Hebrew edit

Etymology edit

Root
ס־ב־ב (s-b-b)

Late 19th century: from סְבִיב (s'viv) +‎ ־וֹן (-ón). It is disputed who coined the word: it was either Itamar Ben-Avi (the son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda) at the age of five (i.e. 1887), who writes in his memoir that he remembers one day jumping to his mother and telling her that he found a סביבון (s'vivón, “dreidel”), or the writer and journalist David Yeshaya Silberbusch who published the word in a 1897 list for Ha-Tsefirah.

Many other names were suggested but didn't catch including כִּרְכָּר by Bialik, חֲזַרְזָר by Mendele Mocher Sforim, סוֹבֶבֶת, פַּרְפָּרָה, מִגְדַּל עֹז, גַּלְגְּלָן and more.

Noun edit

סְבִיבוֹן (s'vivónm (plural indefinite סְבִיבוֹנִים, singular construct סביבון־)

  1. A spinning top.
  2. A Hanukkah dreidel.

See also edit