QUESTION: As I’ve been ill with the flu for the last 10+ days, I’ve been pondering the root .ש.פ.ע and quite likely conflating Biblical with modern Hebrew. Still and all:
What are the connections among שפעת (flu), שפע (abundance), להשפיע (to affect), and שיפוע (an incline)?
ANSWER: First of all, רפואה שלימה, or as Alshich comments on Prov. 14:30 – שישפיע הוא יתברך שפע רפואתו בה! In Scripture the word means only abundance, but in Mishnaic Hebrew (Ohalot 7:2, Negaim 10:10) it takes on the meaning of incline. Provision and abundance is often associated with flowing water (Targ. Isaiah 48:18, 59:19, 66:12), and of course water flows downhill. In the Talmud, the word להשפיע means either providing abundance (e.g. Sanhed. 108a) or setting something up on an incline or angle (Eiruv. 43b). The nuance of affecting or influencing clearly derives from “providing,” with that import first appearing in the early Acharonim. As for the Modern Hebrew שפעת, see Hebrew Wikipedia which says:
Yehoshua (Jeremy) Steinberg