2242: halva Feb 3, 2021

The sesame dessert, halva, is spelled in hebrew as חלווה—featuring a somewhat unusual digraph וו—but also חלוה and even חלבה can be found. The latter form is considered a misspelling, but it's not totally random; the Hebrew word for milk is חלב‎ (kholov), though halva contains no milk. Indeed, the two have nothing to do with each other, with the dessert named from the Arabic حلوى (khalwa) meaning 'sweet; candy'.