סְבִיבוֹן (svivon) — dreidel

Etymology

Hebrew has an impressive wealth of roots relating to circular motion, any of which could have served when early modern Hebrew speakers searched for a name for the Hanukkah spinning top. The root ד-ו-ר gave us דַּוָּר (postman, one who makes rounds); ח-ו-ג (Aramaic in origin) gave us חוּג (circle of friends) and מְחוּגָה (compass); ע-ו-ג gave us עָג (to trace a circle) and עוּגָה (cake, originally circular); ח-ו-ל gave us מָחוֹל (dance, circular); ס-ח-ר gave us סוֹחֵר (merchant, one who makes rounds) and סְחַרְחֹרֶת (dizziness); ח-ז-ר gave us the circular letter חוֹזֵר; and ג-ל-ל/ג-ל-ג-ל gave us גַּלְגַּל (wheel). The dreidel had been known in Yiddish as a dreydl (from the German drehen, to turn) and in various Romance languages, and the Hanukkah gambling game it serves had its own long European history.

Several candidates competed before סְבִיבוֹן won. Lexicographer Joshua Steinberg (1839–1908) proposed גַּלְגְּלָן from the root ג-ל-ג-ל. In 1904, an anonymous writer in HaTzfira used the form עֲגַלְגַּל from the root ע-ג-ל. Mendele Moykher Sforim in his 1903 novel "Bimei HaHem" coined חֲזַרְזַר from the root ח-ז-ר (to turn/return) — but Chaim Nachman Bialik had other plans for that word: in 1930 the Language Committee adopted חֲזַרְזַר as the Hebrew name for the gooseberry plant. Bialik himself had coined כִּרְכָּר (from the quadriliteral root כ-ר-כ-ר, meaning to spin around or flatter) and used it in his 1894 Hebrew translation of Mordecai Ben-Ami's memoirs "Hanukkah." Some versions of Bialik's famous Hanukkah song "Likavod HaHanukkah" preserve the line "my teacher brought me a karkár of cast lead" — though Bialik did not object to the more popular version of his song that substitutes סְבִיבוֹן.

The authorship of סְבִיבוֹן is disputed between two claimants. David Isaiah Zilberbush wrote in HaTzfira in 1897 that he had coined the name and was now revealing it: "I have not yet told what name I call this good gift I have stored. I shall now say: its name is svivon. That is the name I call in Hebrew, in the pattern of shfifon, the toy children call dreydl at Hanukkah." The pattern of שְׁפִיפוֹן (the horned viper that "bites the horse's heels" in Genesis 49:17, a low, coiling creature) was the formal model. But Itamar Ben-Yehuda, son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, wrote in his memoirs many years later that he had coined the word spontaneously in 1887 as a five-year-old boy: "Suddenly I ran to my mother: 'Mama! Mama! I found a svivon for Hanukkah!' My mother embraced me and showered me with kisses: 'How beautiful the word you created, my son!' Thus was the svivon created, spoken for decades on the lips of all Hebrew children."

Key Quotes

"הנה טרם הודעתי מה שם המתנה הטובה שיש לי בבית גנזי. הנני ואגיד: סביבון שמה... הוא הוא השם אשר אני קורא בעברית במשקל שפיפון לכלי צעצועים של הילדים בחנוכה שקורין דראֶדיל בלעז" — דוד ישעיהו זילברבוש, הצפירה, 1897

"פתאום קפצתי לקראת הורתי: 'אמא! אמא! הנה מצאתי סביבון לחנוכה!'... 'מה יפה המלה אשר יצרת, בני!' הנה כך נוצר הסביבון" — איתמר בן-יהודה, זכרונות (לפי טענתו, 1887)

"בלילי חנוכה - הקטנים מגלגלים על השלחן את החזרזר, הוא כידור-עופרת, והגדולים משחקים בקוביה" — מנדלי מוכר ספרים, בימים ההם, 1903 (שם חלופי: חֲזַרְזַר)

Timeline

• Late 19th century: Hebrew Revival speakers seek a word for the Yiddish dreydl; multiple proposals circulate
• 1887: Itamar Ben-Yehuda (by his memoir account) coins סְבִיבוֹן as a five-year-old
• 1894: Bialik uses כִּרְכָּר in his translation; some versions of his Hanukkah song use it
• 1897: David Isaiah Zilberbush claims coinage of סְבִיבוֹן in HaTzfira
• 1903: Mendele uses חֲזַרְזַר in "Bimei HaHem"
• 1904: Anonymous writer in HaTzfira uses עֲגַלְגַּל
• 1908: Joshua Steinberg proposes גַּלְגְּלָן
• 1930: Language Committee adopts חֲזַרְזַר as the Hebrew name for gooseberry (foreclosing its use for the dreidel)
• Modern: סְבִיבוֹן universally adopted; כִּרְכָּר appears in some versions of Bialik's song

Related Words

• שְׁפִיפוֹן — horned viper (Genesis 49:17); the formal pattern model for סְבִיבוֹן
• סִיבוּב — rotation, revolution (from same root ס-ב-ב)
• מְסִבָּה — gathering/dinner party (from same root; originally those sitting around a table)
• סִבָּה — reason, cause (same root; the philosophical connection to "turning" is debated)
• חֲזַרְזַר — gooseberry (Language Committee, 1930; Mendele's earlier name for the dreidel)
• כִּרְכָּר — Bialik's name for the dreidel (from כ-ר-כ-ר, to spin/fawn)
• סָבִיב — around, surrounding (from same root)