Tsaphon
/ˈtsɑː.fɒn/noun
A scholarly transliteration of the Hebrew word for north, also used in English for the mythic Mount Zaphon of ancient Near Eastern religion.
Did you know?In Ugaritic mythology, Mount Ṣapunu was associated with Baal’s divine palace and was imagined as a cosmic meeting place of the gods.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Semitic
Proto-Semitic
*ṣ-p-n
“A root associated with hiding, concealing, or being hidden”
Late Bronze Age
Ugaritic
Ṣapunu
“Mount Ṣapunu, a sacred northern mountain and divine dwelling place”
1st Millennium BCE
Phoenician
Ṣpn
“A northern sacred mountain or the north”
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
צָפוֹן (ṣāphōn)
“North; also the northern sacred mountain in poetic and mythological contexts”
Ancient Greek
Greek
Saphon
“A transliterated name for the northern sacred mountain”
Modern English
English
Zaphon; Tsaphon
“Scholarly English forms referring to the biblical or ancient Near Eastern Mount Zaphon, or to the Hebrew term for north”