שקדיה (shkedia) — almond tree

Etymology

Wild almonds are bitter and toxic, making it something of a botanical mystery how humans managed to domesticate the plant and create an edible variety. Domestication occurred in the Middle East sometime in the early third millennium BCE, and by the middle of that millennium Akkadian cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia contain the first written records of almonds, calling them שִקְדֻ (shiqdu). Although Akkadian is the earliest documented language to mention the almond, it may not be the origin of the Semitic root, since in Akkadian the root ש.ק.ד carries no other meaning. The probable origin lies in one of the Northwest Semitic languages — Ugaritic, Phoenician, or early Hebrew — where the root ש.ק.ד means to guard, watch over, or be vigilant. A plausible explanation is that almonds were so named because of the hard protective shell (the "watchman") that guards the nut until it ripens.

In biblical Hebrew, שָׁקֵד names both the tree and the nut, and the prophet Jeremiah exploits the root's double meaning: "The word of God came to me: 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' I said: 'I see a rod of almond (shaked).' And God said: 'You have seen well, for I am watching (shoked) over my word to fulfill it'" (Jeremiah 1:11-12). A second Hebrew word for almond, לוּז, appears in the story of Jacob and Laban (Genesis 30:37), derived from Aramaic, and found its way into Arabic as lawzah. In rabbinic literature שקד and לוז were used as synonyms, but they were separated in the medieval period: it appears to be Asaph the Physician (6th century CE) who exploited the redundancy by assigning לוז to the hazelnut (which Roman trade had introduced from Britain), while reserving שקד for the almond. The Haskalah writer Baruch Linda fixed the compound אגוזי לוז (hazel nuts) in 1788, establishing it as standard.

Into the 20th century, שקד still served for both the almond nut and the almond tree. The distinction was created by Levin Kipnis in 1919 when he coined the word שקדיה in his poem "Leshana Tova, Shkediya" (Happy New Year, Almond Tree). The poem became a beloved children's classic, and the word שקדיה was first adopted in children's language before spreading to adult usage. Hebrew thus gained a clean lexical distinction: שקדים (the nuts) and שקדיות (the trees).

The semantic range of שקד extends beyond the botanical. In the Bible, menorah cups are described as almond-shaped (Exodus 25:34). Greek physicians used the word amygdalē (Greek for almond) to name the lymph nodes in the throat; Arab physicians following suit used lawzah (Arabic for almond), and 16th-century Hebrew translators of Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine rendered the anatomical term שְׁקֵדִים — "almonds" — for the tonsils, a name that persists to this day. Additionally, שקדי מרק (soup almonds/croutons) are so called because their shape resembles almonds: the Yiddish term was mandalaḥ ("little almonds"), and the Israeli company Osem has marketed them under the calqued Hebrew name since the early 1960s.

Key Quotes

"וַיְהִי דְבַר ה׳ אֵלַי לֵאמֹר מָה אַתָּה רֹאֶה יִרְמְיָהוּ וָאֹמַר מַקֵּל שָׁקֵד אֲנִי רֹאֶה. וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ אֵלַי הֵיטַבְתָּ לִרְאוֹת כִּי שֹׁקֵד אֲנִי עַל דְּבָרִי לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ" — Jeremiah 1:11-12

"וּבַמְּנֹרָה אַרְבָּעָה גְבִעִים מְשֻׁקָּדִים כַּפְתֹּרֶיהָ וּפְרָחֶיהָ" — Exodus 25:34 (almond-shaped menorah cups)

Timeline

• ~3000 BCE: Wild almonds domesticated in the Middle East
• ~2500 BCE: Earliest written records of almonds in Akkadian (shiqdu)
• Biblical period: שָׁקֵד names both tree and nut; לוּז used as synonym (from Aramaic)
• 6th century CE: Asaph the Physician distinguishes שקד (almond) from לוז (hazelnut) in Sefer Refu'ot
• 1788: Baruch Linda fixes the compound אגוזי לוז in Reshit Limudim
• 16th century: Hebrew translators of Ibn Sina use שקדים for tonsils (anatomical term)
• 1919: Levin Kipnis coins שקדיה in his poem "Leshana Tova, Shkediya"
• Early 1960s: Osem introduces שקדי מרק (soup almonds) as a calque from Yiddish mandalaḥ

Related Words

• שָׁקֵד — almond nut; the verb "to be watchful/vigilant"
• שׁוֹקֵד — watchful, vigilant (same root, exploited by Jeremiah's pun)
• לוּז — hazelnut (formerly synonymous with שקד; now distinct)
• שְׁקֵדִים — tonsils (anatomical; also "almonds" the nuts)
• אֲמִגְדָלָה — amygdala (from Greek amygdalē, almond)