מַעְיָן
is usually substituted.
Precisely the same connexion of ideas is to be found in the Syriac, the Ethiopic, and the Arabic.
Again, in the Greek we find the rarely-used word ὀπή, a fountain, or more properly the eye, whence it wells out,—the same form as ὀπή, oculus; ὢψ, ὄψις, ὄπτομαι. Thus, in St. James his Epistle, cap. iii. 11.: μήτι ἡ πηγὴ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ὀπῆς βρύει τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ τὸ πικρόν.
In the Welsh, likewise, a parallel case occurs: Llygad, an eye, signifies also the spring from which water flows, as in the same passage of St. James: a ydyw ffynnon o'r un llygad (from one spring or eye) yn rhoi dwfr melus a chwerw?
On arriving at the Teutonic or old German tongue, we find the same connexion still existing: Avg, auga,—oculus; whence ougen ostendere—Gothis augo; and awe, auge, ave, campus ad
amnem. (Vid. Schilteri, Thes., vol. iii. ad voc.) And here we cannot help noticing the similarity between these words and the Hebrew
יְאֹר
, which (as well as the Coptic iaro) means primarily a river or stream from a spring; but, according to Professor Lee, is allied to
אוֹר