Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ʔMR_1 ‘to order, command, bid, instruct’ ↗ʔamara; ‘order, command, instruction, decree; power; (gram.) imperative’ ↗¹ʔamr; ‘commander; prince, emir; tribal chief’ ↗ʔamīr; ‘government(al), state-owned, state, public’ ↗(ʔa)mīrī ; ‘commissioned, charged; commissioner; civil officer; head of a markaz or qism (Eg.)’ ↗maʔmūr
▪ ʔMR_2 ‘matter, affair, concern, business’ ↗²ʔamr; ‘to ask s.o.’s advice, consult (s.o.) [on an issue]’ ↗ʔāmara; ‘deliberation, counsel; conference’ ↗muʔtamar; ‘plot, conspiracy’ ↗muʔāmaraẗ
▪ ʔMR_3 ‘sign, token, symptom, mark, characteristic’ ↗ʔamāraẗ
▪ ʔMR_4 ‘simple-minded, stupid; ^†ram, lamb’ ↗ʔimmar
▪ ʔMR_5 ‘pericardium (anat.); soul, mind, spirit’ ↗taʔmūr
▪ ʔMR_6 ‘form, blank’ ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ

Other values, now obsolete, include (Steingass1844, Hava1899):

▪ ^†ʔMR_7 ‘to be in good quantity; to have numerous flocks’: ^†ʔamira (a, ʔamar(aẗ)); cf. also caus. formation, ^†ʔāmara, vb. IV, ‘to multiply, make abundant (e.g., o.’s progeny, camels, etc.), render s.o. wealthy (God)’, as well as the adj. ^†ʔamir ‘multiplied, much, abundant; (hence also:) blessed’.
▪ ^†ʔMR_8 ‘serious, painful, very difficult (affair)’: ^†(ʔamr) ʔimr; cf. also corresp. vb. in the expr. ^†ʔamira ’l-ʔamr ‘the affair became severe, distressful, grievous, afflictive’
▪ ^†ʔMR_9 ‘passions’: ^†ʔammārāt (pl.)
▪ ^†ʔMR_10 ‘convent of monks’: ^†taʔmūr(aẗ)
▪ ^†ʔMR_11 ‘man’: ^†taʔmurī, ^†taʔmūrī, ^†tuʔmurī
▪ ^†ʔMR_12 ‘certain beast of the sea; (or:) small beast, kind of mountain-goat, having a single branching horn in the middle of his head’: ^†yaʔmūr or ^†taʔmūr.▪ ^†ʔMR_ ‘’: ^†...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1 bolder, marker, landmark, hillock; 2 affliction; 3a chief, to appoint as chief; 3b command, to command; 4 affair; 5 to increase, multiply; 6 to guide’

