adam

אָדֹם

HebrewH0119“red, dyed red, ...”

Appears 10 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 25:5Exo 26:14Exo 35:7Exo 35:23Exo 36:19Exo 39:34Pro 23:31Isa 1:18Lam 4:7Nam 2:3(4)

Root family

adamאָדֹםto redden10H119

Word studyResearch-gradeah-DAHMverb

What adam means

to be red; to become or be made red, ranging from crimson through ruddy to reddish brown

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This verb means simply to be red, or to turn or be made red. It is the color word "red" in verb form, and like the whole family of words it belongs to, it reaches across a wider band of color than the English word "red" does. Because Hebrew has no separate basic word for brown, this one verb can cover everything from crimson to russet to a tawny reddish brown. That is why it fits things English would never call plain red: the healthy flush of a well-fed body, the reddish brown of tanned rams' skins, the glint of wine in the cup, and the deep stain of shed blood.

The exact shade shifts with whatever is being colored:

Of prepared hides and shields it means "dyed red," a manufactured red produced by skilled craft and prized as a luxury.
Of a living human body it means "ruddy," the red of health, vigor, and good feeding.
Of wine in the cup it means to gleam or flash red, the color catching the drinker's eye.

The verb belongs to one of the most famous sound families in the Hebrew Bible. The words for a human being ("adam"), the ground ("adamah"), and blood ("dam"), along with the nation of Edom, all sound almost the same as the word for red, and the biblical writers play on that resemblance constantly. Its closest relative is its sister word, the adjective red (אָדֹם).

The color carries no single fixed symbol on its own. Depending on the setting it can point to life and blood, to guilt like an indelible stain, to beauty and vigor, to costly luxury, or to the lure of wine. The word supplies the color; the surrounding text supplies the meaning.

Nuances

1ato be dyed red; to be colored red by craft, of prepared hides and shields

Exo 25:5Exo 26:14Exo 35:7Exo 35:23Exo 36:19Exo 39:34Nam 2:3(4)

1bto be red or ruddy, of the healthy human body and, by figure, of a red stain

Isa 1:18Lam 4:7

1cto gleam or flash red, of wine showing its color in the cup

Pro 23:31

What adam does not mean

A few traps trip up readers of this word:

Do not force it to mean one fixed symbol. There is no built-in code where "red" always stands for sin, or always for life. The color's charge comes from the setting: blood and life at the red heifer and the doorposts, guilt at Isaiah's crimson sins, beauty and health in Lamentations, danger in the seductive gleam of wine.
Do not read the famous Genesis wordplay as a scientific origin. The words for a human being ("adam"), the ground ("adamah"), and blood ("dam") sound almost the same as "red," and the writers exploit that echo, but scholars genuinely debate whether the word for a human being even comes from this color root.
Do not assume English "red" is the whole picture. Hebrew red runs on into brown and tawny, since the language has no separate word for brown, so a "red" cow or "red" horses in the text may be what we would simply call brown or bay.

What scholars say about adam

The verb is a denominative of the color root אדם, universally classed as one of the few basic color terms of Biblical Hebrew (Brenner, Colour Terms in the Old Testament; Hartley, Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes), a Berlin-Kay stage III to IV system in which אָדֹם necessarily absorbs everything English divides among red, pink, orange, brown, russet, and tawny, so the reddish heifer of Numbers 19 and the horses of Zechariah are better rendered brown or bay (Brenner; Milgrom, Numbers). The passive participle in Exodus and Nahum 2:3 is a technical dyeing term (Spronk; Roberts on Nahum), the same form used of the tabernacle's red-dyed rams' skins, while the reflexive in Proverbs 23:31 personifies wine as a self-displaying seducer (Fox, Proverbs). Etymology is contested: Militarev and Kogan (Semitic Etymological Dictionary) reconstruct a Proto-Semitic base meaning dark red or red-brown from which soil, ruddy complexion, and human derive, and older lexica (BDB) unified the whole family under the color, but HALOT, Gesenius 18, and Maaß (TDOT) caution that the Akkadian cognates attest red and red earth but not man, so the derivation of אָדָם from the color root is uncertain; DCH declines to privilege any reconstruction, and Westermann (TLOT) reads the Genesis 2:7 link as a theological pun rather than an etymology. A methodological debate persists over whether the great dye words (scarlet, crimson, murex purple) are color terms at all or substance terms (Brenner, Hartley) versus a single symbolic macro-category (Noegel, Scarlet and Harlots).

Where scholars disagree about adam

How much of the אדם word family descends from a single color root, and in particular whether the common word for a human being, אָדָם, derives from the same root as the verb meaning to be red.

contestedThe whole family, including the words for a human being and for the ground, radiates from one ancient root meaning dark red or red-brown; the color is the semantic core of them all.; A. Militarev and L. Kogan, Semitic Etymological Dictionary; BDB, s.v. אדם
contestedThe color origin is secure for the color words themselves, but deriving the word for a human being from this root is uncertain, since the closest Akkadian evidence attests red and red earth but not man.; HALOT, s.v. אדם; F. Maaß, 'אָדָם', in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

HALOT, s.v. אדםlexicon
BDB, s.v. אדםlexicon
DCH, s.v. אדםlexicon
Gesenius 18 (ed. H. Donner), s.v. אדםlexicon
F. Maaß, 'אָדָם', in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testamenttheological dictionary
C. Westermann, 'אָדָם', in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testamenttheological dictionary
A. Brenner, Colour Terms in the Old Testament (JSOTSup 21, 1982)monograph
J. Hartley, The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes (2010)monograph
A. Militarev and L. Kogan, Semitic Etymological Dictionarymonograph
J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary)commentary
M. V. Fox, Proverbs 10-31 (Anchor Yale Bible)commentary
S. Noegel, 'Scarlet and Harlots', Hebrew Union College Annual 87 (2016)journal article

adam

What adam means

to be red; to become or be made red, ranging from crimson through ruddy to reddish brown

Nuances

What scholars say about adam

Where scholars disagree about adam

Sources

All attested forms of אָדֹם

pual passive-participle m p absolute

hiphil imperfect 3mp

hithpael imperfect 3ms

pual passive-participle m s absolute

qal perfect 3cp

What adam means

to be red; to become or be made red, ranging from crimson through ruddy to reddish brown

Nuances

Related words

The English words used to translate adam

How adam differs from similar Hebrew words

adam in the other biblical languages

What scholars say about adam

Where scholars disagree about adam

Sources

All attested forms of אָדֹם

pual passive-participle m p absolute

hiphil imperfect 3mp

hithpael imperfect 3ms

pual passive-participle m s absolute

qal perfect 3cp