Baal
(noun) any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples; the Hebrews considered Baal a false god
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Baal (countable and uncountable, plural Baals or Baalim)
(mythology, biblical) A storm and fertility god of the Phoenician and Canaanite pantheons, reckoned as chief of the gods by the 1st millennium BC.
(mythology, biblical, sometimes lowercase) Various other Baalim, understood as distinct patron gods or as local patron aspects the great god Baal.
(Christianity) One of the demons or fallen angels of Satan.
(often, lowercase) A false deity or idol; (obsolete, pejorative) Catholic or Orthodox icons of the saints.
The latinized spelling and anglicized pronunciation is still used for the expanded senses, but modern scholarship increasingly notes the ayin of the original name by spelling it BaĘżal or Ba'al and pronouncing it more in line with the original Hebrew form. Misunderstood as a solar deity by 19th century scholarship; misunderstood as a collective term for various patron gods by 19th and 20th century scholarship prior to the discovery of inscriptions at Ugarit showing these to have been understood as aspects of a single divinity, whose worship gradually supplanted that of El. These aspects are sometimes distinguished by epithets: Baalberith, Beelzebub, Beelzebul, etc.
The Hebraic plural Baalim is particularly used for its appearances in the Bible, where it may refer to gods or idols of the god. The anglicized plural is more common in other contexts.
• AABL, Bala, LABA, alba, blaa, laab
Source: Wiktionary
Ba"al, n.; Heb. pl. Baalim (. Etym: [Heb. ba'al lord.]
1. (Myth.)
Definition: The supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations.
Note: The name of this god occurs in the Old Testament and elsewhere with qualifying epithets subjoined, answering to the different ideas of his character; as, Baal-berith (the Covenant Baal), Baal-zebub (Baal of the fly).
2. pl.
Definition: The whole class of divinities to whom the name Baal was applied. Judges x. 6.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
23 January 2025
(adjective) being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north; “my left hand”; “left center field”; “the left bank of a river is bank on your left side when you are facing downstream”
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.
