Is there a connection between the meaning "to clarify" and Arabic taleban, meaning "seeker of (Islamic) knowledge"?
Arabic taalib means "student", root (Hebrew equivalent) tet-lamed-bet.
the -an in Taliban is an Afghani plural ending.
It's as if there were a Jewish militant fundamentalist group in America called "the Talmids"
Thanks for the article. Made me suspect that the color 'lavan' is derived from (...a form of coagulated sour milk (like yogurt) is called) leben in Hebrew. This is because the Arabic word describing the same color is taken (I suspect) from the Arabic word for 'egg'.
Steg, it's my understanding that the actual root of ta`alib is `lb (Hebrew equivalent: aleph-lamed-bet), which means "to learn." The "t" (the Arabic cognate of Hebrew ת, not ט) is a prefix that converts it to a noun ("student"), just as in the example you mentioned of "talmid."
So the Hebrew cognate of the Arabic root `lb would be `lp (aleph-lamed-peh), which in turn gives us words such as "ulpan" and the name of the letter aleph itself.
Alex: About 'Taaleb', I agree with Steg. The root is tet-lamed-bet.
Kevin
According to Stahl, the root is indeed tet-lamed-bet, which means to request (בקש).
Kevin - as far as eggs and white, read my entry about butz:
http://balashon.blogspot.com/200...06/02/
butz.html
Any connection to the word, aLBiNo?
I guess I've been outvoted, then (and I do see other places online that spell "Taliban" with an Arabic tet). That'll teach me to opine about languages I don't speak!
Though now I'm curious whether the Arabic root tet-lamed-bet has any Hebrew cognates.
Phil -
While albino (based on the Latin albus = white) and the Greek leuko (also white, the Hebrew version lavkan, labkan, Brachot 58b) are similar to lavan/laban - I haven't seen anyone to make a connection.
Alex -
I haven't had any luck. No Aramaic cognates turned up here:
http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/
searching...earch_page.html
And I still haven't figured out how to search here:
http://ehl.santafe.edu/cgi-bin/r...m/semet&
first=1
If anyone comes up with anything - Akkadian maybe? - please let me know.
Dave: I read your entry about 'butz' and commented on it. Very itneresting.
May I offer another possible connection:
In Spanish, a LaVaNderia is a place to get your clothes looking nice and white.
(1) I'm sure I had once heard albino came into Spanish via Arabic, with the root לבן but clearly that's not the case...
(2) I have always thought לבנת ספיר sounded like לבנות ספיר. Dare we connect "לבנה" to "בנה"?
(3) It might be worth noting that although it is a similar geographical region that sounds like Lebanon, the Levant is a Latin name relating to "to rise" meaning the place where the sun rises (see DLC on "Europe").
(4) Had they written to bring "גרביים לבנים", one could have concluded to bring both socks AND underwear!
Phil - another interesting idea, although it doesn't seem to be connected: http://www.etymonline.com/index....hp?
term=laundry
Joel -
1) If you can find a source, I'd be happy to see it.
2) I think I remember reading some opinion like that, but I can't recall where.
3) Interesting - I hadn't seen that before.
4) That's true!
I know this is a rather late comment on this particular entry (and I realise you are away too), but I was just making my coffee and happened to glance at the packet of Sugat sugar, which has, in very clear Arabic, the following: 'sukr abidh' for 'white sugar'. The 'dh' is the 'dhadh', or pointilated 'tsade' (sadh), so the connection with 'beitzah' is fairly obvious in this context at least (cf connection between 'ardh' and 'eretz' [earth]). I was going to post this under 'butz' but I thought it might get lost over there.
Have a great break!
NC
Not sure if anyone cares, but white in Arabic is abyadh, not abidh.
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