DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 man·na /ˈmænə/
 嗎哪,精神食糧,天賜,甘露

 man·na /ˈmænə/ 名詞

 Man·na n.
 1. Script. The food supplied to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia; hence, divinely supplied food.
 2. Bot. A name given to lichens of the genus Lecanora, sometimes blown into heaps in the deserts of Arabia and Africa, and gathered and used as food; called also manna lichen.
 3. Bot. & Med. A sweetish exudation in the form of pale yellow friable flakes, coming from several trees and shrubs and used in medicine as a gentle laxative, as the secretion of Fraxinus Ornus, and Fraxinus rotundifolia, the manna ashes of Southern Europe.
 Note: ☞ Persian manna is the secretion of the camel's thorn (see Camel's thorn, under Camel); Tamarisk manna, that of the Tamarisk mannifera, a shrub of Western Asia; Australian, manna, that of certain species of eucalyptus; Briançon manna, that of the European larch.
 Manna insect Zool, a scale insect (Gossyparia mannipara), which causes the exudation of manna from the Tamarix tree in Arabia.
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 manna
      n 1: hardened sugary exudation of various trees
      2: (Old Testament) food that God gave the Israelites during the
         Exodus [syn: miraculous food, manna from heaven]

 Manna
    Heb. man-hu, "What is that?" the name given by the Israelites to
    the food miraculously supplied to them during their wanderings
    in the wilderness (Ex. 16:15-35). The name is commonly taken as
    derived from _man_, an expression of surprise, "What is it?" but
    more probably it is derived from _manan_, meaning "to allot,"
    and hence denoting an "allotment" or a "gift." This "gift" from
    God is described as "a small round thing," like the "hoar-frost
    on the ground," and "like coriander seed," "of the colour of
    bdellium," and in taste "like wafers made with honey." It was
    capable of being baked and boiled, ground in mills, or beaten in
    a mortar (Ex. 16:23; Num. 11:7). If any was kept over till the
    following morning, it became corrupt with worms; but as on the
    Sabbath none fell, on the preceding day a double portion was
    given, and that could be kept over to supply the wants of the
    Sabbath without becoming corrupt. Directions concerning the
    gathering of it are fully given (Ex. 16:16-18, 33; Deut. 8:3,
    16). It fell for the first time after the eighth encampment in
    the desert of Sin, and was daily furnished, except on the
    Sabbath, for all the years of the wanderings, till they encamped
    at Gilgal, after crossing the Jordan, when it suddenly ceased,
    and where they "did eat of the old corn of the land; neither had
    the children of Israel manna any more" (Josh. 5:12). They now no
    longer needed the "bread of the wilderness."
      This manna was evidently altogether a miraculous gift, wholly
    different from any natural product with which we are acquainted,
    and which bears this name. The manna of European commerce comes
    chiefly from Calabria and Sicily. It drops from the twigs of a
    species of ash during the months of June and July. At night it
    is fluid and resembles dew, but in the morning it begins to
    harden. The manna of the Sinaitic peninsula is an exudation from
    the "manna-tamarisk" tree (Tamarix mannifera), the el-tarfah of
    the Arabs. This tree is found at the present day in certain
    well-watered valleys in the peninsula of Sinai. The manna with
    which the people of Israel were fed for forty years differs in
    many particulars from all these natural products.
      Our Lord refers to the manna when he calls himself the "true
    bread from heaven" (John 6:31-35; 48-51). He is also the "hidden
    manna" (Rev. 2:17; comp. John 6:49,51).