▪ From protSem *√ʔMR ‘to see, know, make known, say’ – Huehnergard2011.
▪ Albright1954: »It should be noted that the original meaning of Hebrew √ʔMR ‘to say’ was ‘to see’, as in Akk and prob. in Ug […]. The shift in meaning came through the factitive sense ‘to show’, hence ‘to speak’.«¹ .With this theory, Albright reaffirms the findings of Moscati’s earlier study (Moscati1946) which concluded with the assumption that practically all values attached to the root √ʔMR in Sem should be regarded as developments from the one primary meaning *‘to see’, as preserved in Akk (and Ug). According to Moscati, the values found in Sem √ʔMR reflect several stages of a’logical development« (sviluppo logico) along the line *‘to see > to indicate > to command’ (vedere > indicare > comandare), which for Moscati has an »eloquent parallel« in Lat índico > dico > indíco (1946: 125). – Moscati’s study seems plausible in many respects, but it remains silent at least about [v5] ‘pericardium (anat.); soul, mind, spirit’ (taʔmūr), nor would Moscati exclude that [v4] ^†‘ram, lamb’ (and hence ‘simple-minded, stupid’) perh. is a separate item, unrelated to the remaining spectrum.
▪ Kogan2015:331 : »if one follows S. Moscati (1946:125) and W.F. Albright (1954:229) in regarding the meaning ‘to see’ as the most primitive one, Ug must be the only Sem lang where this archaic meaning is attested virtually side by side with the innovative ‘to say’, ‘to command’, normal for the rest of CSem.«
▪ Kogan2015:331 n.976: »Remnants of the original meaning ‘to see’ have been surmised for √ʔMR in other CSem langs as well (…; for Ar ʔamaraẗ, tuʔmur ‘sign, mark’ in Lane 97-98 v. Moscati 1946:124, Rundgren 1963:182), but they are much less certain. It would be tempting to regard the meaning shift ‘to see’ > ‘to say’ as a shared semantic innovation of CSem, but modSAr *ʕMR ‘to say’ (Mhr ʔāmōr, Jib ʕor, Soq ʕémor) is hard to separate from this root in spite of the irregular *ʕ‑.«
▪ Dolgopolsky2012 #42 reconstructs protSem *√ʔMR ‘to see, be seen’, but wants to keep this distinct from both protCush *√ʔMR (< AfrAs *ʔMR < #41 Nostr *ʔam˻˅˼R˅ or *ʔam˹o˺(˻R˅˼)) ‘morning, daylight, dawn’, and protBerb *√˹W˺MR (< AfrAs *ʔMR < #42 Nostr *˹ʔ˺Umr˅) ‘to burn (intr.); to shine, be bright; dawn’. He thinks that Sem *√ʔMR ‘to see, be seen’ and other »alleged cognates […] are semantically and\or phonetically unfit for comparison«. No further details given.
▪ Elaborating slightly on Moscati and Albright, and observing Dolgopolsky’s caveat, one may assume a semantic development along the line’(?0 Nostr *‘morning, daylight’ × *‘to burn (intr.); to shine, be bright; dawn’ > ) Sem ‘A to be visible, observable; fact, issue, matter, affair > B to see, take notice of s.th. (that is visible or comes into sight, a fact, an issue, etc.) > C to indicate, show, demonstrate, point to s.th. (a thing, matter, case, etc.) > D to say > E to command’. – Most of the values represented by Ar items can be seen as reflections of some stage in this development:

