סִין (Sin) — China
Etymology
The Hebrew name for China has a layered history rooted in the interplay of Yiddish, biblical Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin. For most of Jewish history in Europe, China was known simply by its Yiddish name חינא or כינא. The exception was Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, who had been calling the country by a name close to סִין since at least the first half of the 9th century CE, when the form צין appears in a responsum by Rav Natrunai Gaon.
In Europe, the first recorded use of a Hebrew-inflected form appears in Baruch Linda's 1788 book Reshit Limudim, where he calls the country סינא — clearly under the influence of the Latin name Sīnae. The real shift came in the 19th century, when Hebrew writers began using the biblical phrase אֶרֶץ סִינִים (Isaiah 49:12) as a name for China, following a mistaken identification made by Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel in 17th-century Holland, likely due to the resemblance to the Latin name. This phrase appeared in Shimshon Bloch's Shvilei Olam (1822), Mordechai Aaron Ginzberg's Toldot Bnei Adam (1835), and frequently in the newspaper HaMagid from 1857 onward.
Toward the end of the 1880s, the phrase was shortened to simply סִין — perhaps also under influence from the Arabic name. This shortened form appears in Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's 1888 Hebrew translation of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. Gradually, this form replaced the Yiddish name in Hebrew usage.
The broader context is that Hebrew names for most countries derive directly from Yiddish, the mother tongue of most early Hebrew revivalists. A systematic Hebraization of country names was led by Mendele Mocher Sforim from 1867, using the -יה suffix, and codified by historian Yosef Klausner. China's name followed a different and unusual path: biblical misidentification rather than simple Yiddishization.
Key Quotes
"פרס בלי ספק מכוונת בתנ״ך לארץ הקוראת לעצמה איראן. והתנ״ך קובע" — David Ben-Gurion, letter to Moshe Sharett, March 14, 1955
"הנה התוספת n היא אשכנזית מעקרה ואין לשפתנו כל חלק בה, ובעברית יותר נכון לצין את שמות הארצות ע״פ תוספת ׳יה׳" — Yosef Klausner, Sfat Ever — Sfah Hayah, 1896
Timeline
- 9th century CE: Name צין used by Rav Natrunai Gaon in responsum
- 17th century: Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel (Amsterdam) mistakenly identifies biblical אֶרֶץ סִינִים with China
- 1788: Baruch Linda uses סינא in Reshit Limudim, influenced by Latin Sīnae
- 1822: Shimshon Bloch uses אֶרֶץ סִינִים in Shvilei Olam
- 1835: Mordechai Aaron Ginzberg uses the phrase in Toldot Bnei Adam
- 1857: Frequent use of אֶרֶץ סִינִים in newspaper HaMagid
- 1867: Mendele Mocher Sforim begins Hebraizing country names with -יה suffix
- 1888: Ben-Yehuda's Verne translation uses shortened form סִין
- Late 19th century: סִין gradually displaces Yiddish חינא/כינא in Hebrew
Related Words
- יָוָן — biblical toponym (Genesis 10:2) retained for Greece
- הֹדּוּ — biblical name for India (Esther 8:9), still used in modern Hebrew
- סְפָרַד — biblical name (Obadiah 1:20) applied to Spain since at least the 8th century
- צָרְפַת — biblical name applied to France since the late 10th century
- אֶרֶץ סִינִים — the full biblical phrase from Isaiah 49:12