מלוח

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: mallûaḥ^[1]

Forms

מַלּוּחַ (mallûaḥ) noun, masculine^[2] Rabbinic plural מַלּוּחִים, מַלּוּחִין.^[3]

Etymology

It is a noun of the /qattûl/ pattern from Biblical Hebrew מֶלַח (melaḥ, “salt”), “the salty plant”.^[4][5][6] The salt word is Proto-West Semitic *milḥ-, kept in Ugaritic, Aramaic, Arabic, Sabaic and Ge'ez.^[7] The plant name has cognates in Aramaic מַלּוּחָא (mallûḥā), Classical Syriac ܡܲܠܘܼܚܵܐ (mallūḥā, “sea orache”) and Arabic مُلَّاح (mullāḥ, “a salty plant”).^[4][8][9]

Ancient Greek μαλάχη (malákhē, “mallow”), also μολόχη (molókhē), has long been compared.^[4][10] Klein calls it a loan from Hebrew and Huehnergard derives it from a Semitic source akin to the Hebrew word;^[6][11] HALOT gives the comparison with a question mark, and Beekes takes the Greek word from a Pre-Greek form *malwak-, adding that Pre-Greek may have taken it from Semitic or the other way round.^[4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word occurs once, in Job's description of the outcasts: haqqōṭp̄îm mallûaḥ ʿălê-śîaḥ wəšōreš rəṯāmîm laḥmām “they pick saltwort among the bushes, and the root of the broom is their food” (Job 30:4).^[1][4]

Semantic evolution

The plant is the food of the destitute.^[4][12] Its identity is uncertain: Löw and Koehler took it to be a salt-weed, Mesembryanthemum forskalii, Hölscher the sea orache, Atriplex halimus, a shrub of salty ground whose leaves are edible;^[13] BDB and Gesenius–Buhl render it mallow or orache.^{[4][13][2][5]} The Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek ἅλιμον (hálimon, “tree purslane”), the name Greek gives to Atriplex halimus.^[1][14] HALOT also restores the word in Job 24:24, where the Septuagint has Ancient Greek μολόχη (molókhē, “mallow”).^[4] In the Talmud and Midrash the salt-plant is again the food of the poor: whoever believes in the Messiah is content to live on mallûḥîm.^[3] Huehnergard traces English mallow, through Latin malva, to the same Semitic source.^[11]

Timeline

• Poetic books – once, in Job 30:4.^[1][4]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek ἅλιμον (hálimon).^[15][1]
• Rabbinic Hebrew – the salt-plant eaten by the poor, in the Talmud and Midrash.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. a salty plant eaten by the poor, perhaps saltwort, sea orache or mallow.^[4][2][13]

Word family

• מֶלַח (melaḥ)

Usage notes

The same spelling is also post-biblical מָלוּחַ (mālûaḥ, “salted”), the passive participle of the verb “to salt”.^[16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
2. ^ a b c Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. מַלּוּחַ
3. ^ a b c Jastrow, Marcus (1886–1903), A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, London: Luzac; New York: Putnam, p. s.v. מַלּוּחַ
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. מַלּוּחַ
5. ^ a b Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. מַלּוּחַ
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. מַלּוּחַ
7. ^ Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 90
8. ^ Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 765
9. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
10. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. μαλάχη
11. ^ a b Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Holladay, William L. (1971), A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. מַלּוּחַ
13. ^ a b c de Blois, Reinier, ed. (2000–), Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, United Bible Societies, sdbh.org, p. s.v. מַלּוּחַ
14. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ἅλιμος
15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
16. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. מָלוּחַ
17. ^ Jastrow, Marcus (1886–1903), A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, London: Luzac; New York: Putnam, p. s.v. מָלוּחַ