Etymologically uncertain. In Naumkin et al. 2016b:58, tentatively compared to Arb. wālibat- ‘offsets of the corn’, Tgr. ˀeleb ‘germ, sprout’. Within an alternative approach developed in Bulakh et al. 2020:272, fn. 19, ˀ in the Soqotri root is thought to represent a weakened *ˁ, cf. Arb. ˁilb- ‘place where Zizyphus spina Christi grows’, Sab. ˁlb ‘Zizyphus spina Christi’.