0 The only Sem words that in Dolgopolsky’s view have a Nostr dimension are those given in DRS as ʔMR-2 (Gz ʔamir, Gaf aymerä, Har īr ‘sun’). Dolgopolsky excludes a relation between these and the rest, but he seems to be slightly too apodictic about that. DRS holds that it is »not impossible« that the EthSem value ‘sun’ should be seen together with the complex of ‘visibility’ treated below as primary value (A) in Sem. However, while DRS suggests that the EthSem ‘sun’ originally may have been *‘the shining one’ and thus be derived from ‘visibility’, we would assume it more likely, in the light of Dolgoposky’s material, that it is the other way round, i.e., that the appearance of the sun at dawn, its becoming visible and catching the observer’s attention, is the primary value. –DRS also asks whether there may be a relation between the EthSem ‘sun’ and Sem √QMR (cf. Ar ↗qamar ‘moon’).
A ‘1 to be visible, observable; 2 fact, issue, matter, affair’: They main value belonging here is ʔMR_2, represented first and foremost by ²ʔamr ‘matter, affair, concern, business’ and derivatives, incl. ‘to consult s.o./each other on an issue’, hence (as a neologism) also ‘to conspire’. The quasi-PP ʔamīr ‘commander; prince, emir; tribal chief’, usually attributed to E, has also been interpreted as *‘person consulted, or to be consulted, in an affair/on all kinds of issues’, in which case it would belong to A2. Likewise, ʔimmar in the sense of ‘simple-minded, stupid’ is often explained in ClassAr lexica as meaning, literally, *‘(mostly children) who always ask others to explain things, seek advice on every issue’. – In an attempt to explain some values attached to Hbr ʔMR items such as ʔāmîr ‘top, summit’ and tîmārāʰ ‘column’, Barth1902 took as evident and sufficiently proven that one has to assume a homonymous Sem root √ʔMR meaning *‘to be high’ alongside ʔMR ‘to see > say > command’ (1902: 5-6). He saw reflexes of this *‘to be high’ also in [v7] ‘to be plentiful, many’ (Ar ^†ʔamira), [v8] ‘serious, painful, very difficult (affair)’ (^†ʔimr) (see also BAH2008 ‘to afflict’), or in ^†ʔamaraẗ~ʔamār(aẗ) ‘(high) heap of stones’ (ibid.). His theory comes close to others that derive Ar ^†tuʔmur ‘sign, mark’ from the root √TMR, particularly ↗tamr ‘date palm’, sharing with the latter the notion of ‘altitude’. (On Hbr tîmārāʰ ‘column’, DRS thinks it may be from ‘to be visible, to see’, but also adds: »Il n’est pas exclu cependant que nous ayons affaire à des racines différentes, v.s. TMR.«) Accordingly, ʔamīr, too, has not only been interpreted as *‘person (to be) consulted on all kinds of issues’ (< ²ʔamr ‘affair, issue’, etc. – see above) or *‘person who commands, gives orders’ (< ʔamara ‘to command’, etc. – see below), but also as *‘person of high standing’, or *‘person excelling among the people’. However, both ‘palm tree’ and ‘s.th. high’ are at the same time s.th. visible, observable from afar and/or attracting attention, so that *‘altitude’ and ‘palm tree’ are not really necessary to explain the semantics in this group. – The relative distance of [v7] ‘multitude, plentitude, abundance’ to ‘visibility’ has led some scholars to assume that [v7] should be explained as originally belonging to ↗ʕMR, not ʔMR (so, e.g., DRS s.v. #ʔMR-5). – Group A belongs closely together with B and especially C, as it is difficult to keep ‘visibility’ apart from its effect on the observer for whom s.th. visible may serve as a sign, an indicator, and thus makes him/her see.
B ‘to see, take notice of s.th. (that is visible or comes into sight, a fact, an issue, etc.), observe’ is the main value of ʔMR in Akk, to be found also in Ug. In Ar, its only immediate remnant seems to be ↗taʔammala, probably from taʔammara *‘to take s.th. as an indicator\sign for o.s.’ (see C), with assumed sound shift *r > l.²
C ‘to indicate, show, demonstrate, point to s.th. (a thing, matter, case, etc.)’: As mentioned above, this value is very close to the two preceding ones – it may be interpreted as a shift of perspective (an object that is visible for s.o. has at the same time also the “active” part of indicating s.th. for the observer and, thus, make him/her see it, take notice of it, etc.). The value that reflects this notion in its essence is certainly [v3] ‘sign, token, symptom, mark, characteristic’ (ʔamāraẗ, and – with emphasis on the object’s own “activity”³ – ^†tuʔmūr). The Qur’anic ʔamr meaning ‘revelation’ may also belong here, either directly or as a borrowing from Aram, as suggested by Jeffery1938.⁴
D ‘to say’: not represented in Ar, but central e.g. in Hbr. As pointed out by, e.g., Moscati, the value can easily be connected to C ‘to indicate, etc.’, as ‘to say s.th. to s.o.’ means ‘to draw his/her attention to it, point to it’ (1946: 121).
E ‘to command’: [v1], with the n. ¹ʔamr ‘order, command, etc.’, the vb. ʔamara ‘to order, command, bid, instruct’, and the quasi-PP ʔamīr ‘commander; prince, emir; tribal chief’, is the main representative of this value. Obviously, it overlaps, and is thus closely connected, with C and D, and ultimately A, as ‘commanding’ is a specific, imperative way of ‘saying’ s.th. (D), and it implies ‘pointing to, indicating’ s.th. (C), in this way drawing the addressed person’s attention to an ‘issue’, ²ʔamr (A). – As already mentioned above, the FaʕīL formation ʔamīr has been interpreted not only as *‘person endowed with authority, commander, chief’, but also as *‘person (to be) consulted in all kinds of affairs’ and *‘person of high standing’. – Clearly in group E belong [v9] the ‘passions’ (^†ʔammārāt, as these are the instincts or bad emotions that ‘command’ us to do evil, cf. the well-known term al-nafs al-ʔammāraẗ bi’l-sūʔ ‘the baser self (of man) that incites to evil’. According to ClassAr lexica, also taʔmūr in the sense of [v5] ‘soul, mind, spirit’ belongs to the complex of E ‘commanding’, »because it is that which is wont to command« (Lane i 1863). From ‘soul’ then also values like ‘intellect’ and ‘heart’, hence also ‘pericardium’ are derived. In a further step, taʔmūr(aẗ) may occasionally also signify the “soul” or “heart” of a monestry, or a community of believers, hence [v10] ^†‘convent of monks’. If taʔmūr is used synecdochically, the ‘soul’ comes to mean anybody having a ‘soul’, i.e., [v11] ^† ‘man’ in general (also expressed by nisba formations such as ^†taʔmurī, ^†taʔmūrī, or ^†tuʔmurī).

