של

• Rhymes: -el

The possessed forms of ⁧של⁩ were a common Canaanite construction seen also, for example, in Punic ⁧𐤔𐤋𐤉⁩ (šly /⁠sillī⁠/, “my”) and Phoenician ⁧𐤀𐤔 𐤋𐤉⁩ (ʾš ly /⁠ʔas lī⁠/, “my”). These were derived from the relative pronoun *ʔas or prefix *-ʔas in combination with the dative prefix *-l, hence the Hebrew is equivalent to ⁧ש־⁩ (she, “which”) +‎ ⁧ל־⁩ (l, “to”), thus “which [belongs] to”.

The first use of של as a possessive marker in Hebrew is attested in late parts of the Hebrew Bible, but then still preceded by, and in addition to, a possessive suffix (cf. Canticles 1:6; 3:7). In Mishnaic Hebrew, ⁧של־⁩ (shel'-) becomes a true preposition by back-formation. The standalone spelling is a more recent innovation, but the pronoun-including forms are unchanged (which may be seen both in their gemination of the ⁧ל⁩, and in the unusual forms of the second- and third-person masculine and feminine plural pronominal suffixes, otherwise found only in the inflections of ⁧ל־⁩ (l'-) and ⁧ב־⁩ (b'-)).

⁧שֶׁל⁩ • (shel)

1. Of, belonging to, owned by, pertaining to.

• Phrases headed by ⁧של⁩ are mostly analogous to English attributive noun phrases and noun phrases plus the clitic ’s. In particular, while ⁧של⁩ often means “of”, phrases headed by ⁧של⁩ can only modify noun phrases and similar syntactic entities; adverbial uses of English of must be translated with a different preposition, usually ⁧מ־⁩ (mi-).
• Words identical to pronoun-including forms of ⁧של⁩ often result from the straightforward composition of ⁧ש־⁩ (she-, “that, which”) and ⁧ל־⁩ (l'-, “to”).
• In formal or archaic Hebrew, attributive uses of ⁧של⁩ are often replaced with noun compounds (in which one noun is in the construct state), and predicative uses are often replaced with simply ⁧ל־⁩ (l'-).

• ⁧סוּג שֶׁל⁩ (súg shel)

⁧שַׁל⁩ • (shal)

1. masculine singular imperative of ⁧נָשַׁל⁩ (nashál)
   • Tanach, Exodus 3:5, with translation of the King James Version:

     ⁧שַׁל נְעָלֶיךָ מֵעַל רַגְלֶיךָ⁩

     shal n'aléch meál raglécha

     put off thy shoes from off thy feet

• Respective commentaries of Rashi and Abraham ibn Ezra to Exodus 3:5.