הַרְבֵּה

The word "הַרְבֵּה" (harbe) is originally biblical, being the infinitive form of the verb "הִרְבָּה" (hirba, "to increase") derived from the root r-b-y. Our current use of the word differs from its biblical use in two main aspects: in the Bible, it mainly attaches to verbs (for example: "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much" - 2 Kings 10:18), while we mainly use it to indicate plurality of nouns. The second difference is that in the Bible and in rabbinic literature, the word usually appears after the noun, whereas we place it before the noun. This change in word order stems from the influence of foreign languages spoken by Jews before the adoption of Hebrew in the early 20th century, primarily Yiddish (in which one says "a sach menschen" and not "menschen a sach"). The linguist Yitzhak Avineri addressed this in 1958 and wrote: "Seemingly, this is merely due to the influence of foreign language, but we have already found similar instances in ancient sources, and in the Talmud there are many times 'harbe' before the noun." Indeed, even in rabbinic literature, examples can be found of "harbe" appearing before the noun, for instance in the Mishnah: "Much wine makes. Much laughter makes. Much childishness makes. Many neighbors make many [problems]" (Sotah 1:4).