🔼The name Adadah: Summary
- Meaning
- Festival, Ornament Of Ornaments
- Etymology
- From the verb עדה ('ada), to pass by or to ornament.
🔼The name Adadah in the Bible
The name Adadah occurs only once in the Bible. In Joshua 15:22 Adadah is listed among the cities in the south of Judah.
🔼Etymology of the name Adadah
The name Adadah consists of a doubling of any of the following cluster of words (and a doubling in Hebrew usually works emphatically):
עדד
Root עדד ('adad) describes a repeated passing by or over, or a repeated encountering. Noun עדה ('idda) describes any well-worn item.
Verb עדה ('ada I) means to advance or pass on. Nouns עד ('ad) and ועד (w'ad) describe the difficult concept of a future era advancing upon the now, or else the prey or booty upon which a predator advances. The conjunction עד ('ad) or עדי ('ady) means "as far as" or until.
The same verb, namely עדה ('ada II) is used to mean to adorn or ornament oneself — that is: to have items approach the canvas of one's bulk in order to testify of some social rank or perhaps the trade or order one belongs to. Noun עדי ('adi) means ornamentation: fancy or declarative things worn on one's body or clothes.
Verb יעד (ya'ad) means to meet, habitually and repeatedly rather than incidentally. Noun עדה ('eda) means congregation or some other joint collective. Nouns מועד (mo'ed), מועד (mo'ad) and מועדה (mu'ada) describe a place (or time) of meeting.
Verb עוד ('ud) means to return and repeat. Noun עוד ('od) denotes an addition, repetition or continuance. Nouns עד ('ed), עדה ('eda), עדה ('eda), עדת ('edut), עדות ('edut) and תעודה (te'uda) all mean witness or testimony in various nuances, and verb עוד ('ud) means to bear witness.
🔼Adadah meaning
For a meaning of the name Adadah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Holiday (after Gesenius, who reported that this name follows the Syriac word for Festival). Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names goes with עדה II ('ada II) and proposes Ornament Of Ornaments (after the onomasticon of Simonis).
BDB Theological Dictionary demands that our name Adadah (עדעדה) is in fact an erroneous rendering of the name Aroer (ערער). Here at Abarim Publications we categorically reject this idea. Although the letters ד (d) and ר (r) indeed look somewhat similar to an untrained eye (as would the letters Q and O and D to someone untrained in Latin script), no Hebrew scribe of any era would have an untrained eye of such baffling ignorance as to accidentally confuse these letters, no audience would let it pass uncorrected and no copyist would copy it without protest.