סיפור לפני השינה: מי שר מה בשכונה

What does “ledafdef” mean in Hebrew?

In this bedtime story, a chime tells children it’s time for דפדוף — a page-flip. The word grows from דף (daf), “page”: double it into the verb לדפדף and you get “to leaf through, to flip pages.” Modern Hebrew then took one more step: a דפדפן (dafdefan) is a web browser — literally “a page-flipper,” the same motion moved onto a screen.

The story comes from ספריית פיג'מה, the “Pajama Library” — a national program that sends free picture books home with Israeli preschoolers, which is why the readers assume the kids are holding their own copy and invite them to flip along. Doubling a short root like this is a favorite Hebrew word-building move — compare בלבל, “to confuse,” from בלל, “to mix.”