▪ The modern word ĭsti(ʔ)māraẗ, the standard term for [v6] ‘form, blank’, now in ubiquitous use, is obviously a singulative of a desiderative vn. X, thus meaning either *‘(document/move) to ask for a decree, ¹ʔamr’ (↗ʔamara), or *‘(document/move) to look into a matter, ↗²ʔamr’ (?).
▪ The only item that it might be difficult to assign to some of the above groups is probably ^†yaʔmūr~taʔmūr, signifying either a [v12] ‘certain beast of the sea’ or a ‘small beast, kind of mountain-goat, having a single branching horn in the middle of his head’. Lane suggests to regard this as a variant of ↗yaḥmūr ‘roebuck’.
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1. W. F. Albright, “Northwest-Semitic Names in a List of Egyptian Slaves from the Eighteenth Century B.C.”, JAOS, 74.4 (1954): 222-233, 229 n47. 2. Moscati1946: 116, reporting and confirming an idea put forward earlier by C. Brockelmann, Grundriss, I: 221, and J. Barth, “Verschiebung der Liquidae im Assyrischen”, ZA 3 (1888): 57-61, 60. 3. Barth1894: 300 thinks that the nominal pattern taFʕūL is an extension formed on the basis of the “transitive infinitive qŭtûl”, exhibiting the same transitivity. He thinks Ar taʔmūr and (with vowel assimilation) tuʔmūr are derived from √ʔMR in the sense of ‘to know’, giving taʔmūr ‘knowledge, to get to know’ and tuʔmūr (‘recognition’ =) ‘sign, mark, token (on the wayside)’. 4. »In the two senses (i) ‘command’ or ‘decree¬’, (ii) ‘matter’, ‘affair’, it is a genuine Ar word, and commonly used in the Qurʔān. – In its use in connection with the Qurʔānic doctrine of revelation, however, it would seem to represent the Aram מימרא (Rudolph, Abhängigkeit, 41; Horovitz, JPN, 188; Fischer, Glossar, Nachtrag to 86; Ahrens, Christliches, 26; Muḥammad, 134). The whole conception seems to have been strongly influenced by the Christian Logos doctrine [Grimme, System, 50 ff.], though the word would seem to have arisen from the Targumic use of מימרא« – Jeffery1938: 69.

