From Bible goats to your phone: לִגְלוֹשׁ

לִגְלוֹשׁ

lig-LOSH, to glide, to slide, to surf.

This word appears only twice in the whole Bible, both times in the Song of Songs, about goats: כְּעֵדֶר הָעִזִּים שֶׁגָּלְשׁוּ מֵהַר גִּלְעָד (ke-eder ha-izim she-galshu me-har gil’ad), “like a flock of goats that… down Mount Gilead”.¹ Nobody was sure what the goats were doing. Old dictionaries and commentators guessed “sit up”, “caper”, “come down”.² Modern Hebrew settled it: picture goats streaming down a hillside. Sliding.

How Israelis use it today:

• Surfing the internetאֲנִי אוֹהֵב לִגְלוֹשׁ בָּאִינְטֶרְנֶט.I love surfing the internet. (A woman says אוֹהֶבֶת.)ani ohev liglosh ba-internet
• Surfing wavesגָּלַשְׁתְּ פַּעַם בְּתֵל אָבִיב?Have you ever surfed in Tel Aviv? (to a woman)galasht pa’am be-tel aviv?
• Skiingבַּחוֹרֶף אֲנַחְנוּ גּוֹלְשִׁים בַּחֶרְמוֹן.In winter we ski on the Hermon.ba-choref anachnu golshim ba-chermon
• Milk boiling overהֶחָלָב גָּלַשׁ!The milk boiled over! (It “slid” over the top of the pot.)he-chalav galash!
• Same rootגּוֹלֵשׁ · מַגְלֵשָׁה · גַּלְשָׁןsurfer or web user · playground slide · surfboardgolesh · maglesha · galshan

1. Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs) 4:1 and 6:5. Read it on Sefaria
2. Brown-Driver-Briggs and Strong’s, entry 1570 (biblehub); Makor Rishon, “לגלוש בין העברית החדשה לישנה” (Hebrew); Pealim, לגלוש.