ḥulbaẗ حُلْبة , EgAr ḥilbaẗ
ID … • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 19Feb2021
√ḤLB
1 fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum; bot.); 2 tonic, prepared of yellowish grains, for women in childbed (EgAr, SyrAr) – WehrCowan1976.
▪ Counted as distinct item in DRS (#ḤLB-5), but perh. related to ↗ḥalab ʻmilk’. Unless an isolated item and/or a loan from an unknown source, ḥulbaẗ ʻfenugreek’ may have its name from the fact that »le fenugrec est recommandé aux accouchées et pour soutenir la lactation«, as observed by DRS. But this is not the only function/application, as the more detailed entry in Lane ii 1865 makes clear: »used medicinally; and made to germinate (in a vessel of water), and eaten; useful as a remedy for diseases of the chest, for cough, asthma, phlegm, and hæmorrhoids, for giving strength to the back, for the liver and the bladder, and as a stimulant to the venereal faculty, alone or compounded; kind of food called farīqaẗ which is given to women when childbearing«. In this description, the connection to ʻmilk’ is not especially obvious, so the word may still have a different etymology.
▪ DRS #ḤLB-5 marks ḥulbaẗ as an item specific to YemAr and MġrAr, but this labelling is prob. doubtful.
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▪ DRS ḤLB-5 YemAr MġrAr ḥulbaẗ ʻfenugrec, ragoût végétal préparé avec du fenugrec’, Tña ḥəlbät, Amh: plat de carême fait d’orge, de poivron et de haricots.
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▪ See above, section CONC.
For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗¹ḥalab, ↗ḥalbaẗ, ↗maḥlab, ↗ḥālib, ↗²Ḥalabᵘ, as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤLB.
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