יִשּׂוּם (yishum) — application; implementation

Etymology

The word יִשּׂוּם began its controversial life as an anonymous coinage in Israeli military or academic circles in the mid-1950s. It was created as a Hebrew equivalent for the English word "application" (in the sense of applying a method, rule, or principle to a specific case). The earliest documented instance is from 1956, in H. Ababaya's translation of Karl Marx's Poverty of Philosophy, where the word appears as a translation of "Applikation."

The coinage was built by analogy: just as the root י.צ.ר (to form/create) has a verbal noun יִצּוּר (production, manufacture), the coiners created the root ישׂ"ם — derived from the Biblical verb שׂוּם (to place, to put, to apply) — and generated from it the verbal noun יִשּׂוּם. The evidence for this derivation lies in two Biblical verses where the passive forms of שׂ.ו.ם appear to begin with yod: "וַיּוּשַׂם לְפָנָיו לֶאֱכֹל" (Genesis 24:33) and "וַיִּישֶׂם בָּאָרוֹן" (Genesis 50:26). Though these are actually hophal and niphal forms of שׂ.ו.ם rather than evidence of an independent root ישׂ"ם, the analogy was intuitive.

The Academy of the Hebrew Language viewed יִשּׂוּם as a grammatical invention based on a "false root" and spent over two decades fighting it. In 1957 the Committee on Public Administration Terminology chose תְּחוּלָה (application, from root ח.ו.ל, "to apply/take effect") and הֶחָלָה as the approved terms. In 1960 the Academy formally approved these alternatives. In 1965 the Academy's scientific secretary Shoshana Bahat declared to a correspondent that יִשּׂוּם was "unfit for use" and that its root was "grammatically invalid." Linguist Meir Sheli published a 1968 article calling it a "superfluous and harmful innovation." In the legal sphere, where Sheli worked at the Ministry of Justice, the battle was won: Hebrew legal language to this day uses הֶחָלָה (application of a law) and תְּחוּלָה (purview of a law).

Outside the law, however, יִשּׂוּם flourished. It was widely used in the army, in academia, in the press, and in everyday speech. By 1979 even linguist Hayyim Rosen, writing in the Academy's own journal Leshonenu la-Am, felt compelled to apologize in a footnote before using the word — acknowledging its irregularity while admitting that no equally functional alternative existed.

In 1983 the Academy finally accepted the inevitable. At a plenary session that began, coincidentally, with a eulogy for Meir Sheli — who had just died and had been the most persistent opponent of יִשּׂוּם — the Committee on Grammar proposed formal approval. Yehoshua Blau presented the case: the verb לְהַחִיל had failed to gain traction partly because the guttural ח was often not distinguished from ה in spoken Israeli Hebrew, causing confusion. יִשּׂוּם, by contrast, was "widely accepted." After debate, including discussion of how the same morphological irregularity had been used to justify יְבוּא (Bialik's coinage), the plenary voted 22 in favor, zero against, with three abstentions. יִשּׂוּם was approved.

In 1994 the Academy further decided to use יִשּׂוּם for computer applications (as well as the verb לְיַשֵּׂם, "to apply/implement"), and in 2012 coined the diminutive יִשּׂוּמוֹן (widget/app) — though in practice יִשּׂוּמוֹן functions primarily as the Hebrew word for a smartphone app.

Key Quotes

"בחר ב'יישום' בשביל 'אפליקאציה' ומאס ב'תחולה' תיבה שפעמים גמישה היא יותר מ'יישום'" — פרופ' נתן רוטנשטרייך, 1956 (ביקורת על תרגום)

"המשתמשים ב'יישום' מתכוונים לתרגם את המלה application האנגלית. האקדמיה דנה במלה זו ומצאה אותה בלתי כשרה לשימוש ואת שורשה 'ישׂם' פסול מבחינת הדקדוק." — שושנה בהט, המזכירה המדעית של האקדמיה, 1965

"מאחר שהמלה נתקבלה, ועדת הדקדוק מציעה שהאקדמיה תאשר את העובדות כמות שהן ותקבל את המלה 'לישם'" — יהושע בלאו, מליאת האקדמיה, 1983

Timeline

• June 18, 1957: Academy's Public Administration Committee chooses תחולה and החלה for "application"
• 1956: יִשּׂוּם first documented (in Ababaya's translation of Marx)
• 1960: Academy formally approves תחולה and החלה; publishes its terminology list
• March 1961: Academy plenary debates יִשּׂוּם; proposes alternatives again; יִשּׂוּם continues in widespread use
• 1963: Academy approves הֶחָלָה for official terminology
• 1965: Academy's secretary officially declares יִשּׂוּם unfit
• 1968: Meir Sheli publishes article calling יִשּׂוּם "superfluous and harmful"
• 1979: Linguist Hayyim Rosen apologizes in a footnote before using יִשּׂוּם in the Academy's own journal
• 1983: Academy plenary votes 22–0 to approve יִשּׂוּם
• 1994: Academy approves יִשּׂוּם for computer applications
• 2012: Academy coins יִשּׂוּמוֹן for "app/widget"

Related Words

• תְּחוּלָה — the Academy's preferred formal alternative; used in legal contexts
• הֶחָלָה — application of a law (legal Hebrew)
• לְיַשֵּׂם — to implement, to apply (the verb derived from יִשּׂוּם)
• יִשּׂוּמוֹן — app, widget (2012 coinage)
• יְבוּא — import (another morphologically irregular but successful coinage, cited as precedent)