A debate on the meaning of the word Lablab

Document Type : Research article

Authors

PhD Graduate of Persian Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The word "Lablab" has two meanings in Persian dictionaries. One of the meanings of this word is “the ivy plant” and the other meaning is "the enchanter and the sorcerer". By looking at the poetic evidence, it can be seen that the meaning presented by the lexicographers in the latter case was not correct and they registered this meaning due to their misunderstanding of the meaning of the verses in which this word is used. The authors of the present article, after mentioning the dictionaries that have discussed the meaning of the word Lablab, by bringing poetic evidences and examining and analyzing them, put forward their proposed meaning about each of the discussed verses, and, at the end, the correct meaning of the word Lablab has been expressed. The authors have proved that Lablab in the discussed poetic evidence is used in the meaning of magician’s orb and not enchanter. Also, by referring to Arabic dictionaries and books of apothegm, it has been shown that this mistake was probably made by the Persian-to-Persian lexicographers and Lablab did not appear in Arabic dictionaries in the meaning of enchanter.

Keywords

Main Subjects


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Volume 78, Issue 251
July 2025
Pages 185-206
  • Receive Date: 07 October 2024
  • Revise Date: 24 May 2025
  • Accept Date: 02 July 2025
  • Publish Date: 22 July 2025