I must confess, I was quite pleased with this little discovery. This « butchery site » concept allowed me to reconcile the idea of exploration that the word « TouR » evokes in many languages, particularly in English, Hebrew and French, with the expression « to TRaVeL aRouND » or « partir faire un TouR » (to go for a WaLK, a DRiVe or ... a TRiP in French). My idea was that « Tour » meant looking for the best possible butchery SiTe, the best ʔaTaR.

Sorry? TuwR in Hebrew, that doesn’t ring a bell? Excuse me, you're right. TuwR is found in the book of Numbers, chapter 13, in the well-known passage about the explorers who set out into the land of KaNaʕaN and returned with an ambiguous description, which precipitated the 40-year wandering of the people of ySRaʔeL in the DeSeRT. We also find TuwR with the meaning of exploration in the Shema SheMaʕ, which enjoins us to control our desire to run around « Velo taTuwRuw ».

The exploratory quality associated with « Tour » or « TaRa » is also found in the word TRouVer (to find in French), which comes from the Latin TRoPos and has also many different meanings (10 to be exact, according to Wiktionnary). It's also found in the word « TRy ». The verb « to try » is very interesting, because it also means to judge. And I've long been intrigued by this double meaning. One thing for sure: at the time, I had no idea that I would end up as an aTToRNey or Paraklet put on TRial by the Pharisians of linguistics and anthropology!

Anyway, let’s keep on exploring. As exploration is a basic trait of Homo Sapiens. In some respects, it's the hallmark of our species and we have colonized the whole planet, from the hottest deserts to the coldest poles. No wonder all ethnologists and anthropologists love to travel to the four corners of the earth. Well, not all of them. Claude Lévi-STRauSS « hated travel and explorers », as he says in the famous first sentence of his major novel, Tristes Tropiques, which spoke about in my videos about the Tristes Anthropos.

He probably hated explorers more than he hated travel, as he spent several years in Brazil - his ethnographic laboratory - or in New York during the Second World War. Hey! I love Brazil too! And I also spent some time in New York. Claude Lévi-Strauss’s ghost keeps on following me around…

Getting back to TRaVeL, any exploration will have its share of surprises and the unexpected. Indeed, when exploring, one learns on the job: you « TRy », maybe even several times. In short, to explore is to iTeRate, from the Latin iTeRum.

Iteration is central to human activity. We all know the old proverb « PRaCtice makes PeRFect », and in a business, we gradually improve a process or a technology through iteration. And in IT, of course, iteration is a necessity. Who isn't aware yet of « FoR / NeXT » LooPs in computing? Perhaps my dear Pharisian linguists and anthropologists … but no, they couldn’t be that clueless.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, in computing iteration means going through a Queue, a LiNe, a RoW, a SeQuence of objects, moving from one element to the NeXT. In Hebrew, a row or line is also called TowR, a word that appears in the Book of Esther, ʔeSTeR. This meaning of RanK is also found in « TieR », like in « second tier ». Or even in the French expression « TiRer au SoRT » (to DRaW LoTs), a PRoCeSS whereby, from a SeQuence or group, one selects an element from this group or sequence – whether it is SoRTed or not.

Back to business: I was quite happy about having made this connection between the Paleolithic butchery site and the allusion to exploration contained in the word « Tour ». But to tell the truth, not that happy. After all, « Tour » has 20 different meanings in French (yes, 20!) and the one that immediately springs to mind is not explore, but ... TuRN, from ToRNus, the PoTTeR's WheeL (TouR in French) which comes from ToRNos, compass in Greek and TRoQos, the potter's wheel. The idea of turning is also found in the metathesis RoTa, the wheel, and which gave RoTaTe.

According to etymologists, TRoQos comes from TRéQô, to run fast, but it's much more likely that it's the other way around: TRéQô must derive from TRoQos. By the way my apologies: running fast isn't making a trace as I told you in my previous video, but more likely moving as fast as the pottery SPiNNing on the wheel.

This notion of turning is also found in several places in the Enuma Elish, the Akkadian theogony, in tablets II, verse 88, IV, verse 24 and VII verse 153, where TaRuM means « about-turn ». It's also found in TeRGum - remember the SKiN on the animal's BaCk, which is turned over - and from which comes TeRGiVeRSate, and found above all in TuRBo, the TouRBiLLon (WhiRLWiND in French), from which comes ToRMent, or in TuRBa, TuRBè in Greek, which means TRouBLe, the STiRRing crowd. Turn, turn, little merry-go-RouND...

Lastly, we find this idea of turning in TRéPô, from which comes TRoPè, the potter's wheel and TRoPiKos, TRoPiC, referring to the CyCLe of the SeaSoNs; just like TeR in Egyptian, also season, and found in ITeRuW, the Nile, with its seasonal FLooDs. Remember how I talked about this in my previous video, connecting these two words with the concept of aBuNDance - ʕaTaR? Well, now you know that abundance is always cyclical. With abundance comes DeaRth.

By the way, do tropics ring a bell? Tristes Tropiques! « Triste » (sad), as seen in my previous video, and « Tropique » (tropic), as seen in this one. Intriguing, isn't it, this connection between the title of Claude Lévi-STRauSS's seminal work and the « Ta Ra » sound of the TowRah? Even more astonishing, given Claude Lévi-Strauss's difficult relationship with judaism, the religion of his ancestors... No doubt, Claude Lévi-Strauss's ghost can’t stop following me.

To round things off, this meaning of turning appears in Hebrew with KeTeR, the CRoWN, the TiaRa, that which SuRRouNDs. We also find it in TyRos the CheeSe, BouTyRon, the block of BuTTeR, which incidentally has the same ShaPe as the dromedary hump KiTR and KaTR in Arabic. And finally, we find it in the French « TReSSe » (BRaiD) and « ToRSaDe » (TWiST) : remember ShaR, SeR, is that which is KNoTTed, that which is ChaiNed, that which is BRaiDed. The TReSSe or ToRSaDe is what TWiSTs, TuRNs on itself, from the Latin ToRQueo, from which ToRTuRe and ToRMent also derive.