שיבוט (shibut) — cloning; clone
Etymology
The English word "clone" was coined in 1903 by American plant physiologist Herbert Weber, who was searching for a term for asexual vegetative propagation — the practice of cutting a branch from a plant, rooting it, and thereby creating a genetically identical copy of the original. He considered several Greek words for "branch" — klados, klaly, and klon — and chose the last as the shortest and most convenient. The word rapidly spread through scientific English. Within two decades, Hebrew had an equivalent: יְחוּר, an ancient Mishnaic word of unknown etymology meaning a cutting or graft (appearing in Mishnah Kilayim 8:8). For nearly half a century, "clone" and יחור coexisted as parallel terms, each confined to the realm of plant propagation.
The breakthrough that expanded "clone" beyond plants came with futurist Alvin Toffler's bestseller Future Shock (1970), in which he speculated about the cloning of human beings. The Hebrew translation by Yoram Sade (1971) rendered "clone" not as יחור but as the circumlocution "יצירת העתקים" (creation of copies), revealing the inadequacy of יחור for the broader concept. Hebrew fiction followed English: the 1976 Hebrew translation of Ira Levin's The Boys from Brazil rendered "cloning" as קלונינג, a straightforward transliteration, illustrating that Israeli writers were still reaching for the English term.
In the academic biology community, researchers working with single-cell organisms also used "קלונים" (clones, transliterated) through the 1970s, as seen in a 1971 doctoral dissertation at the Hebrew University. The distinctly Hebrew term שיבוט — a noun of action built on the root ש.ב.ט — appears in academic literature by at least 1981. Its likely inventor was Professor Natan Tsitri of the Hebrew University's Faculty of Medicine, who was both active in cloning research during the relevant period and known as a linguistic innovator who coined Hebrew terms for foreign biological vocabulary. In 1984 Tsitri chaired the Academy of the Hebrew Language's Committee on Molecular Biology and Microbiology, which formally ratified שיבוט. Tsitri himself died on the eve of Hanukkah two years before the column was written.
The conceptual logic of the coinage is elegant: just as English "clone" is built on the Greek word for "branch," Hebrew שיבוט is built on שבט, which means both a specific branch of a people (tribe) and, more concretely, a rod or branch used for striking, as in the famous Proverbs verse "He who spares the rod hates his son" (13:24). The double meaning likely appealed to the coiner: in the act of cloning, one creates a whole שבט (tribe/branch) of genetically identical copies from the original.
Key Quotes
"הזריעה לקלונים נעשתה בשני פרקי-זמן אחרי הטיפול, כדי לוודא שהפעולה המעכבת של החומרים היא בלתי הפיכה" — Prof. Chana Ben-Bassat, doctoral dissertation, Hebrew University, 1971
"חוֹשֵׂךְ שִׁבְטוֹ, שׂוֹנֵא בְנוֹ" — Proverbs 13:24 (the biblical verse that motivates the root choice)
Timeline
- 1903: Herbert Weber coins English "clone" from Greek klon (branch)
- ~1920s: יחור adopted as Hebrew equivalent of "clone" in agricultural context
- 1970: Alvin Toffler's Future Shock broadens "clone" to mean human genetic copies
- 1971: Hebrew translation of Future Shock uses "יצירת העתקים" rather than יחור
- 1971: Israeli academic literature still uses transliterated "קלונים"
- 1976: Hebrew translation of The Boys from Brazil uses "קלונינג"
- ~1981: שיבוט first appears in academic literature (latest confirmed date)
- 1984: Academy of the Hebrew Language Committee ratifies שיבוט
Related Words
- יְחוּר — plant cutting/graft (the older Hebrew botanical term, still used in agriculture)
- שֶׁבֶט — tribe; rod; branch
- שָׁבַט — to strike, to wield a rod
- מְשֻׁבָּט / מְשֻׁבָּטִים — cloned (adjective/noun forms)