[Mesorah] difference between 'vayishak' and 'vaynashek'?

[Michael Hamm]

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007, David Bannett wrote, in part:
> The vainashek form is called, by modern grammarians,
> binyan piel.  A thousand years ago or so it was called
> binyan kaved because it is heavier or stronger than the
> vayishak form.
> 
> So, dover is mild speech, m'dabber is stronger speech.
> vayishlach is a weaker sending than vaishallach. etc.

To the contrary, I seem to recall reading (in RSRH?) that in the case of 
sh-l-ch, piel means "to allow to leave" whereas paal (kal) means "to 
send".  See passim in Tanach.  I don't doubt the general rule R'DB quotes 
above, but I don't think it applies to sh-l-ch.

> The tangent, a straight line that touches a circle at one
> point is called a mashik. Same root.

I wonder whether this is borrowed from some foreign language (perhaps 
English) where the word for "to be tangent" is a word that literally means 
"to kiss": in English, osculate.

Michael Hamm
AM, Math, Wash. U. St. Louis
msh210 at math.wustl.edu                Fine print:
http://www.math.wustl.edu/~msh210/ ... legal.html