July 28, 2004

Barack the Blessed

Barack Obama, in his DNC address, mentioned that his first name is African for "blessed." It must, somehow, be related to the Hebrew "baruch" which means the same thing.

Global Media Conspiracy or Lost Tribe language derivative? You decide.

Posted by Greg at July 28, 2004 4:42 PM
Comments

Hey, I haven't looked at your actual blog in a while (I get it through bloglines). I just wanted to say that I like your header picture!

Posted by: seadragon at July 28, 2004 5:48 PM

Yes, it is related. It's Swahili which has a lot of Arabic loanwords. "Baraka" is blessing in both Arabic and Swahili.

Posted by: Charles at July 30, 2004 9:59 AM

Very cool! I had no idea Swahili had semitic roots.

Posted by: Greg at July 30, 2004 4:31 PM

Maybe it was from the Queen of Sheba.

Posted by: David Gerstman at August 1, 2004 12:59 AM