Targumim in translating â
For example, the
Talmud (
Kiddushin 25a) relates that the people of a certain town mocked Rav Hamnuna, whose name sounds like â
cham nunaâ (hot fish), by calling him â
kar nunaâ (cold fish).
Rabbi Marcus argues that at the core of â
taninimâ (sea-monsters â see Genesis 1:21) is the word â
nun.â In offering this explanation, Rabbi Marcus explicitly rejects scholarly speculation that â
taninimâ is a Sanskrit loanword.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch also suggests that â
tanninâ is derived from â
nunâ but adds that â
nunâ itself is derived from â
ninâ (offspring or, in Modern Hebrew, great-grandson). He compares â
nunâ to â
dag,â which primarily denotes fecundity, but also carries the additional meaning of fish.