Word of the day – Death

Death is an English noun usually means “the act of dying, termination of life”, “the state of dying” or the personification of such state itself.

The word is originated from Middle English deeth, from Old English dēath / deað, from Germanic *dhautuz, from PIE *dheu, “to die” or “to vanish”, possibly related to Proto-Semitic *dwy/ʔ “to be ill”, Egyptian Dw(j) “to be evil”, Proto-Austric *taj “to die”, Proto-Altaic *debí “bad”, perhaps all from Proto-Nostratic *daw “to be exhausted, to die”.

Death is also the 13^th card of the Major Arcana, also known as “The Child of the Great Transformers; The Lord of the Gate of Death”, corresponding to the Hebrew alphabet נ nun, the constellation Scorpio, and the 24^th path of the Qabalistic Tree of Life.

(Picture above: Death in the Major Arcana of Visconti-Sforza tarot deck, 15^th century, Italy.)