–

▪ Zammit2002: Akk amāru ‘to see’, Ug ʔamr ‘saying, command; to be visible, to see’, Phoen ʔmr ‘to say’, Hbr ʔāmar ‘to utter, say’, lHbr maʔamär ‘word, command’, BiblAram ʔamar ‘to say, tell; command’, Syr ʔemar ‘to say, speak’, ʔamīrā ‘praefectus’, SAr ʔmr ‘to proclaim; command (of a god), oracle’, Gz ʔammara ‘monstrare, ostendere; notum facere; demonstrare’, Ar ʔmr ‘to command, order, enjoin’.
▪ DRS 1 (1994) #ʔMR‑ 1 Ar ʔamara ‘ordonner’; SAr ʔmr ‘ordonner, manifester’; Soq ʕemor, Śḥr ʕoñr, Mhr amor ‘dire’; EpigrAram ʔmr, JP ʔāmar, Syr ʔemar, Mand amar ‘dire, parler, ordonner’; Ya ʔmrh ‘ordre(?)’; Phoen Pun Moab EpigrHbr ʔmr, Hbr ʔāmar ‘dire’; Ug ʔamr ‘souhait, parole(?)’. – Akk amāru ‘voir, regarder’; Ug ʔamr ‘être visible, voir’; Ar taʔammala ‘examiner’; Gz ʔammara ‘montrer, indiquer’; təʔmərt ‘signe’; ʔəm(m)ur ‘clair, bien connu’; Tña ʔamära ‘savoir’; Te ʔammärä ‘être clair’; ʔamir ‘connaissance’; Amh ʔamro ‘raison, intelligence’; təmərt ‘signe, marque, science’. – Hbr ʔāmir ‘sommet d’arbre ou montagne’; tīmārā ‘colonne pilier’, Ar ʔamāraẗ ‘signe, indice, repère’, tāmūr(aẗ) ‘tour, tourelles’; ?Amh ʔamärä ‘être beau, plaisant, aimable’. -2 Gz ʔamir, Gaf aymerä, Har īr ‘soleil’. -3 Akk immer‑, Ug ʔimr, Phoen Pun ʔmr, oAram EmpAram Palm *ʔmr, BiblAram ʔimmar, JP ʔimmᵊrā, Syr ʔemmᵊrā, Ar ʔimmar ‘chevreau, agneau’. -4 Soq *emer ‘être oisif’; (intensif conatif) ʔomir ‘gâter, rendre oisif’; ?Ar ʔimmar ‘sans jugement, stupide’. -5 Ar ʔamira ‘être nombreux, abondant, croître’. -6 Akk emēru ‘soulever(?)’. -7 Hbr *ʔēmer ‘brindille’. -8 Tña ʔamora, Amh amora: oiseau de proie. -9 Ar ʔamāraẗ: sorte de millet. -10 Ar taʔmūr(aẗ) ‘sang, cœur’. -11 ‘antre du lion’. -12 ‘chèvre de montagne’. -13 Akk amīr ‘engorgement de l’oreille’. -14 amar‑ ‘tuiles’. -15 amr ‘ambre’.
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▪ Dolgopolsky2012 #41 Nostr *ʔam˻˅˼R˅ (or *ʔam˹o˺(˻R˅˼)?) ‘morning, daylight’ > AfrAs *√ʔMR ‘morning, daylight’ (× #42 Nostr *˹ʔ˺Umr˅ ‘to burn’ (intr.), ‘to shine, be bright; dawn’) > Cush *√ʔMR ‘morning, dawn’ > Ag *ʔamɐr‑ ‘morning’ > Bln amari, Q amarē ‘morning, tomorrow’, Xm amir, Xm T amər ‘tomorrow’ (> Gz ʔamīr ‘sun, day, time’, Gaf aymɐra, Gur imir, yimɜr ‘sun’). || protIE *Hₓām(e)r / *Hₓām‑n‑ (*h₂eHmer) ‘day’ (× Nostr *˹ʔ˺Umr˅) > Grk (Hm) ē̂mar, gen. ē̂mat-os, D/AC âmar, ‑atos ‘day’ (> Grk A ʰēmérā ‘day’, with initial ʰ‑ on the analogy of ʰespéra ‘evening’); Arm awr ‘day’ (< *au̪mr < *amur < *āmōr), gen. awur. – Dolgopolsky2012 #42 *˹ʔ˺Umr˅ ‘to burn’ (intr.), ‘to shine, be bright; dawn’ > AfrAs *√ʔMR (× Nostr *ʔam˻˅˼R˅ ‘morning, daylight’): Berb *√˹W˺MR > Ahg əmmar ‘le soleil, le feu, tout corps en combustion qui chauffe à une distance; chaleur rayonnée’, ъsammər ‘rayons du soleil chauffant doucement’, Ty, ETwl asъsam̮m̮ər id., Rf summär ‘ensoleiller, se mettre au soleil’, Izd asammər̮ ‘sunny side of a mountain’, SrSn, Izn sammər id., ṯamiri ‘moonlight’. – Other alleged cognates within AfrAs (Sem *√ʔMR ‘to see, be seen’ etc., as well as some Ch, Eg and Berb words), are semantically and\or phonetically unfit for comparison. || protIE *Hₓām(e)r / *Hₓām‑n‑ (*h₂eHmer) ‘day’ (× Nostr *ʔam˻˅˼R˅, see #41).
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▪ (Huehnergard2011:) Engl emir, admiral ↗ʔamīr.

–

ʔamar‑ أَمَرَ , u (ʔamr)

ID 036 • Sw – • BP 2205 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʔMR

vb., I

(vn. ʔamr) 1 to order, command, bid, instruct, commission, charge, entrust (s.o. bi‑ with s.th. or to do s.th.); 2 (vn. ʔimāraẗ) to become an emir – WehrCowan1976.

