Atbach
Atbach
() is not a real word, but a factitious cabalistic term denoting by its very letters the mode of changing one word into another by a peculiar eommutation of letters. The system on which it is founded is this: as all the letters have a numerical value, they are divided into three classes, in the first of which every pair makes the number ten; in the second, a hundred; and in the third, a thousand. Thus:
, , , , every pair making ten.
, , , , a hundred.
, , , , a thousand.
Three letters only cannot enter into any of these numerical combinations, , and . The first two are nevertheless coupled together; and the last is suffered to stand without commutation. The commutation then takes place between the two letters of every pair; and the term Atbach thus expresses that is taken for , and f or , and conversely. To illustrate its application, the obscure word , in Pro 29:21, may be turned by Atbach into , testimony (Buxtorf, De Abbreviaturis, s.v.).