manna
pronunciation
How to pronounce manna in British English:
UK [ˈmænə]
How to pronounce manna in American English:
US ['mænə]
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- Noun:
- hardened sugary exudation of various trees
- (Old Testament) food that God gave the Israelites during the Exodus
Word Origin
- manna
- manna: [OE] Manna was introduced into Old English by Latin, which got it from Aramaic mannā. This was a derivative of Hebrew mān, one of a family of Semitic words denoting an edible substance exuded by a sort of tamarisk tree that grows in the Sinai desert.
- manna (n.)
- Old English borrowing from Late Latin manna, from Greek manna, from Hebrew man, probably literally "substance exuded by the tamarisk tree," but used in Greek and Latin specifically with reference to the substance miraculously supplied to the Children of Israel during their wandering in the Wilderness (Ex. xvi:15). Meaning "spiritual nourishment" is attested from late 14c. Generalized sense of "something provided unexpectedly" is from 1590s.
Example
- 1. It was like manna in the desert . The obscenely funny cartoon radiated intelligence and humanity .
- 2. With credit cards raining down like manna , we bought plasma television sets , new appliances , vacations .
- 3. But a billion people are just as hungry , human , and as deserving now as the israelites were when they were fleeing egypt , and I don 't see any manna .