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Created page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame ==Origin== [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle Engli...'
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Manna.jpg|right|frame]]
==Origin==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English], from Late Latin, from [[Greek]], from [[Hebrew]] mān
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_century before 12th Century]
==Definitions==
*1a : [[food]] miraculously supplied to the [[Israelites]] in their [[journey]] through the [[wilderness]]
:b : [[divinely]] supplied spiritual nourishment
:c : a usually sudden and unexpected [[source]] of [[gratification]], [[pleasure]], or gain
*2a : the sweetish dried exudate of a Eurasian ash (especially Fraxinus ornus) that contains mannitol and has been used as a laxative and demulcent
:b : a similar product excreted by a scale insect (Trabutina mannipara) feeding on the tamarisk
==Description==
'''Manna''' ([[Hebrew]]: מָן) or Manna wa Salwa (Arabic: مَنّ, Kurdish: gezo, Persian: ترنجبين), sometimes or archaically spelled mana, is the name of a [[food]] that [[God]] provided for the Israelites during their travels in the [[desert]] as recorded in the [[Bible]]. It was said to be sweet to the taste, like honey. It is narrated in the hadith Sahih Muslim that the Muslim [[prophet]] [[Muhammad]] said "Truffles are 'manna' which Allah, sent to the people of Israel through Musa ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses]), and its juice is a medicine for the eyes."
Some [[scholars]] have proposed that manna is cognate with the Egyptian term mennu, meaning "[[food]]". At the turn of the twentieth century, Arabs of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinai_Peninsula Sinai Peninsula] were selling resin from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarisk tamarisk] tree as man es-simma, roughly meaning "heavenly manna". Tamarisk trees (particularly Tamarix gallica) were once comparatively extensive throughout the southern Sinai, and their resin is similar to wax, melts in the sun, is sweet and aromatic (like honey), and has a dirty-yellow color, fitting somewhat with the Biblical descriptions of manna. However, this resin is mostly composed from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar sugar], so it would be unlikely to provide sufficient nutrition for a [[population]] to [[survive]] over long periods of time, and it would be very difficult for it to have been compacted to become cakes.
In the Biblical account, the name manna is said to derive from the question man hu, seemingly meaning "What is it?"; this is perhaps an Aramaic etymology, not a [[Hebrew]] one. Man is possibly cognate with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language Arabic] term man, meaning plant lice, with man hu thus meaning "this is plant lice", which fits one widespread [[modern]] identification of manna, the crystallized honeydew of certain scale insects. In the [[environment]] of a [[desert]], such honeydew rapidly dries due to [[evaporation]] of its [[water]] content, becoming a sticky solid, and later turning whitish, yellowish, or brownish; honeydew of this form is considered a delicacy in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East Middle East], and is a good source of carbohydrates.
The other widespread identification is that manna is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallus thalli] of certain [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen lichens] (particularly Lecanora esculenta); this food source is often used as a substitute for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize maize] in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Steppe Eurasian Steppe]. This material is light, often drifting in the [[wind]], and has a yellow outer coat with a white inside, somewhat matching the Biblical description of manna; it does need additional drying, but is definitely not similar to honey in taste.
A number of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomycology ethnomycologists] such as R. Gordon Wasson, John Marco Allegro, and Terence McKenna, have suggested that most characteristics of manna are similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_cubensis Psilocybe cubensis] mushrooms, notorious breeding grounds for insects, which decompose rapidly. These peculiar fungi naturally produce a number of molecules that resemble human neurochemicals, and first appear as small fibres ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycelia mycelia]) that resemble hoarfrost. This [[speculation]] (also paralleled in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick Philip K. Dick]'s posthumously published [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transmigration_of_Timothy_Archer The Transmigration of Timothy Archer]) is supported in a wider [[cultural]] [[context]] when compared with the praise of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haoma Haoma] in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda Rigveda], Mexican praise of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teonan%C3%A1catl teonanácatl], the peyote [[sacrament]] of the Native American Church, and the Holy Ayahuasca used in the ritual of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uni%C3%A3o_do_Vegetal União do Vegetal] and Santo Daime.
Other minority identifications of manna are that it was a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher kosher] species of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust locust], or that it was the sap of certain succulent plants (such as those of the genus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhagi Alhagi]), which have an appetite-suppressing effect).
