שִׁזּוּף (shizuf) — suntan, tanning

Etymology

In the Bible, the verb shazaf means "to catch with the eye, to look at" — as in Job 28:7: "a path that the falcon's eye has not seen (shezafathu), nor the eye of the black kite." This sense continued in post-biblical Hebrew in literary contexts, almost always paired with the word "eye" (ʿayin), as in the 8th–9th century midrashic collection Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer: "and the eye of no man looked upon him (lo shezafthu ʿein adam)." The usage persisted into the 19th century, though it was always rare.

The entire modern usage of the root shin-zayin-pe is built on a single verse in the Song of Songs: "Do not look upon me that I am dark, for the sun has gazed upon me (sheshshezafatni ha-shemesh)" (1:6). Here the poet says that the sun's gaze has darkened the beloved's skin. Following this verse, post-biblical writers used derivatives of shazaf together with the word shemesh (sun) to describe sun-darkening of the skin. Rashi uses it in his Talmudic commentary to describe the shade a canopy provides against the sun's rays. By the 19th century, the word was being used in this sun-darkening sense without needing to mention shemesh explicitly, as in Ha-Tsefira in 1894: "their faces are shezufim" (sun-darkened).

The timing was apt: the 1920s saw a dramatic shift in Western attitudes toward tanned skin. Previously associated with lower-class outdoor labor, tanned skin became fashionable — a development often attributed to French designer Coco Chanel, whose sun-bronzed appearance after a 1923 Cannes cruise sparked a craze. The theory that sun exposure produces Vitamin D and prevents rickets also contributed. The fashion reached Palestine; in August 1931, Doar ha-Yom reported that "sun baths" had become a daily necessity, and it was in this period that the verb hishtazef (to tan oneself) and the noun shizuf became established in the sense of deliberate sun-tanning.

The column also traces the history of sunscreen terminology. As early as 1928, French fashion designer Jean Patou marketed a "tanning oil" (Huile de Chaldée), and the local company Shemen began producing a similar product called Volta from 1938. As the dangers of sun exposure gradually became recognized — a 1928 English experiment showed UV radiation causes skin cancer in mice — manufacturers began adding UV filters to their products. The term krem shizuf (tanning cream) was gradually displaced by krem haganah (protection cream/sunscreen) from 1986 onward, a shift that became complete over subsequent decades.

Key Quotes

"אַל תִּרְאוּנִי שֶׁאֲנִי שְׁחַרְחֹרֶת שֶׁשֱּׁזָפַתְנִי הַשָּׁמֶשׁ" — Song of Songs 1:6 (the verse that anchored the root's modern meaning)

"'אמבטיות של שמש' נעשו עתה לאחד מצרכי יום-יום. אדם אינו מרגיש את עצמו בקו הבריאות, מיד גוזר עליו הרופא לצלות את גופו תחת קרני השמש" — Doar ha-Yom, August 1931

Timeline

• Biblical period: shazaf means "to see, look at" (Job 28:7)
• Biblical: Song of Songs 1:6 uses shazaf in the sense of the sun darkening skin
• 8th–9th century CE: Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer uses root in "seeing" sense
• 11th century: Rashi uses root to describe sun exposure in Talmudic commentary
• 1859: Ha-Magid uses shezufim (sun-darkened) without shemesh
• 1923: Coco Chanel popularizes tanned skin as fashionable
• 1928: Jean Patou markets first commercial tanning oil; English experiment links UV to skin cancer
• 1931: Doar ha-Yom reports sun-bathing craze; hishtazef and shizuf established in modern Hebrew
• 1938: Local company Shemen produces tanning product Volta
• 1983: Journalist Mikhal Holtzman proposes renaming tanning cream as "protection cream"
• 1986: Krem haganah (sunscreen) starts appearing alongside krem shizuf

Related Words

• שָׁזוּף — sun-tanned (adjective); the most common modern form of the root
• הִשְׁתַּזֵּף — to tan oneself, to sunbathe
• קְרֵם הֲגָנָה — sunscreen (the replacement term for krem shizuf)
• חִוֵּר — to turn pale; the paired antonym introduced in the same era