H8140 — שְׁנָה (shᵉnâh) [Aramaic]¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H8140
Original: שְׁנָה
Transliteration: shenah
Pronunciation: shen-aw'
Part of Speech: Feminine noun
Language: Aramaic
Root: Cognate to Hebrew שָׁנֶה (shaneh, H8141) — both derive from the concept of repetition/revolution of time
Occurrences: 11 tokens in 7 unique verses across 2 books (Ezra, Daniel)
First Occurrence: Ezra 4:24 — "So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

"(Aramaic) corresponding to [H8141]: — year."

This Aramaic word is the linguistic equivalent of Hebrew shaneh/shanah (H8141), used exclusively in the Aramaic portions of Ezra and Daniel.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
year	5	71.4%
years	2	28.6%

Additional prepositional combinations ("In the," "in the") appear in translations but represent the same underlying word in date formulae.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Ezra	5	1.8
Daniel	2	0.6

Pattern: The word appears exclusively in the Aramaic sections of these two books — Ezra 4:8–6:18 (the correspondence with Persian officials) and Daniel 2:4–7:28 (the court narratives and vision accounts). The Hebrew cognate H8141 is used in the Hebrew sections of the same books.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Regnal Dating Formulae¶

The primary usage marks the regnal year of Persian kings:

Ezra 4:24 — "So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia"
Ezra 5:13 — "But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon"
Ezra 6:3 — "In the first year of Cyrus the king"
Daniel 7:1 — "In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream"

2. Age Reference¶

Daniel 5:31 — "And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old"

3. Temple Construction Timeline¶

Ezra 5:11 — "build the house that was builded these many years ago"
Ezra 6:15 — "this house was finished... in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occ	Typical Pattern
אֱלָהּ (elahh)	H426	4x (57%)	"house of God... year of" — temple context
בְּנָא (bena)	H1124	3x (43%)	"build... year" — construction timeline
דָּרְיָוֵשׁ (Daryavesh)	H1868	3x (43%)	"year of Darius" — Persian regnal formula
מַלְכוּ (malku)	H4437	3x (43%)	"reign/kingdom... year" — royal context
חַד (chad)	H2298	3x (43%)	"first/one year" — ordinal dating
כּוֹרֶשׁ (Koresh)	H3567	2x (29%)	"year of Cyrus" — Persian king reference
שִׁתִּין (shittin)	H8361	2x (29%)	"sixty... years" — Darius's age
תְּרֵין (trein)	H8648	2x (29%)	"two years" — numerical modifier

Word Family / Cognates¶

H8141 שָׁנֶה (shaneh) — Hebrew cognate: "year" — the dominant form used 972 times across 32 books; see H8141-shaneh.md
H8138 שָׁנָה (shanah, verb) — Hebrew root: "to repeat, do again, change" — the semantic origin of both Hebrew and Aramaic nouns (a year as one cycle/revolution)
A8133 שְׁנָא (shena) — Aramaic verb: "to change, be different" — shares the shn consonantal root

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
שָׁנֶה (shaneh)	H8141	"year(s)"	Hebrew equivalent — used in Hebrew portions of OT; H8140 is Aramaic, limited to Ezra/Daniel Aramaic sections
ἔτος (etos)	G2094	"year"	Greek NT word for year — the LXX translates both H8140 and H8141 with this
ἐνιαυτός (eniautos)	G1763	"year"	Greek word emphasizing cyclical/liturgical year — sometimes used for H8141

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
ἔτος (etos)	G2094	7	5.59	Primary equivalent — used consistently for Aramaic shenah in date formulae
πρῶτος (protos)	G4413	3	5.96	"first" — appears alongside year in "first year of X" formulae
βασιλεία (basileia)	G932	3	5.24	"kingdom/reign" — co-occurs in regnal dating
βασιλεύς (basileus)	G935	6	3.30	"king" — nearly every occurrence names a king whose regnal year is cited

The LXX treats Aramaic shenah identically to Hebrew shaneh, rendering both as ἔτος.