בּוֹלְעָן (bolan) — sinkhole
Etymology
The international scientific term for a sinkhole — a depression in the ground formed when subsurface limestone is dissolved by percolating water, causing the overlying ground to collapse — is דּוֹלִינָה (dolina). This Slavic word ("valley" in Serbo-Croatian) was coined by the Swiss geologist Adolf von Morlot in 1847 while doing fieldwork in Istria, Croatia. During the second half of the 19th century the term spread through scientific literature in French, English, and eventually Hebrew.
The first Hebrew appearance of "dolina" was in January 1928, in a report in Ha'aretz about a geological survey of Etam Rock by Natan Shalem — one of the first Hebrew geologists to study the Land of Israel. Shalem simply used the international term. Twenty-five years later, in his 1953 paper "On the Karst of the Land of Israel and its Neighbors" in the journal Mehkarim biYdiat haAretz veAtikoteha, Shalem coined a Hebrew equivalent: בָּלוּעַ. He derived it from the Arabic term used by local Arab residents — bāluʿa — which they had long used for sinkholes. But bāluʿa is not Arabic in origin; it is an ancient Aramaic word that local populations preserved after the Arab conquest of the region in the 7th century CE. The Aramaic word appears in the Talmud: in tractate Sanhedrin (110a), the raconteur Rabbah bar bar Hanah describes being shown the "bəluʿei deKorah" — the places where Korah and his followers were swallowed by the earth (Numbers 16:31–33).
In 1959, the Academy of the Hebrew Language standardized the form בַּלּוּעָה, apparently reflecting what it judged to be a better representation of the original Aramaic. This form appeared in textbooks such as Menashe Harel's "Geogrfia Fisit Klalit" (1961). But almost simultaneously, members of the Society for Nature Protection began using a different form — בָּלוּעַן — for the major sinkhole near Mount Meron. This form appears in Society publications from January 1963, and by the summer of that year the press was reporting on joint military-civilian expeditions to study what they called "the baloʿan."
Within a few years, the בָּלוּעַן form shifted further to בּוֹלְעָן. This version appears in Uriah Ben-Israel's geography textbook "Nofim beArtzenu" published by the Ministry of Education in 1966. The form won out — partly because it is easier to pronounce, and partly because of folk etymology: בּוֹלְעָן sounds like it comes from the active verb לִבְלֹעַ ("to swallow"), which is exactly what a sinkhole does. In 1971 the word received official recognition when the Government Names Committee designated two sites in the sinkhole-rich foothills of Mount Hermon "Mitzpeh Bolan" and "Emek Bolan."
The word remained a specialist term until Dead Sea sinkholes brought it into mainstream Hebrew. As the sea level dropped due to water diversion — accelerating through the 1980s and 1990s — hundreds of sinkholes appeared along the Israeli shoreline, forcing the abandonment of beachside resorts and even a naval base. Media coverage of these events, consistently calling them "bolʿanim," made the word widely known. By March 2010, when a Channel 2 reporter described a road collapse on the Ayalon Highway as a "bolan," the word had clearly generalized beyond geology to any sudden ground depression. The Academy of the Hebrew Language formally approved the word in 2015, and in 2022 it was voted Word of the Year by users of the Academy's website.
Key Quotes
"תהום זו 'דולינה' בלע״ז (תופעה נפוצה מאד בקרקעות סידניות) נוצרה בימים קדומים" — נתן שלם, הארץ, ינואר 1928
"בָּלוּעַ — דולינה; שקע קטן בקרקע כעין משפך, המצוי בארצות הקארסט" — נתן שלם, מחקרים בידיעת הארץ ועתיקותיה, 1953
Timeline
- 1847: Adolf von Morlot coins "dolina" (Serbo-Croatian: "valley") as geological term in Istria
- January 1928: First Hebrew use of "dolina" (in foreign-word parentheses), in Natan Shalem's Ha'aretz report
- 1953: Shalem coins בָּלוּעַ for dolina, derived from Arabic bāluʿa (itself from Aramaic)
- 1959: Academy of the Hebrew Language standardizes form as בַּלּוּעָה
- January 1963: Society for Nature Protection begins using בָּלוּעַן for the Meron sinkhole
- 1966: Form בּוֹלְעָן appears in Uriah Ben-Israel's geography textbook
- 1971: Government Names Committee uses "Bolan" in official place names near Mount Hermon
- 1980s–1990s: Dead Sea sinkholes proliferate; "bolan" enters mainstream Hebrew through media coverage
- March 2010: Channel 2 reporter uses "bolan" to describe an Ayalon Highway road collapse — word fully generalized
- 2015: Academy of the Hebrew Language approves בּוֹלְעָן
- 2022: Voted Word of the Year by Academy website users
Related Words
- דּוֹלִינָה — international scientific term (Serbo-Croatian: "valley")
- בְּלִיעָה — swallowing (from the same root ב-ל-ע)
- מַבּוּל — flood, deluge (distantly related root)
- קָרְסְט — karst (the geological terrain type in which sinkholes form; from Slovenian)