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What substance's name - perhaps - derives from a phrase that means "what is it?" in Hebrew?



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Answer: Manna

Manna was the food miraculously supplied to the Children of Israel in the wilderness. According to the OED, "the etymological tradition or conjecture preserved in Ex. xvi. 15 represents the word as having originated from the question man hu? ‘what is it’"

Exodus 16:15 - And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another: 'What is it?' --for they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them: 'It is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.


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