מֵנִיעַ (meni'a) — motive; motivator

Etymology

The word מֵנִיעַ was coined by the 12th-century translator Yehuda ibn Tibbon in 1170 as a Hebrew rendering of the Arabic philosophical term مُحَرَّك (muharrak), meaning "that which sets something in motion." The term was central to medieval Arabic philosophy, which was heavily influenced by Aristotle's mechanistic worldview, and appears in almost every major Arabic philosophical text of the period. When ibn Tibbon translated Judah Halevi's "Book of the Kuzari" from Arabic into Hebrew, he rendered muharrak as מֵנִיעַ: "all forces of living beings, whether perceptive or motive; and the motive forces, if a מֵנִיעַ toward bringing — beneficial" (5:12).

The word derives from the biblical root נו"ע, which in the Bible denoted swaying or wandering motion. It was only in the later medieval period, when translators needed a Hebrew equivalent for the Arabic root ح-ر-ك (h-r-k, to move), that the root נו"ע acquired the sense of general movement. The noun תְּנוּעָה (movement) was coined in the 9th century by Rabbi Yitzhak ben Shlomo Israeli when he translated Euclid from Arabic into Hebrew; the same Arabic root also gave Hebrew תְּנוּעָה in the phonological sense (vowel), coined by Yehuda ibn David Hayyuj in the 10th century.

By the 19th century, מֵנִיעַ had narrowed to two main uses: a psychological term for that which directs a person toward action (as seen in Alexander Tsederbaum's 1862 use in Ha-Melitz), and, from 1891, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's proposed Hebrew term for "motor" (a mechanical engine). The dual use created ambiguity. In the 1920s some writers began preferring מָנוֹע for the mechanical sense — a word that first appeared in Ha-Tzfirah in 1928. Tel Aviv municipality adopted מָנוֹע in its bylaws in 1937, and by 1938 both major Hebrew newspapers were using it. Once מָנוֹע displaced מֵנִיעַ as "engine/motor," מֵנִיעַ settled definitively into its current psychological meaning: motive, motivating force.

Key Quotes

"וְכָל כֹּחוֹת בַּעֲלֵי-חַיִּים, אִם מַשִּׂיגִים וְאִם מְנִיעִים; וְהַמְּנִיעִים, אִם מֵנִיעַ לְהָבִיא – מוֹעִיל" — יהודה אבן תיבון, תרגום הכוזרי, 1170

"תקוות כבוד ובצע כסף — המניעים השונים אשר יניעו אופני תהלוכות רוב האנשים בימינו" — אלכסנדר צדרבוים, המליץ, 1862

"מָנוֹעַ - מוֹטוֹר. מֵנִיעַ - כֹּחַ אוֹ גוֹרֵם הַמְעוֹרֵר לִפְעֻלָה" — עורך מדור "קרא כהלכה", דבר, ספטמבר 1938

Timeline

• 9th century: Rabbi Yitzhak Israeli coins תְּנוּעָה for "movement" while translating Euclid
• 10th century: Yehuda ibn Hayyuj coins תְּנוּעָה for "vowel" (phonological motion)
• 1139: Judah Halevi uses Arabic muharrak in the Kuzari
• 1170: Yehuda ibn Tibbon coins מֵנִיעַ as the Hebrew equivalent
• 1862: מֵנִיעַ used in the psychological sense (Ha-Melitz)
• 1891: Ben-Yehuda proposes מֵנִיעַ as the Hebrew word for "motor"
• July 1931: Ha'aretz uses both מֵנִיעַ and motor in a traffic accident report
• 1928: מָנוֹע first appears in Ha-Tzfirah for the mechanical sense
• 1937–38: מָנוֹע adopted by Tel Aviv municipality and the Hebrew press
• Late 1930s: מָנוֹע displaces מֵנִיעַ for the mechanical sense; מֵנִיעַ settles as "motive"

Related Words

• מָנוֹע — engine, motor; the word that displaced מֵנִיעַ in the mechanical sense
• תְּנוּעָה — movement; sibling word coined from the same root נו"ע
• הֵנִיעַ — to move (transitive); parent verb of מֵנִיעַ
• נָע — to move (biblical); the root's biblical form