סֶקֶר (seqer) — survey; opinion poll
Etymology
The family of words built on the root סק״ר — סֶקֶר (survey/poll), סְקִירָה (overview/review), סַקְרָן (curious person), and סִקּוּר (media coverage) — all trace back to a single Aramaic root meaning "to fix one's eyes on, to examine with a piercing gaze." The root entered Hebrew in the Talmudic period. A particularly important occurrence appears in the Babylonian scholar Rabbah bar bar Hana's interpretation of a Mishnaic phrase about Rosh Hashana: "they are all surveyed [נִסְקָרִין] in a single gaze [סְקִירָה אַחַת]" (Rosh Hashana 18a) — meaning that God reviews all creatures simultaneously.
This Talmudic phrase became the seed of the modern word סְקִירָה. When lexicographer Yehuda Leib Ben-Ze'ev needed a Hebrew equivalent for the German Überblick ("overview") in the first German-Hebrew dictionary (1808), he extracted the phrase "סְקִירָה אַחַת" from the Talmud. The phrase began appearing in the press — for example in Ha-Melitz in October 1870: "A single overview of the situation of several million of our brethren in America and Western Europe will show us..." — and by the end of the 19th century the word "אַחַת" was dropped, and "סקירה" came to mean an overview or review, translating the German Überblick.
From the fixed use of "סקירה," the verb סָקַר acquired the meaning "to give an overview of, to review," added to its existing meaning of "to examine with one's gaze." When Yosef Klausner in July 1893 proposed that the Midrash Bereishit Rabbah's form סַקְרָנִית ("one who examines everything with her eyes" — God supposedly avoided making Eve from the eye so she would not be so nosy) be adopted as "one eager to see and examine everything," the word in the sense of "curious person" began spreading, competing with Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's coinage תְּאֵבְדֵּעַ.
As British Mandate influence replaced German influence, Hebrew speakers began associating "סקירה" with the English word "survey." But "survey" has two senses: the Überblick sense (general overview) and the sense of a systematic field investigation. While "סקירה" covered the first sense, someone in the 1930s retrieved the rare medieval variant סֶקֶר — found in a handful of liturgical poems (piyyutim) where it meant "a gaze" — and applied it to "survey" in the investigative sense. The word appears in Ha-Dar, a journal dedicated to the citrus industry, in 1938: "A survey (סֶקֶר) of the area infected by the mealybug in the Sharon was conducted after it became clear that the infestation was spreading."
Meanwhile, the need for a Hebrew equivalent of the English "media coverage" came before the Academy of the Hebrew Language. The term "כיסוי" (coverage) was judged too calque-like. The Academy debated the question in July and November 1960. The term שִׁקּוּף was proposed and rejected. Finally, the word סִקּוּר — proposed by poet Uri Zvi Greenberg and educator Yitzhak Shabti'el — was adopted, on the understanding that journalistic work involves both a kind of investigation (סֶקֶר) and a kind of overview (סְקִירָה). The word and its verb לְסַקֵּר were gradually adopted, though "כיסוי" was never fully displaced.
The first Israeli opinion polling institute was founded in 1962, when advertiser Eliezer Zhourbin met sociologist Rafael Gil in the United States and invited him to run the polling division of the Dahaf advertising agency. The institute initially offered market research to commercial clients, but by November 1963 it announced plans to offer election research to political parties. From the Sixth Knesset elections in 1965 onward, opinion polls have been an inseparable part of every Israeli election campaign, and סֶקֶר became synonymous with "opinion poll."
Key Quotes
"וכולן נסקרין בסקירה אחת" — Rabbah bar bar Hana, Rosh Hashana 18a (Babylonian Talmud) (And they are all surveyed in a single gaze)
"כן נערך סקר (survey) השטח הנגוע בכנימת הפסיק בשרון" — Ha-Dar, 1938
Timeline
- Talmudic period: Root סק״ר borrowed from Aramaic; means "to stare, examine"
- ca. 3rd–5th century CE: Key phrase "נסקרין בסקירה אחת" in Babylonian Talmud
- Medieval period: Variant form סֶקֶר used in piyyutim (liturgical poems) meaning "gaze"
- 1808: Ben-Ze'ev uses "סקירה אחת" in his German-Hebrew dictionary to translate Überblick
- 1870: "סקירה אחת" used in Ha-Melitz for a survey of Jewish communities
- Late 19th century: "אחת" dropped; "סקירה" stands alone as "overview/review"
- 1893: Klausner proposes adopting "סַקְרָן" for "curious person"
- 1912: The verb "סָקַר" begins meaning "to give an overview of"
- 1930s: "סֶקֶר" (from medieval piyyutim) adopted as Hebrew for "survey" (investigative sense)
- 1938: "סֶקֶר" first documented in Ha-Dar magazine
- July 1960: Academy of Hebrew Language begins deliberating on a word for "media coverage"
- November 1960: Academy adopts "סִקּוּר" (proposed by Uri Zvi Greenberg and Yitzhak Shabti'el)
- 1962: First Israeli polling institute founded (Dahaf agency)
- 1965: Opinion polls become integral to Israeli elections; "סקר דעת קהל" established
Related Words
- סְקִירָה — overview, review; derived from same root; the word that spawned the family
- סַקְרָן — curious person; from Midrash Bereishit Rabbah via Klausner's 1893 proposal
- סִקּוּר — media coverage; coined by Academy in 1960
- לְסַקֵּר — to cover (journalistically)
- סֶקֶר דֵּעַת קָהָל — opinion poll; the primary modern meaning