Nephilim
The Nephilim npl-ym are a Biblical term for “giants”, occurring very rarely, and without any meaningful contribution to the story. However, the underlying word root npl doesn’t mean “big”, but “felling” & “falling”. That’s why the Nephilim were later reinterpreted into “fallen” angels. To the ancient spook aristocrats, the Nephilim were likely a pun with n-ply-ym, the reflexive form of “obscured people” & “distinguished people”, i.e. themselves.
The Nephilim pun requires a little knowledge of Hebrew grammar:
- The Hebrew word npl means “falling”, but also “making fall”, i.e. “felling”. It can also be a noun, i.e. a “[man-]feller”, presumably a giant man. The plural would be npl-ym, which is the word from the Bible story.
- Since Hebrew word roots include this causative meaning, npl for “falling” & “felling” is really one word. That’s why the Nephilim were interpreted as “man-fellers”, but later also as “fallen” angels, as in the Book of Giants. It’s just wordplay based on the very same word.
- For more sophisticated wordplay, you can prefix & suffix words. You can prefix an N to any verb to make it reflexive or causative. If the verb is reflexive or causative anyway, the meaning isn’t even changed, it just adds emphasis.
- The Hebrew male plural is -ym, so you can suffix that to any noun. Since most verbs can also be nouns, you can really suffix it to most words, to make it “men who are X”.
- So another verb is ply for “separating”, with the derivations “distinguishing” & “obscuring”. With an n- prefix, it becomes n-ply for “self-distinguishing” & “self-obscuring”, which is really the same. With an -ym suffix, it becomes n-ply-ym for “self-distinguished [ones]” & “self-obscured [ones]”, i.e. the spooks. That word puns with Nephilim, and the pun is used in Genesis 6:4.
- Yet another group of pl words means to “mystify”, and also “joking” & “fooling”, probably because excessive mystification is a joke.
The problem is that dictionaries typically don’t list the n- prefix and -ym suffix for all word entries, but you can really use them with practically all words.
The word nephilim can thus mean “[man-]fellers”, “distinguished ones”, “obscured ones”, “mystified ones”, “joking ones”. This may be why a lot of spooky “ancient mystery” books & websited settled on selling the Nephilim as a great mystery, fallen angels turned demons or somesuch, even though in the Bible it’s just 3 short mentionings without any importance.
Interestingly, the pun that Nephilim means “felling” but also “falling” is even semi-official: You can find the etymology admitted on German Wikipedia. But most English-speaking truthers obsessed with “fallen angels” don’t seem to know it.
Another, false interpretation sees the Nephilim as “fallen angels”, derived from the Hebrew word “naphal”, which means falling.
Hebrew npl = fall, fell, feller; n-pl = distinguished, hidden, mystified
נפיל ; נפלים nplym; npyl : Nephilim, “giants”; from naphal: properly, a feller, i.e. a bully or tyrant — Old Hebrew (Strong)
יפֹל ; נפל npl; ypl : to fall, lie; fall down, cast down, fail, fell, fell down, felled, killed — Old Hebrew (Strong)
נפלי ; פלה plh; nply : to be separated or distinct; to distinguish; put a difference, show marvellous, separate, set apart, sever, make wonderfully — Old Hebrew (Strong)
נפלא nplˀ : to be remote, hidden, obscure — Hebrew (Jastrow)
פלי ply : to do strange, wonderful things; to mystify, perplex, outwit, fool — Hebrew (Jastrow)
נפלא nplˀ : wonderful, superb, excellent, great; inexplicable, inconceivable, source of amazement — Hebrew (Wikt)
פלא plˀ : to distinguish, make special — Hebrew (Klein)
פלי ply : to be remote; to be concealed; to make wonderful, to do wonders; to make excessive (in a negative sense) — Aramaic (CAL)
פלי ply : to jest at, make fun of; to make a joke (?) — Aramaic (CAL)