Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ishnian" <ishinan AT comcast.net>]



Uri Hurwitz wrote: Interestingly, the primary meaning of the noun לחם in Arabic is 'meat'.  There are various derivations from the meaning of the root, some related to 'war'.
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George Athas responded: The verb 'to fight' is לחם. But it not from the same word root as the word for bread. There are two Hebrew roots לחם:


  1.  לחם: to fight
  2.  לחם: to eat a meal with someone (eg. Prov 23.1).

The word for bread is related to the second of these roots, but not the first. The two roots just happen to be homonyms but with different meanings (like English tease, which can mean either to make fun of, or to pull/comb out).

You can see when there are homonymous roots in a lexicon by the fact that they usually prefix a Roman numeral before the root (eg. I לחם and II לחם). Thus, for example, you'll notice that the root ענה has four entries.

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Ishinan: Correct "the two roots just happen to be homonyms".

 

From Lisan al-`Arab

 

وأَلْحَمَ الزرعُ: صار فيه القمحُ 

 

I- 'AlH.am: A wheat plant when matures will yield grain.

 

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II a - LaH.m : Join, knitt, patch together,

LuH.mah: the woof or the threads that are sown together into the warp of a piece of cloth.

 

II b - LaH.am: it coalesced, consolidated, closed up.

LaH.m: flesh,

LaH.mah: meat.

 

 

 

II c - LaH.m: hitting and injuring the body (flesh or LaH.m) of an opponent in fighting.

 

A "MalH.amah" means a ferocious war and / or the battlefield where combatant bodies are pressed against each other.

 

- لَحَمَه أَي ضربه مِن أَصابَ لَحْمَه

والمَلْحَمة: الحربُ ذات القتل الشديد

 

(LaH.amahu 'Ayy As.Aba laH.mahu)

( al-MalH.amah : al-H.arb dhAt al-qatl al-shadiyd) 

 

 

So in a tradition:

 

في الحديث: اليوم يومُ المَلْحَمة، وفي حديث آخر: ويُجْمَعون للمَلْحَمة؛ هي الحرب وموضعُ القتال

 

 

Ishinan Ishibashi