When Rashi uses, what we may losely call, the hononym method, Rashi does not explain new meaning but rather shows an underlying unity in disparate meanings. Rashi will frequently do this by showing an underlying unity in the varied meanings of a Biblical root.

In my article Peshat and Derash found on the world wide web at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rashi.pdf. I advocate enriching the Rashi explanation using a technique of parallel nifty translations in modern English. Today's examples show this.

The Heberw Biblical root Cheth-Lamed-Lamed, Cheth-Vav-Lamed, has a fundamental meaning of sand. Hence this Biblical root can mean / refer to
• descecration, profane [ cf. the English idiom, treating like dirt. Here dirt and sand are treated similarly - indeed, sand is worse than dirt since plant growth cannot take place in it; so treat like sand means to treat like dirt that is to profance. ]
• death [ cf. the English idiom, returned to dust ]
• sickness [ a sandy land, unlike a dirt land is sick and cannot produce plants ]
• dance [ cf. the English idiom, dancing in the wind. The dance motions resemble sand whirling in the air - dance is characterized by disconnected motions in various directions like whirling sand. ]
• flute [ unlike the violin, known for its lyrical quality, the flute is known for rapid disconnected tones (hence its applicability to dance). The rapid disconnected tones resemble sand which is also disconnected unlike rich soil. ]

Applying the above translation to Ex31-14c discussing the death penalty for descecration of the Sabbath we obtain Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you; every one that profaneth it [treats it like sand/dirt] shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from amo In providing this English translation notice that we have used the English idiom treats it like dirt which mirrors the Hebrew treats it like sand since sand and dirt resemble each other - in fact sand is inferior to dirt in that plant growth cannot take place in it.

Advanced Rashi: Rashi literally translates descecrates as Treating it like a weekday. The Hebrew word weekday literally means a profaned day and is the opposite of the Sabbath which is a holy day. We in fact could have added weekday to the above list. In Hebrew weekday = sand day = profaned day.