָּה — Bialik's 1909 coinage, not adopted