סְנָאִי (sna'i) — squirrel
Etymology
Hebrew has no biblical name for the squirrel, and Jewish communities across the diaspora simply used the local word in whatever language they lived in. Yiddish speakers used "vevyerke" (from Polish) or "bilka" (from Russian/Ukrainian). The need to coin a Hebrew name arose only with the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), when educators began writing modern-language textbooks in Hebrew.
The first attempt came from Baruch Linda in his 1788 textbook Reshit Limudim, where he proposed the name כּוֹחַ (koah) — a biblical word for an unclean reptile (Leviticus 11:30), probably a lizard. This was taken up by Shimshon Bloch in Shvilei Olam (1822). Joseph Sheinhaak rejected it in Toledot ha-Aretz (1841) and instead used the German name Eichhörnchen. Then in 1862, Sholem Yankev Abramovich — Mendele Mokher Seforim — Hebraized the German name based on a folk etymology: believing Eichhörnchen combined Eiche (oak) and Horn (horn), he coined קֶרֶן הָאַלוֹנִי (keren ha-aloni, "horn of the oak"). This name was adopted by educator Aharon Rosenfeld in his textbook Gan Sha'ashu'im (1880).
An anonymous critic writing in Ha-Melitz in October 1880 attacked Rosenfeld's use of "keren ha-aloni" and suggested instead the Mishnaic phrase חוֹלְדַּת הַסְּנָאִים (holdat ha-sna'im, "the field-rat of the bushes"), a creature mentioned once in the Mishnah (Kilayim 8:5) as a borderline creeping animal. The element סְנָאִים was interpreted by Rashi as meaning "those that grow in thornbushes" (from סְנֶה, the word for the Burning Bush). The Rambam had identified the creature as "resembling a mouse, of the fox family." The basis for the critic's identification of this Mishnaic creature with the squirrel is unknown, but his suggestion caught on. Rosenfeld adopted it in later editions of his book, and Mendele himself used it in Be-Emek ha-Bakha (1897).
As happened with many Hebrew compound nouns of that era, the longer phrase was eventually shortened to just the distinctive element: סְנָאִי. This parallels the reduction of "ageret geluya" → גלויה, "simla hatsait" → חצאית, and others. The shortened form is attested from at least 1898 in the Hebrew translation of Israel Zangwill's Ghetto Sketches, translated by Shmuel Leib Gordon.
Key Quotes
"גם הזאב והדוב נחבאו הפעם בחוריהן והנחשים נסתרו בסבכי העצים אך הסנאים התמימים לבדם רצו פעם בפעם לרחב הדרך" — Hebrew translation of Zangwill's Ghetto Sketches, 1898 (trans. Shmuel Leib Gordon)
"כחולדת-סנאים זו, שיושבת לה בראש האילן ומפצעת אגוז בכוונה גדולה" — Mendele Mokher Seforim, Be-Emek ha-Bakha, 1897
Timeline
- 1788: Baruch Linda proposes כּוֹחַ (a biblical lizard-name) for the squirrel in Reshit Limudim
- 1822: Shimshon Bloch uses כּוֹחַ in Shvilei Olam
- 1841: Joseph Sheinhaak rejects it; uses the German name Eichhörnchen
- 1862: Mendele coins קֶרֶן הָאַלוֹנִי (horn of the oak) based on a folk etymology of Eichhörnchen
- 1880: Rosenfeld adopts the name; critic in Ha-Melitz proposes חוֹלְדַּת הַסְּנָאִים instead
- 1897: Mendele uses חולדת-סנאים in Be-Emek ha-Bakha
- 1898: Shortened form סְנָאִי attested in Zangwill translation
Related Words
- כּוֹחַ — first proposed Hebrew name for the squirrel (biblical; a kind of lizard)
- קֶרֶן הָאַלוֹנִי — Mendele's 1862 coinage; calque of a folk etymology of German Eichhörnchen
- חוֹלְדַּת הַסְּנָאִים — the Mishnaic compound from which סְנָאִי was shortened
- סְנֶה — "thornbush" (the Burning Bush); root of the Mishnaic element סְנָאִים per Rashi