𐤋𐤁𐤍

Phoenician

Etymology

From Proto-West Semitic *laban-.

Adjective

𐤋𐤁𐤍 (lbn /laban/)

1. white

Descendants

• Punic: 𐤋𐤁𐤍 (lbn /⁠laḇan⁠/)

Punic

Etymology

From Phoenician 𐤋𐤁𐤍 (lbn), from Proto-West Semitic *laban-.

Pronunciation

• (6^th BCE Punic): IPA^(key): /laban/
• (2^th BCE Late Punic): IPA^(key): /laban/
• (2^th CE Neo-Punic): IPA^(key): /laban/

Noun

𐤋𐤁𐤍 (lbn /laḇan/) (feminine 𐤋𐤁𐤕 (laḇaṯ))

1. white
   • 1962, Herbert Donner, Wolfgang Röllig, Kanaanäische und aramäische Inschriften (overall work in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, lines B 5 of number 76 on page 20, from Carthage, which is reproduced No. 241 line 13 in Julius Euting’s 1883 Sammlung der Carthagischen Inschriften, also interpreted and transcribed by Joseph Derenbourg Sur les offrandes de prémices in Journal asiatique February–March 1874 pages 204–227, with that last page the Hebrew transcription and Latin translation:

     𐤅𐤕𐤉𐤍 𐤉𐤀 𐤋𐤁𐤍

     wtyn yʾ lbn

     and figs, fair, white

   • 40 CE – 90 CE, Dioscorides, De Materia Medica interpolations believed to be from Pamphilos, s. v. μυοσωτίς 4.86::

     μυοσωτίς […] Ἄφροι λαυαθθαλβάθ (var. λαυαθ θαλβαθ, λαυαθολαβατ, λαυαθθλαβατ, λαβοθ λαβαθ)

     muosōtís […] Áphroi lauaththalbáth (var. lauath thalbath, lauatholabat, lauaththlabat, laboth labath)

     mouse-ear is called by the Punics 𐤋𐤅𐤕 𐤋𐤁𐤕(𐤕) f (lwt lbt(t) /⁠lawāṯa^ṯ laḇaṯ⁠/, literally “white bindweed”).

     Others translate: 𐤋𐤄𐤁𐤕 𐤋𐤁𐤕 f (lhaḇa^ṯ laḇaṯ, literally “white flame”), which is botanically unwarranted; note also the other textual occurrence of the same base noun for Etruscan honeysuckle; apparently a plant name with masculine collective and feminine singulative.

Related terms

• 𐤋𐤁𐤍𐤕 (lbnt /⁠lḇūnaṯ⁠/, “frankincense”)