גד

Hebrew

Etymology 1

Uncertain. Compare Arabic جَدّ (jadd, “luck, good fortune”).

Noun

גָּד • (gad) m

1. luck

Proper noun

גָּד • (gad) m

1. a male given name, Gad
   1. (biblical) Gad (the seventh son of Jacob, by his wife's handmaid Zilpah)
   2. (by extension) One of the Israelite tribes.
   3. A pan-Semitic god of fortune

Etymology 2

Root
ג־ד־ד (g-d-d)

גַּד – Coriandrum sativum

Found in Punic 𐤂𐤃 (gd /⁠gid⁠/, “coriander”), Ugaritic 𐎂𐎄 (gd, “coriander”), Jewish Babylonian Aramaic גַּד (gaḏ), גּׅידא (giḏā, “coriander”). The origin is unclear. It could be from the root formula’s meaning related to strips (→ جُدَّة (judda)), because of coriander’s being chopped, but there is a chance it is the same word as Old Armenian գինձ (ginj) and its known Iranian relatives. Less likely the plant name is from the fortune or fortune god word above in consideration of magical uses.

Noun

גַּד • (gad) m

1. coriander

References

• Löw, Immanuel (1924) Die Flora der Juden‎ (in German), volume 3, Wien und Leipzig: R. Löwit, pages 441–447, but he wants to read the JBA words as “wormwood”, which wouldn’t exclude an etymological relationship since these plants appear very similar; and he thinks the words are geminated instead of with begedkefet.
• “gyd⁴”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• גד השדה on the Hebrew Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^he

Anagrams

• דג