Elsiheva wrote:

> In Hebrew the word you are looking at  is _yoneq_.  It means "to suck and
> receive sustenance," and it certainly usually refers to the breast, in
> both  Biblical and modern hebrew.  But it's also the same word that
appears in the
> Psalms in the frame, "I gave him to suck honey from the rock."   So not
> always-always the breast.
>
> Esther or Yael or Bracha or others, in modern Hebrew what word do people
> use  for non-breast infant feeding? Do they say _yoneq_ -- that is,
suckle; or
> _shoteh_, drink?  or other?


In Hebrew the word *yonek* usually refers to the breast, but it is sometimes
used in other contexts as well.
Yonek,  as a noun, also means *mammal*.

As  a verb, it is most commonly used referred to breastfeeding, but it is
also quite common to hear a baby is *yonek m'bakbuk*  - suckling from a
bottle.       So, it isn't always clear.
To answer Elisheva's question, there is not a consistent term used for a
non-breastfeeding baby.   The common  term for what a baby does when he eats
is he *eats*  (ochel), used for both breast and bottle feeders.  I hear this
most among the mothers and grandmothers, who  expect a baby to have *meals*
with regular intervals.    So, this terminology actually makes it harder for
people to understand breastfeeding.    When a mother says that her baby is
*yonek*, he is surely breastfeeding. When the verb is used from the mother's
point of view, what *she* is doing, *menika*, there is no doubt whatsoever
that she is breastfeeding.  But  non breastfed baby can also be *yonek from
a bottle*.

Yael Wyshogrod IBCLC
Rechovot, Israel

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