A shorter description today but I think an interesting one. The word shibboleth is of Hebrew origin and means “stream” or (more usually) “a plant containing grain”, such as corn or wheat. The word was originally very powerful, as it was used – according to a biblical story – by one Jephthah (catchy name) who was leader of a semitic tribe called the Gileadites to distinguish his enemies. The Gileadites had a bit of a fight with another tribe, the Ephraimites. Victorious in battle, they set up a blockade to catch their fleeing foes. I’m just guessing here but I imagine one semitic tribesman looked very much like another and it was difficult to know who the bad guys were. The one noticeable difference was that the Ephraimites lacked the sh sound in their language. They would stop a man at the blockade and make him say shibboleth – if he instead said ‘sibboleth’ he was in for a very bad day indeed. Here’s the passage in full:

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