arak, “to prolong,” strong’s H748

First occurrence

And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. Gen 26:8

The primitive root

Strong’s H748 ארך arak, a primitive root meaning, “to prolong.” The ancient pictographs are aleph + resh + kaph.

aleph א = the ox head, thus strength, power, leader
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
kaph כ, ך = the open palm, thus bend, open, allow, tame

The root of “prolong” is found in the resh + kaph pair. The man (resh) covered (kaph, as the open palm of the father covers the head of his son when conferring the blessing) refers to his loins which are always covered; thus the concrete noun means “loins,” or the male reproductive organ. Cognate words are “long” and “lengthen” from the same root. Thus to be prolonged is to have a strong (aleph) length (resh + kaph).

THE ANCIENT HEBREW LEXICON | INDEX OF HEBREW ROOTS