H3667a H3667a
Canaan (proper noun: land/person); merchant, trader (metonymic from Canaanite)
1. Canaan (proper noun: land/person) — The proper noun Canaan, referring either to the grandson of Noah (son of Ham) or to the geographic territory of the land of Canaan promised to Israel; consistently transliterated across languages as Canaán/Kenaan (Spa), कनान (Hin), كَنْعَان (Arb), 가나안 (Kor), Kanaani (Swa). Both bare and conjunction-prefixed forms carry identical referential semantics pointing to either the ancestor or the land named after him. 89×
AR["كَنْعانَ","كَنْعَان","كَنْعَانَ","كَنْعَانُ"]·ben["কনান","কনানের"]·DE["Kanaan","Kanaan-ist","Kanaan-liegt","Kanaans"]·EN["Canaan"]·FR["Canaan"]·heb["כנען"]·HI["कनान","कनान-की","कनान-के","केनअन","केनाआन","केनाआन-का"]·ID["Kanaan"]·IT["Canaan"]·jav["Kanaan"]·KO["가나안","가나안-의","가나안-이","가나안의"]·PT["Canaã","Kena'an"]·RU["Ханаан","Ханаана"]·ES["Canaán","Kenaan"]·SW["Kanaa","Kanaani","Kanani"]·TR["Kenan","Kenan'in","Kenan'ın"]·urd["کنعان","کنعان-کا","کنعان-کی","کنعان-کے"]
Gen 9:18, Gen 9:22, Gen 9:25, Gen 9:26, Gen 9:27, Gen 11:31, Gen 12:5, Gen 12:5, Gen 13:12, Gen 16:3, Gen 17:8, Gen 23:2 (+38 more)
▼ 1 more sense below
Senses
2. merchant, trader (metonymic from Canaanite) — A secondary, metonymic usage where 'Canaan' functions as a common noun meaning 'merchant' or 'trader,' reflecting the ancient association of Canaanites/Phoenicians with commerce; the English gloss 'a merchant' and the Swahili mfanyabiashara ('one who does business') diverge sharply from the standard proper-noun transliterations, revealing a genuine semantic shift from ethnonym to occupational descriptor, paralleled in Hosea 12:8 and Ezekiel 17:4. 1×
AR["كَنعانُ"]·ben["কনান"]·DE["[כנען]"]·EN["a-merchant"]·FR["Canaan"]·heb["כנען"]·HI["कनानी"]·IT["[כנען]"]·jav["sudagar"]·KO["가나안은"]·PT["Canaã"]·RU["Ханаан"]·ES["Canaán"]·SW["mfanyabiashara"]·TR["Kenan"]·urd["کنعان"]
BDB / Lexicon Reference
I. כְּנַ֫עַן90 n.pr.m. et terr. Canaan (𝔊 Χανααν, Ph. כנען = Phoenicia; Χνα = כנע, Hecataeus, v. MüllerFr. Hist. Gr. i, 17 al.; Egyptian Ka-n-ʿ-nḁ WMMAsien u. Europa, 205 ff.; Tel Amarna Kina̮hna, Kinaḫḫi, etc., BezoldBM Tablets, 150 WklTA 39; etym. dub. GFMPAOS Oct. 1890, lxvii ff.; v. also GASmGeogr. 4 f. BuhlGeogr. § 42);— †1. as n.pr.m., son of Ham Gn 9:18, 22, 25, 27; 10:15 (as ancestor of…