By Rachel Fredman
Today being the first day officially of summer, it seems a fitting time to ponder the word. In Hebrew the word for summer is kayitzקיץ. Inspired by Hadassah magazine’s “About Hebrew” section that looks at Hebrew roots and sees how words are connected, I’m going to look at kayitz.
The root letters kuf, tzadik, tzadik (ק צ צ) create the wonderfully seemingly endless days of summer. These letters are perhaps also rooted in the fig harvest which is in summer. (Apparently even now figs aren’t year round fruits!). To harvest figs it’s necessaryliktzotz them, to cut them, because unlike other fruits they are “harvested by a simple cutting motion”. Cutting to the point, kayitzcould be related to the word ketz, קצץ , to cut.
There are many possible connections. Another such one is kotz, קוץ to loathe, from the “loathful summer heat” as Steinberg says. Further, the word may have even come from an ancient word for heat. However in the end, perhaps kayitz simply means just that, the end. With the end of summer comes the end of the Hebrew calendar year in September with Rosh Hashana. Kayitz may come simply from ketz, קץ, meaning the end.
