M-B-W-L – ‘maximum expansion’

This is that universal deluge related by Moses, that terrible event, the memory of which remains among all peoples…

The root בל composed of the two signs ב and ל, indicates a force eminently dilating, which, acting from the centre to the circumference, increases the volume of things, causing a boiling up, a flux, an extraordinary swelling…The character מ which governs it, ought to be considered on this occasion, not alone as sign of exterior and plastic action; but as representing the word mah, which, as we have already seen in explaining the word מאה one hundred is applied to that which is great, to that which attains its utmost dimensions. (The Hebraic Tongue Restored, Fabré d’Olivet, p. 195-196)