How to say "labneh (strained yogurt)" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaninglabneh (strained yogurt)
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
لَبْنَة
labnaלבנה
لبنة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
לבנה
labaneلَابَانِي
How the two words are related
Shifted meaning
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ل-ب-نHebrew root
ל-ב-ןSame root as laban (see that entry), ל-ב-ן / ل-ب-ن, 'white', branching out differently again. Arabic narrowed labna to the strained yogurt cheese; Hebrew's own build on this root gave לבנה, 'brick' (sun-whitened mudbrick) or 'moon' (the white orb) — never the dairy spread. So when Israeli packaging prints לבנה on a tub of strained yogurt, that is itself a fresh, direct loan of Arabic labna, landing by coincidence of the shared root on an existing Hebrew word with a completely different meaning.
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In a phrase
لَبْنَة وَزَعْتَر
labna wa-zaʿtarלבנה וזעתרlabneh and za'atar