ל The twelfth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The name of this letter, ‘Lamed’, prob. means ‘the rod (of the teacher)’, from למד, which prob. meant orig. ‘to prick, sting, incite, goad’. In PBH it has the numerical value of thirty. It alternates with נ and with ר. With נ: cp. the bases לחץ and נחץ and the words לִשְׁכָּה and נִשְׁכָּה, כַּלָּה ᴵ and Arab. kanna (= daughter-in-law, sister-in-law), צֶלֶם and Arab. ṣanam (= idol, image), dialectal Arab. naqama and Arab. laqama (= he obstructed), dialectal Arab. naqiya and Arab. laqiya (= he encountered, met), Gk. litron and nitron (= carbonate, natron), L. leptis and neptis (= granddaughter). With ר: cp. Heb. חֶלֶץ and Aram. חֲרַץ (= loin); Arab. qalb (= heart), which according to some scholars is related to Heb. קֶרֶב; Heb. שָׁלַח (= he sent), and Arab. saraḥa (= he sent forth); PBH שַׁלְשֶׁלֶת, a secondary form of Biblical Heb. שַׁרְשֶׁרֶת; Attic Gk. klibanos and Doric Gk. kribanos (= covered earthen vessel); It. albero (= tree) from L. arbor; It. pellegrino, Fren. pèlerin (= pilgrim); Fren. palefroi (= palfrey) from Med. L. palafrēdus, from Late L. paraverēdus; It. mercoledi (= Wednesday) from L. Mercuriī diēs (lit. ‘day of Mercurius’); Eng. plum from vulgar L. prūna, from L. prūnum; Eng. turtle (= dove) from L. turtur. The alternation of the consonants l and n, resp. l and r is in most cases due to dissimilation. The ל sometimes appears at the end of nouns as an additional consonant, as in גִּבְעֹל (= stalk, stem), כַּרְמֶל (= garden land).