Peter could also mean;
His original name was
Shimon or Simeon, Simon in modern English. He was later given the name Peter, a name derived from "Petrus" which is a
masculinized form of the
feminine Latinword
petra (f) which means rock (cf.
petroleum). For what concerns
Greek, the same idea holds: "Πέτρος (Petros)" is derived from
πέτρα (petra). The
Latin word "petra" is a
loanwordfrom
Greek.
The English and German "Peter", the French "Pierre", the Italian "Pietro", the Spanish and Portuguese "Pedro", the Polish and Russian "Piotr" are derived from "Petrus". The pun with
"rock" also works in Italian (
pietra (f)), French (
pierre (f)) and Portuguese (
pedra (f)).
On the other hand, the
Syriac or
Aramaic word for "rock" is "cephas", which became
Greek:
Πέτρος, also meaning "rock".
[14][15] He is also known as
Simon Peter,
Cephas (
Greek:Κηφᾶς) and
Kepha (
Hebrew: כיפא). Both Cephas and Kepha also mean rock.
[16]
The Catholic theologian Rudolf Pesch argues that the Aramaic word "cepha" means "stone, ball, clump, clew", the meaning
"rock" is only a connotation. The Greek word "petra" denotes "grown
rock,
rocky range, cliff, grotto"; "petros", however, means "stone" such as "small stone, (STA-llone), firestone, sling stone, moving boulder".
[17][edit]