🔼The name Pispa: Summary
- Meaning
- Extreme End, Widely Spread Mouth
- Etymology
- From (1) פס (pas), hand/foot, extremity or a spreading wide, and (2) פה (peh), mouth.
🔼The name Pispa in the Bible
The name Pispa occurs only once in the Bible, namely in 1 Chronicles 7:38, where Pispa is mentioned among the sons of Jether of Asher. Nothing else is known about this character.
🔼Etymology of the name Pispa
It's not immediately clear how the name Pispa is formed, although most commentators seem to agree that it has to do with the verb פסס (pasas), to spread out wide or thin:
פסס
The verb פסס (pasas) means to spread out or spread thin. It may describe covering a broad stretch of space, or a broad spectrum of colors. It may even describe a dissipation into thin air and hence mean to vanish. Noun פס (pas) describes a person's hand or foot, the spreading extremities of one's limbs. Noun פסה (pissa) describes an abundant variety in goods. Specialized verb פשה (pasa) speaks of the spreading of skin diseases.
The related verb אפס ('apes) means to come to nought. Noun אפס ('epes/'apes) occurs in the familiar phrase "the ends of the earth", which describes regions of little or no civilized humanity. It's also frequently used to describe a coming to "nought" of people, their efforts or their estates. Noun אפס ('opas) means foot sole, and clearly correlates to noun פס (pas).
In Aramaic, the duplicate form פספס (pispes) speaks of spreading bundles of fodder or hair into strands, but that doesn't explain the final end of our name. That part rather resembles the common noun פה (peh), meaning mouth:
פאה
The verb פאה (pa'a) means to cleave or break apart (what one does with a sword) and the derived noun פאה (pe'a) means corner or side.
Apparently related to the above is the otherwise inexplicable noun פה (peh) or פו (po) or פי (pi), meaning mouth. This word has a somewhat greater compass than its English counterpart, and also includes the edge of a sword (hence the sword protruding from the white horseman's mouth; Revelation 19:15). This word may also be used to mean extremity or end, which brings it in close proximity to the noun פאה (pe'a), corner or side.
A second word of similar form is the adverb פה (poh), which means here or hither. This adverb is alternately spelled פו (po) and פא (pa').
🔼Pispa meaning
For a meaning of the name Pispa, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names simply read Dispersion, and Jones indeed explains it via the verb פסס (pasas), but doesn't explain our name's termination. BDB Theological Dictionary offers no explanation of our name.
Here at Abarim Publications we would go with Widely Spread Mouth but with the further assumption that if the original name giver indeed meant to say that, it probably had to do with the recipient's elaborate talking rather than his physical mouth.