More linguistics geekery

[lethargic_man]

Does anyone find it amusing that after the USAns went to such great lengths to invade Afghanistan and destroy the Taleban, and then invade Iraq, they've ended up with a Talabani as the president of Iraq?

Hmmm... I wonder what the name means. <considers Hebrew cognates> Something to do with white...? <googles> Nope; Islamic student or seeker after knowledge, apparently. The Net of a Thousand Lies claims that the word is Turkic, not Arabic; but it also claims it's Persian. Hmmm... which of these three language families might be its original one? It certainly looks Semitic.

<consults Hebrew dictionary> Ah, as well as meaning "whiten, bleach, heat to whiteness (iron), and cleanse"^*, the root לבן [LBN] has meanings "clarify, elucidate."

So now you know.

* Not to mention derived words with meanings such as linen, lingerie, yoghurt, moon, Lebanon^†), snowbell, cabbage butterfly and brick. Hmm, spot the odd one out?

† Originally referring not to the Lebanon mountain range, but to Mt Hermon, which is white.

Comments

[liv]

Isn't that dictionary fun, though?! I love this kind of stuff. (I'm thinking that brick shares the shoresh because the brick used in the ancient Near East would have been clay baked to a whitish colour. Probably more white than the more traditional stone. Qv the Tower of Babel story, which is where we hear about bricks named 'levenim' and they are explicitly compared with stones.)

Fun yoghurt story: when I was first in Israel I didn't realize that leben was a type of yoghurt (the yukky low fat kind, in fact). So I saw a yoghurt pot with לבן written on it, and I thought it would be just plain yoghurt. So then I was really surprised when I opened it and it was lurid pink. I was all, hey, why does this yoghurt have lavan written on it if it isn't white?!

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Good point; I completely didn't think of that. There was me picturing redbrick houses; deepest Yorkshire transported to Israel. Tee-hee. :o)