גִּבְסָנִית

Gypsophila is one of the most common flowers in bouquets - those tiny white flowers that serve as fillers in flower arrangements. Its scientific name, Gypsophila, was established in 1751 by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, and is composed of the Greek words gypsos ("gypsum" or "chalk") and philos ("loving"), because the plant grows well in chalky soil. The process of giving the plant a Hebrew name went through several iterations: in 1930, the Hebrew Language Committee Hebraized the name to "גִּפְסוֹן" (Gipson), but a year later, the botanist Alexander Eig coined the name "גִפְּסָנִית" (Gipsanit), which gained widespread use and was the main name of the plant for most of the 20th century. In 1939, the agronomist Melekh Zagorodsky decided to change the name to "גִבְּסוֹנִית" (Gibsonit), linking the plant to the word "גֶּבֶס" (geves, "plaster," coined by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in 1883 from the Arabic word jibs, which originated from the Latin word gypsum). This was a mistake, since unlike the Greek word, the word "geves" does not refer to chalk but to another mineral. Nevertheless, the Hebrew Language Committee combined the names and in 1946 established the name "גִּבְסָנִית" (Givsanit). This name remained mainly in dictionaries, and only in 1979 began to gradually push out the name "גִפְּסָנִית" (Gipsanit) in everyday use.