Hebrew בית כנסת [bet knéset] 'synagogue' – literally, 'house (of) assembly' – is mirrored both in Arabic كنيس [kanīs] 'synagogue' and كنيسة [kanīsa] 'church'. The concept of 'assembly' is further subtly embedded in three inconspicuously interconnected words: Arabic جامع [žǣmiʕ] 'mosque' (from جمع [žámaʕa] 'to gather'), Russian собор [sabór] 'cathedral' (from собирать [sabirát'] 'to gather') and Greek συναγωγή [sunagogé] 'synagogue' (from συνάγω [sunágō] 'to gather'). While the original meaning of Arabic كنس [kánasa] was 'to gather', the word has now been reduced to a conspicuously specialized one: 'to sweep'.