▪ If semantics within the Sem root √ʔMR developed along the line sketched and discussed s.v.↗√ʔMR (section CONC), namely *(? Nostr *‘morning, daylight’ × *‘to burn (intr.); to shine, be bright; dawn’ >) Sem ‘to be visible, observable; fact, issue, matter, affair > to see, take notice of s.th. (that is visible or comes into sight, a fact, an issue, etc.) > to indicate, show, demonstrate, point to s.th. (a thing, matter, case, etc.) > to say > to command’, then Ar ʔamara ‘to order, command, etc.’ and derivatives represent the most recent stage of a long semantic history. Reflexes of most other stages seem to be preserved by many other items belonging to the root that exhibits a wide range of meanings.
▪ While the values attached to ¹ʔamr all seem to build on the vb. ʔamara, the meanings ‘matter, affair, issue, etc.’ (²ʔamr) and ‘(Qur’ānic) revelation’ (³ʔamr) probably belong to earlier stages (see ↗ʔamr for the former and ↗ʔamāraẗ for the latter); cf., however, also below, section DISC.
▪ …

▪ eC7 I ¹ʔamr (pl. ʔawāmirᵘ) 1 (command) Q 46:25 tudammiru kulla šayʔin bi‑ʔamri rabbihā ‘[the storm] destroys everything by the command of its Lord’; 2 (will) Q 9:48 wa‑ẓahara ʔamru ’llāhi wa‑hum kārihūna ‘and God’s will triumphed, much to their disgust’; 3 (teaching, ordinance, guidance, instruction) Q 49:9 fa‑qātilū ’llatī tabġī ḥattà tafīʔa ʔilà ʔamri ’llāhi ‘so fight the oppressive party until it returns to God’s ordinance’; 4 (system, order) Q 41:12 fa‑qaḍāhunna sabʕa samāwātin fī yawmayni wa‑ʔawḥà fī kulli samāʔin ʔamrahā ‘so He ordained them seven heavens in two days, and assigned in each heaven its order’; 5 (decision, decree) Q 9:106 wa‑ʔāḫarūna murǧawna li‑ʔamri ’llāhi ʔimmā yuʕaḏḏibuhum wa‑ʔimmā yatūbu ʕalayhim ‘And others are deferred to God’s decree, whether He chastises them or accepts their repentance’; 6 (domain, prerogative) Q 17:85 wa‑yasʔalūnaka ʕan‑i ’l‑rūḥi qul‑i ’l‑rūḥu min ʔamri rabb‑ī wa‑mā ʔūtītum min‑a ’l‑ʕilmi ʔillā qalīlan ‘And they ask you [Prophet] about the Spirit. Say: “The Spirit is [part] of the domain of my Lord,” you have only been given a little knowledge [lit., you have not been given of knowledge but a little]’; 7 (obligations, duties, tasks) Q 18:88 wa‑ʔammā man ʔāmana wa‑ʕamila ṣāliḥan fa‑lahū ǧazāʔan‑i ’l‑ḥusnà wa‑sa‑naqūlu lahū min ʔamrinā yusran ‘as for him who believed and did right, for him, as recompense, will be the ultimate reward, and We will assign to him of Our commands/tasks that which is easy [to fulfil]’; 8 (decree, verdict) Q 11:76 yā‑ʔIbrāhīmu ʔaʕriḍ ʕan hāḏā ʔinnahū qad ǧāʔa ʔamru rabbika wa‑ʔinnahum ʔātī‑him ʕaḏābun ġayru mardūdin ‘Abraham! Desist from this! Your Lord’s verdict has come about; and there is chastisement coming to them that cannot be turned back’; 9 (opinion, judgement) Q 18:82 wa‑mā faʕaltuhū ʕan ʔamrī ‘I did not do it by my own command’. – II ↗²ʔamr (pl. ʔumūr).

▪ The n. ʔamīr ‘commander; prince, emir; tribal chief’ is often regarded to derive from ʔamara. Ultimately, this may be true – but only via a concept like ʔimraẗ ‘power, influence, authority, command’, since, morphologically, ʔamīr is a FaʕīL formation and should therefore have adjectival or quasi-PP meaning. One could think of a semantic chain like: ʔamīr, lit., *‘endowed with authority’, from ¹ʔamr or ʔimraẗ ‘power, authority’, from ʔamara ‘to command’. – For other interpretations of the word, see entry ↗ʔamīr.
▪ It is not unthinkable that ²ʔamr ‘matter, affair, issue, etc.’ and ³ʔamr ‘(Qur’ānic) revelation’ both are from *‘what has been decreed, commanded’, the former in the sense of *‘command\issued word that has to be taken as a fact, or taken into account’, the second as *‘issued by God’. However, neither ClassAr dictionaries nor modern research have suggested such a relation so far.
▪ More obvious is the dependence of ↗taʔmūr ‘soul, mind, spirit’ and the n.f.pl. ^†ʔammārāt ‘passions’ on ʔamara. The latter is short for *‘the inner drives that command us to commit evil’ (cf. also the well-known term al-nafs al-ʔammāraẗ bi’l-sūʔ ‘the inner drive that incites the human being to do wrong, etc.’). The former, taʔmūr, an old taFʕūL formation, is usually explained as *‘commanding, she who commands’, »because it [sc. the soul] is that which is wont to command« (Lane i 1863). For further derivations from ‘soul’ etc., cf. entry ↗taʔmūr.
▪ The modern word ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ (var. ĭstimāraẗ) ‘form, blank’ is either from ¹ʔamr (*‘to ask for a decree, for guidance’) or from ↗²ʔamr (< *‘to seek advice in some issue\case’).
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▪ …

