🔼The name Tiras: Summary
- Meaning
- Unclear but perhaps Desire, Fragmentizer or Moisturizer
- Etymology
- From the verb רסס (rasas), to moisten.
🔼The name Tiras in the Bible
Tiras is a son of Japheth, son of Noah (Genesis 10:2). This man plays no further part in the Bible, but Josephus identified him as the eponymous ancestor of the Thracians (see our article on Samothrace).
🔼Etymology and meaning of the name Tiras
The name Tiras is difficult to interpret because there is nothing in the ancient Hebrew language that looks like it. NOBSE Study Bible Name List doesn't even try to translate and leaves a meaning blank. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names mentions no possible Hebrew roots and goes straight to an Arabic verb, and renders the meaning Desire.
The word תירס (tiras) is the modern Hebrew word for maize, but Klein's Etymological dictionary of the Hebrew Language firmly protests against it ("far and forced is the way in which this proper name came to denote maize or corn").
Fuerst's Hebrew & Chaldee lexicon to the Old Testament points out the unused root thrs and that (back to Klein's Etymological dictionary of the Hebrew Language) means to separate priestly dues; to contribute, donate; having to do with separation, consecration.
Perhaps the name is a construct of the letter taw plus a derivation of the verb רסס (rasas):
רסס
The verb רסס (rasas) means to moisten. Noun רסיס (rasis) means drop (of dew). And identical noun תירס (rasis) means fragment, which may stem from a whole separate root or may simply be the same word.
This way the name Tiras may mean Fragmentizer or Moisturizer.