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Root י־צ־א: going out

Roots Atlas 57 · שֹׁרֶשׁ י צ א · the going-out root
י צ א
y · tz · '
everything to do with going out, bringing out, what comes out
8 words · 1 root · 3 verb-voices

One movement runs through this root: going out. Go out yourself (לָצֵאת); make something go out and you bring it out, remove it, even publish it (לְהוֹצִיא); send goods out across a border and you export (לְיַצֵּא). What comes out is the outcome, and indeed תּוֹצָאָה, "result", is literally "the thing brought out". The initial י drops in the verb but the nouns reveal it. Every word here is verified against pealim, niqqud included.

The verb across the binyanim (voices)

The same root runs through the verb system. Each binyan is a voice: it bends the one idea into active, passive, causative or reciprocal. Tap to hear.

Pa'al
לָצֵאתlatzet
simple active, the plain action
to exit, to go out, to leave
Pi'el
לְיַצֵּאleyatze
intensive / specialized active
to export
Hif'il
לְהוֹצִיאlehotzi
causative, make someone do it
to bring out, to take out, to remove; to publish

Three binyanim, one direction outward. The pa'al is you going out; the hif'il is the causative, making something come out (and so "to publish", להוציא לאור, literally to bring into the light); the pi'el specialized into commerce, sending goods out as exports. The passive partners are not lexicalized for daily use.

Words born from the root

Same root letters, different noun moulds (mishkalim). The mould tells you the function: who does it, the act of doing it, or the thing produced.

① The going out: the exit itself

צֵאת
tzet
exit, departure, going out (e.g. צֵאת הַשַּׁבָּת, the end of Shabbat)
יְצִיאָה
yetzia
exit (the doorway), departure
קְטִילָה

② The export: goods sent out

יִצּוּא
yitzu
export, exportation
קִיטּוּל

③ What is brought out: outcome & output

הוֹצָאָה
hotzaa
removal; expense, expenditure; publishing house
הַקְטָלָה
תּוֹצָאָה
totzaa
result, consequence, outcome

Decode it yourself

Strip the prefixes, suffixes and vowels. Three consonants remain, and the meaning lives there.