קִמְעוֹנָאוּת (kimeonaʾut) — retail
Etymology
The commercial world divides into two types of traders: those who sell directly to consumers in small quantities (קִמְעוֹנָאִים, retailers) and those who sell in bulk to other merchants (סִיטוֹנָאִים, wholesalers). Both terms have distinct and interesting etymological histories.
The word סִיטוֹן comes from Greek σιτώνης (sitonés), meaning "grain supplier to a city." It appears in the Mishna (Demai 5:6) and was explained by Maimonides as "one who sells large quantities of food." The term was pulled out of Mishnaic use in the late 19th century by Hebrew journalists in Eastern Europe and was included in the 1901 pocket dictionary of Yehuda Gur and Yosef Klausner, whence it passed into other Hebrew dictionaries.
The term קִמְעוֹנָאוּת was coined by Yehoshua Gordon in his small English-Hebrew commercial glossary "Munche HaMeschar" (1924). Gordon's inspiration was the Aramaic root ק.מ.ע, the Aramaic equivalent of Hebrew ק.מ.ץ (related to "a handful"). The Aramaic root appears in Talmudic Hebrew in the word קִמְעָה (a little, a small amount), as in the Mishnaic phrase "קִמְעָה קִמְעָה" (little by little, Ketubot 8:5). Gordon's logic: a retailer is someone who sells merchandise "bit by bit" — קִמְעָה קִמְעָה. The alternation between צ (Hebrew) and ע (Aramaic) in parallel roots is a documented phonological phenomenon — the pair ארץ / ארעא (land) being the classic example.
Yehoshua Gordon is a nearly forgotten figure who deserves wider recognition. Born in Lithuania in 1889 to a wealthy merchant family, he was jailed briefly after a failed 1905 revolutionary uprising, then sent to Germany for education, where he became a Zionist student leader. He completed university at Columbia during WWI, managed the New York office of the Jewish Legion, then served in the Legion himself. In Mandatory Palestine he held a succession of important positions — head of the Immigration Bureau in Jaffa-Tel Aviv, deputy head of the Jewish Agency's Immigration Department, manager of the Palestine Electric Corporation, and finally the Jewish Agency's chief security officer. He died suddenly of a heart attack in a Tel Aviv hotel in 1941, age 52, unmarried and childless, with most institutions named for him now defunct. His lasting legacy is a handful of words he coined in that small 1924 glossary, including טְיוּטָה (draft), זִכּוּי (credit), חִיּוּב (debit), מִסְמָךְ (document), and קִמְעוֹנוּת.
The forms קִמְעוֹנוּת and סִיטוֹנוּת were accepted in Hebrew during the 1920s, but in the 1930s they began giving way to the current forms with the professional suffix -אוּת: קִמְעוֹנָאוּת and סִיטוֹנָאוּת.
Key Quotes
"על זה ענה פקיד האקציה, כי אין החק מתיר לבעלי הכרמים למכור את יינם בלא תעודות רק בסיטונות ולא במכירות קטנות" — Y. Traub, HaTsfirah, 15 December 1896
Timeline
- Mishnaic period: סִיטוֹן (from Greek σιτώνης) appears in Mishna Demai 5:6
- Mishnaic period: קִמְעָה (a little) attested in Mishna; phrase "קמעה קמעה" established
- 1896: סִיטוֹנוּת used in HaTsfirah newspaper
- 1901: סִיטוֹן included in Gur & Klausner's pocket dictionary
- 1924: Yehoshua Gordon coins קִמְעוֹנוּת in "Munche HaMeschar"
- 1920s: Both קִמְעוֹנוּת and סִיטוֹנוּת accepted in Hebrew commerce writing
- 1930s: Forms shift to קִמְעוֹנָאוּת and סִיטוֹנָאוּת (with professional suffix)
Related Words
- סִיטוֹנָאוּת — wholesale (from Greek σιτώνης, via Mishnaic Hebrew)
- קִמְעָה — a little, a small amount (Aramaic root ק.מ.ע in Talmudic Hebrew)
- קומץ — a handful (Hebrew root ק.מ.ץ, cognate to the Aramaic ק.מ.ע)
- טְיוּטָה — draft (also coined by Gordon, 1924)
- מִסְמָךְ — document (also coined by Gordon, 1924)
- זִכּוּי — credit (also coined by Gordon, 1924)
- חִיּוּב — debit/charge (also coined by Gordon, 1924)