natah, “to stretch out,” strong’s H5186

The first occurrence.

And he moved from there to a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east: and there he built an altar to YHVH, and called upon the name of YHVH. Gen 12:8

The primitive root.

Strong’s H5186 נטה natah, a primitive root meaning, “to stretch out, to extend.” The 3-letter root is nun + tet + hey.

nun נ, ן  =  the seed, thus continue, heir, son
tet ט  =  the basket, thus surround, contain, hold, mud
hey ה  =   man w/ raised arms, thus look, reveal, wonder, worship, breath

The story: The concrete noun derived from this verb is a squash, because of the squash plant’s spreading growth habit. The squash gourd, when dried, forms a hard shell, and the seeds (nun) contained within (tet) rattle when shaken. As the squash (nun + tet) extends its vines outward, so the man extends outward (hey, in the sense of the man’s arms extended outward) to spread abroad.

THE ANCIENT HEBREW LEXICON | INDEX OF HEBREW ROOTS