Hebrew has several words for craving –

השתוקקות, כלות, כיסוף, תאווה, among others. But the one I want to focus on is the slang דודא

, as in:

יש לי דודא לפיצה!

I have a craving for pizza!

Where does דודא come from? One explanation, favored by the Hebrew version of Wiktionary, is that Israelis borrow דודא from an Arabic word for worm (دودة – duda). But even Wiktionary admits that this explanation demands explanation – most people don’t crave worms.

A more plausible suggestion is the following. דודא means mandrake in Hebrew. What’s a mandrake? It’s the aphrodisiac plant that biblical Reuben gives to his mother to help her win the desire of her husband Jacob. Perhaps an Arabic usage of דודא, powered by the biblical story, gave rise to this Hebrew word for intense desire (usually for junk food).