Proteus wrote:
The guy claims shemen (some kind of holy oil, if I recall correctly, mentioned in TaNaKh) is actually "semen."


What an absurd claim! שֶֽׁמֶן shĕmĕn is not “some kind of holy oil”, it means oil s'tam—ANY kind of oil. Moreover, the Hebrew word שֶֽׁמֶן shĕmĕn has nothing whatsoever to do with “semen”, which is a LATIN word and means a seed (the two words aren’t even pronounced alike: both syllables of שֶֽׁמֶן shĕmĕn have short “ĕ” vowels, rhyming with bed, while the first e in sēmĕn is long and rhymes with been). Anyone trying to claim that an etymological connection exists between these two words is an ignorant fool and also, quite possibly, a sick and perverted antisemite.


http://mordochai.tripod.com - פרופ' מָרְדֳּכַי בֶּן-צִיּוֹן, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל