← Back to lessons

Root ש־ו־ק: the market

Roots Atlas 115 · שֹׁרֶשׁ ש ו ק · the market root
ש ו ק
sh · v · k
everything to do with the market and what drives toward it
4 words · 1 root · 1 verb-voices

At the centre sits the שׁוּק, the market: the crowded place where goods are pushed and sold. From it Hebrew makes the modern verb "to market" and its action-noun "marketing". The same root carries an older, deeper sense of being driven toward something, which surfaces in תְּשׁוּקָה, longing or desire, the pull that drives a person. This is a hollow root: its middle letter ו is a vowel-carrier that appears and disappears across the forms. 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.

Pi'el
לְשַׁוֵּקleshavek
intensive / specialized active
to market, to sell, to bring to market

Modern Hebrew lexicalizes this root in the pi'el (deliberate, active selling). The hollow ו becomes a doubled וּ when the binyan demands a strong middle consonant, which is why you see שַׁוֵּק. The passive pu'al (to be marketed) exists in usage but is not a separate dictionary infinitive; the other binyanim are not lexicalized here.

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 place: the market

שׁוּק
shuk
market, marketplace, bazaar

② The act: bringing goods to market

שִׁוּוּק
shivuk
marketing (the activity)
קִיטּוּל

③ The inner pull: being driven

תְּשׁוּקָה
teshuka
longing, desire, passion
תְּקוּטָה

Decode it yourself

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