Until a few decades ago, it was assumed in educated Protestant society that everyone was familiar with the Bible. So a lot of biblical idioms are still present.
Until a few decades ago, it was assumed in educated Protestant society that everyone was familiar with the Bible. So a lot of biblical idioms are still present.
I now just realized that the biblical translators must have chosen to transliterate the word, not translate it.
It's probably because in context its about how the word is pronounced, not meaning. In any case, I guess the idiom would have never taken off with the word "corn."
Vulgate, cc 4th century CE:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+12%3A5-6...
Luther, 1545:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+12%3A6&v...
King James Bible (1611):
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+12%3A6&v...
Septuagint (the Greek translation, older than all above, around 3rd century BCE) didn't keep that word as is:
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/shibboleth-in-the-se...
"the LXX scholars had difficulties translating the Hebrew word שבלת Shibboleth into Greek, for the simple reason, Greek lacks the phoneme [ʃ]"