A shared ancestral word split meaning along pastoral-agricultural lines

Evidence

In Hebrew lehfiem means bread, whereas the Arabic lahfim means meat. Both obviously derive from the same word, and designate a major foodstuff. Similarly, samn in Arabic means clarified butter; the cognate Hebrew word shemen means oil. A moment’s thought is enough to explain the difference. For the pastoral Arabs, these basic words designated meat and butter; for the agricultural He­ brews, bread and oil. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 222 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Indigenous languages encoded moss distinctions that English collapses into one word — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 423; The same Latin phrase flipped meaning across eras due to cultural change — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 243; Cognate food words reveal the differing livelihoods of pastoralist and agricultural peoples — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 222 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Cognate food words reveal the differing livelihoods of pastoralist and agricultural peoples #corroborates (0.95) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 222