אספקלריה = Spiegel

[lethargic_man]

I had a nice ping! moment at the weekend, when I was looking at the word אספקלריה aspaklaria, the Mishnaic Hebrew word for a mirror (Biblical Hebrew used a different word, מראה), and realised it was of the same derivation as the German word Spiegel, namely Latin speculum. It's unusual to see Hebrew and German sharing a word in common like that, which English does not also.

Meanwhile, every time I start a sentence with "Und hast du...", there's a part of my brain which wants to continue it "slain the Jabberwock?"...