[[Category: History]]
[[Category: Biology]]
==Origin==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English], from Late Latin, from [[Greek]], from [[Hebrew]] mān
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_century before 12th Century]
==Definitions==
*1a : [[food]] miraculously supplied to the [[Israelites]] in their [[journey]] through the [[wilderness]]
:b : [[divinely]] supplied spiritual nourishment
:c : a usually sudden and unexpected [[source]] of [[gratification]], [[pleasure]], or gain
*2a : the sweetish dried exudate of a Eurasian ash (especially Fraxinus ornus) that contains mannitol and has been used as a laxative and demulcent
:b : a similar product excreted by a scale insect (Trabutina mannipara) feeding on the tamarisk
==Description==
'''Manna''' ([[Hebrew]]: מָן) or Manna wa Salwa (Arabic: مَنّ, Kurdish: gezo, Persian: ترنجبين), sometimes or archaically spelled mana, is the name of a [[food]] that [[God]] provided for the Israelites during their travels in the [[desert]] as recorded in the [[Bible]]. It was said to be sweet to the taste, like honey. It is narrated in the hadith Sahih Muslim that the Muslim [[prophet]] [[Muhammad]] said "Truffles are 'manna' which Allah, sent to the people of Israel through Musa ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses]), and its juice is a medicine for the eyes."
Some [[scholars]] have proposed that manna is cognate with the Egyptian term mennu, meaning "[[food]]". At the turn of the twentieth century, Arabs of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinai_Peninsula Sinai Peninsula] were selling resin from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarisk tamarisk] tree as man es-simma, roughly meaning "heavenly manna". Tamarisk trees (particularly Tamarix gallica) were once comparatively extensive throughout the southern Sinai, and their resin is similar to wax, melts in the sun, is sweet and aromatic (like honey), and has a dirty-yellow color, fitting somewhat with the Biblical descriptions of manna. However, this resin is mostly composed from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar sugar], so it would be unlikely to provide sufficient nutrition for a [[population]] to [[survive]] over long periods of time, and it would be very difficult for it to have been compacted to become cakes.
In the Biblical account, the name manna is said to derive from the question man hu, seemingly meaning "What is it?"; this is perhaps an Aramaic etymology, not a [[Hebrew]] one. Man is possibly cognate with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language Arabic] term man, meaning plant lice, with man hu thus meaning "this is plant lice", which fits one widespread [[modern]] identification of manna, the crystallized honeydew of certain scale insects. In the [[environment]] of a [[desert]], such honeydew rapidly dries due to [[evaporation]] of its [[water]] content, becoming a sticky solid, and later turning whitish, yellowish, or brownish; honeydew of this form is considered a delicacy in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East Middle East], and is a good source of carbohydrates.
The other widespread identification is that manna is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallus thalli] of certain [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen lichens] (particularly Lecanora esculenta); this food source is often used as a substitute for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize maize] in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Steppe Eurasian Steppe]. This material is light, often drifting in the [[wind]], and has a yellow outer coat with a white inside, somewhat matching the Biblical description of manna; it does need additional drying, but is definitely not similar to honey in taste.
A number of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomycology ethnomycologists] such as R. Gordon Wasson, John Marco Allegro, and Terence McKenna, have suggested that most characteristics of manna are similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_cubensis Psilocybe cubensis] mushrooms, notorious breeding grounds for insects, which decompose rapidly. These peculiar fungi naturally produce a number of molecules that resemble human neurochemicals, and first appear as small fibres ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycelia mycelia]) that resemble hoarfrost. This [[speculation]] (also paralleled in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick Philip K. Dick]'s posthumously published [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transmigration_of_Timothy_Archer The Transmigration of Timothy Archer]) is supported in a wider [[cultural]] [[context]] when compared with the praise of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haoma Haoma] in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda Rigveda], Mexican praise of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teonan%C3%A1catl teonanácatl], the peyote [[sacrament]] of the Native American Church, and the Holy Ayahuasca used in the ritual of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uni%C3%A3o_do_Vegetal União do Vegetal] and Santo Daime.
Other minority identifications of manna are that it was a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher kosher] species of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust locust], or that it was the sap of certain succulent plants (such as those of the genus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhagi Alhagi]), which have an appetite-suppressing effect).
[[Category: History]]
[[Category: Biology]]