What is the (biblical) origin of the root עלם

Question

I’m learning Hebrew, and with the Hitpa'el verbs, like להתחתן (to marry) or להתפלל (to pray), I can often learn new nouns by testing the root, such as חתונה (wedding) or תפילה (prayer). Recently, I encountered the verb להתעלם (to ignore), which comes from the same root (עלם) that also refers to youth or a young person (עלם/עלמה). Does anyone know if there’s a reason for the connection between being young and being ignorant or unaware?

(One could also say that children/the youth often question things, are curious and eager to learn, and are also more emotionally driven, which is why they are more likely to lean towards activism)

Toda raba!

Answer 1

The two roots are unrelated in Biblical Hebrew, even though they become homophonous in later Hebrew. There are two phonemes that correspond to the written letter ע: one is ʿayin (a voiced pharyngeal fricative, IPA: ʕ) and the other is ġayin (or ghayin; a voiced velar fricative — close to modern Israeli ר but not trilled, IPA: ɣ). Both sounds were present in Biblical Hebrew (for example, note the transliteration of Gomorrah for the city עֲמֹרָה, indicating an original ġayin), but due to the relatively limited writing system adopted by Hebrew speakers, some letters did double duty (the other famous one is ח for /x/ and /ħ/).

The original root of the verb עלם meaning conceal (whence להתעלם) is with an ʿayin, and the original root of the nouns עֶלֶם and עַלְמָה is with a ġayin. For a source, you can look at The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT). For עלם I, it lists cognates ʿalama in Arabic and Ethiopic, ʿlm in Ugaritic. For עלם III, it lists cognates ġlm in Ugaritic and ġalima in Arabic. (עלם II also comes from a ġayin, and means "be darkened, black", and appears in Job 42:3 as מעלים, perhaps as a variant of צלם.)

So to sum up, the two roots ʿlm and ġlm are not related, even though they sound the same in later Hebrew.

Answer 2

The root עלם means to hide, conceal. The word עֶלֶם means youth, strong or mature sexually as explained in the Etymological dictionary of Hebrew by Ernest Klein, and as explained in the comment by magicker72 it comes from a different source which became homophonous in later Biblical Hebrew with the root עלם. There may be a weak conceptual connection between the two roots is that a youth is having a hidden potential, which has yet to be revealed over the course of his or her life. The word עוֹלַם meaning world is referring to its hidden uknown time of existence is a derivative of the root עלם.

Perhaps, the similarity of writing of the roots עֶלֶם - עוֹלַם yielded one of the most powerful statements in the Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5

Therefore, Adam the first man was created alone, to teach you that with regard to anyone who destroys one soul from the Jewish people, i.e., kills one Jew, the verse ascribes him blame as if he destroyed an entire world, as Adam was one person, from whom the population of an entire world came forth. And conversely, anyone who sustains one soul from the Jewish people, the verse ascribes him credit as if he sustained an entire world.