Etymology
Horeb is thought to mean glowing/heat, which seems to be a reference to the sun, while Sinai may have derived from the name of Sin, the Sumerian deity of the moon, and thus Sinai and Horeb would be the mountain of the moon and sun, respectively.
Other interpreters show the etymology of Sinai (Hebrew letters: Samech, Yud, Nun, Yud) as being related to the word for bush (Hebrew: סנה, Samech, Nun, Hey), hence Sinai being where Moses saw the Hasneh HaBoeir or the burning bush.
In Matityahu Clark's Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, the root for Horev, "Chorev", (Hebrew: חרב, Chet, Reish, Beit) is related to the Hebrew word for sword Cherev (Hebrew: חרב) (again Chet, Reish, Beit) showing the meaning of Chorev being "desolation as after a mighty battle", where the root for Sinai being Sineh (Samech, Nun, Hey) relating to both "bush" and the idea "to fend off an attack". The relationship between "fend off" and "bush" being that this bush has thorns to in fact "fend off" its enemies. Both of these words tend to paint a word picture of a very desolate place that defends itself by the very rough terrain and thorny bushes that surround it.
Read more about this topic: Mount Horeb
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)