THE LANGUAGE OF ANGELS

One day Eliezer brought home ice cream. Ben-Zion wanted to ask for some, but there wasn’t a Hebrew word. Because ice cream didn’t exist two thousand years ago, no one in history had ever asked for it in Hebrew.

“We cannot just make up any word,” Eliezer explained. “first we must see if there is a cousin in another language such as Arabic or Greek. Or maybe there is a similar word in Hebrew to describe a cold dessert. Words are related to one another. Making a new word is like solving a mystery or putting together a puzzle.”

Eliezer looked through his books. He discovered the word gelidas — “ice-cold” in Latin. It reminded him of the old Hebrew word glid — “to freeze water.” Eliezer had created his new word.

“Would you like some GLIDA?” he asked Ben-Zion. But by then the glida had melted.