🔼The name Peor: Summary
- Meaning
- Opening
- Etymology
- From the verb פער (pa'ar), to open wide.
🔼The name Peor in the Bible
Peor is most famous as part of the name Baal-peor, the Moabite god with which Israel defiled itself. Peor is also the name of a mountain in Moab. The seer Balaam addresses Israel from the top of mount Peor (Numbers 23:28).
🔼Etymology of the name Peor
The name Peor comes from פער (pa'ar) meaning open wide:
Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
פער
Verb פער (pa'ar) means to open wide. It's used to apply to the mouth but suggests to allude to other bodily cavities. This verb yields no nouns, which suggests that it describes doings out of a kind of hunger or desire rather than merely the mechanics of opening. It that sense it means to desire, to yearn and obviously also to lust.
🔼Peor meaning
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names and NOBSE Study Bible Name List agree: The name Peor means Opening.