The word for fun that means “wear out”: לְבַלּוֹת

לְבַלּוֹת

le-va-LOT, to spend time, and to have a good time.

The root is ב־ל־ה, and in the Bible it means to wear out. After forty years in the desert, the Israelites’ clothes לֹא בָלְתָה (lo valta), did not wear out.¹ In Psalms, the exact word לְבַלּוֹת describes bodies wasting away in the grave.²

So how did wearing out become going out? You wear out your time. You use it up. And when you use it up well, you had a great time. Dictionaries list all three meanings side by side: use up, wear out, have a good time.³

How Israelis use it today:

• Spending timeבִּלִּיתִי הַרְבֵּה זְמַן עִם הַתִּינֹקֶת שֶׁל בַּת הַדּוֹדָה שֶׁלִּי.I spent a lot of time with my cousin’s baby.biliti harbe zman im ha-tinoket shel bat ha-doda sheli
• Have fun!תְּבַלֶּה! / תְּבַלִּי!Have fun! (to a man / to a woman)tevale! / tevali!
• A good timeהָיָה לָנוּ אַחְלָה בִּלּוּי בְּאֵילַת.We had a great time in Eilat.haya lanu achla bilui be-eilat
• Where did you spend it?אֵיפֹה בִּלִּית אֶת הַחַג?Where did you spend the holiday? (to a woman)eifo bilit et ha-chag?
• Same rootבָּלוּי · בִּלּוּיworn out · a good time, entertainmentbaluy · bilui

1. Devarim (Deuteronomy) 8:4. Read it on Sefaria
2. Tehillim (Psalms) 49:15, “their form shall waste away in Sheol”. Read it on Sefaria
3. Pealim, לְבַלּוֹת; Rav-Milim, entries for בִּלָּה (modern and literary).