Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ LBN_1 ‘(unburnt) brick’ ↗libn
▪ LBN_2 ‘milk’ ↗laban
▪ LBN_3 ‘frankincense; chewing gum’ ↗lubān
▪ LBN_4 ‘wish, aim, goal; business, enterprise’ ↗lubānaẗ
▪ LBN_5 ‘Lebanon’ ↗lubnān
▪ LBN_6 ‘storax/styrax tree’ ↗lubnà
▪ LBN_7 ‘towline’ (EgAr) ↗libān

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘milk, (of a female) to be with milk [LBN_2]; quest, wish, desire [LBN_4]; mud brick [LBN_1]; tree sap [LBN_3]’

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’.

hist

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cogn

(based on data supplied by Nicolas2013)
▪ LBN_1: Akk libittu (*libintu), Ug lbnt (pl., *labinātu), Hbr lᵊḇīnāh, lᵊḇēnāh, Aram lᵊḇīntā, Syr lᵊḇettā (*lᵊḇentā) ‘brick, tile’, Ar libn, libin, SAr lbn ‘brick(s)’
▪ LBN_2: Ug lbn (*labanu), Hbr lāḇān ‘blanc’ (et nom propre),¹ Phn lbn ‘white’, Mand laben ‘être blanc’, Ar laban ‘lait’ (> labana ‘avoir en abondance du lait dans ses pis’, talbīn(aẗ) ‘soupe faite avec du lait ou du miel’, mulabban ‘sorte de nougat fait de noix et d’amandes’)
▪ LBN_3: Hbr lᵊḇōnāh, lᵊḇônāh, Phn lbnh, Aram Syr lᵊḇûntāh, Ar lubān ‘résine qui sert d’encens’, SAr lbn ‘encens’;² cf. also Mand labna ‘gluten’.
▪ LBN_4: Ar lubānaẗ ‘wish, aim, goal; business, enterprise’: –.
▪ LBN_5: Akk labnanu (BDB1906), Ug lbnn, Hbr lᵊḇānôn, Phn lbnh, oSyr leḇnān (Wild1973: 154), Ar lubnān ‘Lebanon’.
▪ LBN_6: Hbr liḇnäh ‘poplar (BDB1906), styrax, birch (Klein1987)’, Syr lebanītā, Ar lubnà, Gz ləbən ‘arbrisseau qui donne du storax, (BDB1906:) styrax officinalis’, Gz lebne ‘sorte de palme; sorte d’arbres’, Ar lubnà
▪ LBN_7: EgAr libān ‘towline’: no cognates in Sem.

1. Cf. also poet. lᵊḇānāh ‘moon’, lit. *‘the white one’. 2. According to BDB1906, Gz libānos ‘incense’ is from Grk líbanos.

disc

▪ …
▪ …

west

▪ Engl Lebanon ↗lubnān. – Engl benjamin, benzoin ↗lubān.

deriv

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