Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

As I see it LAXAM is 'press together', and MI-LXAM-AH (the MI- is 'the thing which is') is the pressing together of the grappling or wrestling combatants, but, of course, other people may see it differently. 

It is interesting that the English 'batch' comes from 'bake', which may be related to 'puff, inflate' (in German Backe is 'cheek'.)

I suspect that "Proto-Semitic" belongs in the nether world of the legends.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Apr 11, 2013, at 7:33 PM, john.leake AT yahoo.co.uk wrote:

The distinction between לחם and מלחמה seems to go back to Proto-West-Semitic, and has no bearing on Hebrew (or Aramaic, I think).