Tamil, Greek, Hebrew and Sanskrit: Sandalwood ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬(Σανταλόξυλο) and its Semantics in Classical Literatures

The Greek and Tamil people did sea trade from the pre-historic times. Sandalwood is seen only in Tamil land and surrounding places. It is also one of the items included in the trade. The Greek word ‘σανταλίνων’ is first mentioned in the ancient Greek works around the middle of the first century CE. The fact that the word is related to Tamil, but the etymologist did not acknowledge the same, rather they relate it to other languages. As far as its uses are concerned, it is not found in the ancient Greek literatures. One another type of wood ‘κέδρου’ cedar is also mentioned in the ancient Greek literature with the medicinal properties similar to ‘σανταλίνων’. In the same way the use of the Hebrew Biblical word ‘Almuggim -אַלְמֻגִּ֛ים’ which is the word used for sandalwood, also denotes teak wood. This shows that in these words, there are possibilities of some semantic changes such as semantic shift or broadening. Keywords: biblical word, Greek, Hebrew, Sandalwood, Tamil