how to say “butter” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/חמאה-#.m4a” /]חֶמְאָה

In biblical times, חמאה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/חמאה-#.m4a” /] referred to curds or leben. Today it refers to butter:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/חמאה-#.m4a” /]דודה שלי מכינה חמאה ביתית!

My aunt makes homemade butter!

I’m guessing that חמאה is called such because separating curds from whey (going back to the biblical חמאה) requires heat – חום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/חמאה-#.m4a” /].

The word for margarine is מרגרינה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/חמאה-#.m4a” /].