User blog:KnaboKnehtaz/Etymology Trivias

The proper name Eve, it comes from Latin (H)eva < Greek transliteration Εὔα Eúa < from Hebrew חַוָּה‏ Ḥawwāh, pos. "She [who] Lives" or "She [who] Enlivens".

Note: There are two different H in Hebrew: one, spelt He ה, is equivalent to English h (IPA: /h/); the other, spelt Ḥet ח, represents another rough-breathing sound farther down the throat (IPA: /ħ/).

Huehnergard derives ḥawwā from root-verb ḥyw "to live" (American Heritage Dictionary). Ḥawwā 's proto-form was likely *Ḥawwat; /t/ was dropped through regular sound-changes but was spelt as /h/, to tell readers that the noun has the feminine suffix -a(t).

For the Hebrews' Phoenician-Canaanite cousins, Ḥwt was also one epithet of the Semites' Supreme Mother-Goddess ʔAθirat "She [who] Treads", from root ʔθr (> Hebrew ʔAšerah; sound change /θ/ > /š/).

The Yahwist priests, who were patriarchal misogynists, demoted Ḥawwā from Mother Goddess ʔAšerah 's epithet, to just another mortal created from the mortal man אָדָם Adam's rib; mirroring the Sumerian account wherein Nin-ti "Lady of the Rib ~ Life", was created from Enki 's body.

Still, traces of ʔAšerah the Enlivener was still preserved folk-religion, despite the priestly elites' purging efforts; e.g. "She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy." (Proverbs 3:18). Engl. "happy, blessed" is equivalent to Hbr. אֲשֶׁר ʔašer, from a different root ʔšr, but the sound-change sound change /θ/ > /š/ make

Interestingly, Ḥawwat yielded many words for "snake" in various daughter languages, like Aramaic ḥewyaʔ, Phoenician ḥwt, & Standard Arabic ḥayya(t) حَيَّة means both "snake" & "life". Ancient Semites observed that snakes shed their skins, so they believed that snakes periodically re-lived themselves, & they associated this re-living power with women's reproductive power.

Last notes, I can state with certainty that no LoL champ so far bears name referencing the Biblical Eve; even superficial ones like  or Evaine ('s birth name in old lore):


 * The former from Norman French, in almost all likelihood from Germanic *Ava, which might've been shortened from *afalan "strength" or were simply variants of *awon "grandmother"; *agwjo "wetland, island" < *ahwo "flowing water" (Orel 2003).
 * The latter from Celtic (One of Lancelot's aunt is named Evaine), possibly from suffix *-gena "born" with morpheme *iwo- "yew" or *esu- "good".
 * Hellenized Jews translated Hebrew Ḥawwā into Zoe "life" as opposed to "death". However, 's lore does not mirror the Biblical Eve, & her kit does not have anything to do with life, birth, & rebirth; as LoL's Zoe was evidently inspired by folk-lore's trickters & divine messengers.