conc▪ LBN_1 ‘brick(s)’ seems to be a loan, via Syr, from Akk, perhaps lit. *‘accumulated, hardened, solidified (sc. mud)’ (cf. also LBN_3 below).
▪ LBN_2 ‘milk’ is a value not to be found in other Sem languages (unless loaned from Ar) and is therefore thought to be the result of a development, peculiar to Ar, from an original *‘white(ness)’ (which also lies at the basis of the name for Lebanon, cf. LBN_5).
▪ LBN_3 ‘frankincense’ may be either *‘hardened, solidified (sc. resin)’ and thus, basically, built on the same idea as LBN_1 ‘brick(s)’ (applied to resin in this case rather than to mud in that of LBN_1), or it is *‘the product of the styrax tree’ (cf. LBN_6, below), or *‘the white one’ (cf. LBN_2 above, and LBN_5 below). The meaning ‘chewing gum’ is, of course, a modern development.
▪ LBN_4 ‘wish, aim, goal; business, enterprise’: not directly related to any of the other values and therefore difficult to explain. The semantics suggest a relation to ↗lubb ‘kernel, core; heart, mind, intellect, reason’, but this would be difficult to explain phonologically and morphologically. — For the time being, this word’s etymology remains obscure.
▪ LBN_5 ‘Lebanon’, as a geographical term, goes back, via Aram/Hbr Lᵊḇānōn, to Phoen lbnn. Ultimately, it is either *‘(the country with) the white (mountain tops)’ or *‘the snowy one’. If from *‘white’, then the closest relatives would be LBN_2 ‘milk’ (and perhaps also LBN_3 ‘frankincense’). If from *‘snow’, the idea of congelation/solidification connects it more closely to LBN_1 ‘brick(s) (but perhaps also to LBN_3 ‘frankincense’, if the latter is *‘hardened resin’).
▪ LBN_6 ‘storax/styrax tree’ may be *‘the white tree’ (cf. LBN_2 ‘milk’, LBN_5 ‘Lebanon’), or *‘the tree that produces an aromatically smelling resin’ (cf. LBN_3 ‘frankincense’), or it is a loan from Copt < Eg (unless the latter itself is from Sem).
▪ LBN_7 ‘towline’ (eg.) is agreed upon to go back to a Copt word for ‘(a ship’s) hauling-cable’.