▪ (Huehnergard2011:) Engl emir, admiral ↗ʔamīr.

► ʔamara, ʔamura, u (ʔimāraẗ), vb. I, to become an emir: prob. denom. from ʔamīr.
► ʔammara, vb. II, to invest with authority, make an emir (s.o., ʕalà over): D-stem, denom. from ʔamīr.
► taʔammara, vb. V, 1 to come to power; 2a to set o.s. up as lord and master; 2b to behave like an emir; 2c to assume an imperious attitude; 2d to be imperious, domineering: Dt-stem, intr., from ¹ʔamr in the sense of ‘power, authority’.

► ^BP#1667¹ʔamr, pl. ʔawāmirᵘ, n., 1a order, command, instruction (bi‑ to do s.th.); 1b ordinance, decree; 2 power, authority; 3 (gram.) imperative | ʔamr ʕālⁱⁿ, n., royal decree (formerly, Eg.); ʔamr ʕaliyy, n., decree, edict of the Bey (formerly, Tun.); ʔamr qānūnī, n., ordinance having the force of law (Tun.); al-ʔamr wa’l‑nahy, pl. al-ʔawāmir wa’l‑nawāhī (lit.: command and interdiction, i.e.) sovereign power; full power(s),supreme authority; ʔamr tawrīd, n., (delivery) order (com.); taḥtᵃ ʔamrika, expr., at your disposal, at your service.
► ʔimraẗ, n.f., power, influence, authority, command | taḥtᵃ ʔimratih, adv., under his command.
► ^BP#810ʔimāraẗ, n.f., 1 position or rank of an emir; 2 princely bearing or manners; 3 principality, emirate; 4 authority, power: vn. I of ʔamura, from ʔamīr (see below) | ʔimāraẗ al-baḥr, n.f., office or jurisdiction of an admiral, admiralty; ʔimārāt sāḥil ʕUmān, n.pl.f., Trucial Oman.
► ^BP#589ʔamīr, pl. ʔumarāʔᵘ, n., 1 commander; 2a prince, emir; 2b title of princes of a ruling house; 3 tribal chief: quasi-PP, lit. *‘endowed with power, authority’, from ¹ʔamr or ʔimraẗ ‘power, authority’. | ʔamīr ʔalāy, n., commander of a regiment (formerly, Eg.; approx.: colonel; as a naval rank, approx.: captain); ʔamīr al-ʔumarāʔ, n., approx.: major general (Tun.); ʔamīr al-biḥār, n., (Eg. 1939) approx.: admiral; kabīr ʔumarāʔ al-biḥār, n., (Eg. 1939) approx.: fleet admiral; ʔamīr al-baḥr, n., admiral (when referring to a non‑Arab officer of this rank; Eg. 1939 approx.: vice‑admiral); ʔamīr al-biḥār al-ʔaʕẓam, n., fleet admiral (when referring to a non‑Arab officer of this rank); ʔamīr al-liwāʔ, n., (Ir., since 1933) brigadier; ʔamīr liwāʔ al-ʕassaẗ, n., commandant of the Bey’s palace guard (formerly, Tun.); ʔamīr al-muʔminīn, n., Commander of the Faithful, Caliph.
► ʔamīraẗ, pl. ‑āt, n.f., princess: f. of ʔamīr.
► ʔamīrī (and mīrī), adj., government(al), state‑owned, state, public: nisba formation from ʔamīr in the sense of *‘holder of power, authority’. | ʔarḍ ʔamīrī, n., government land (Syr.); al-maṭbaʕaẗ al-ʔamīriyyaẗ, n.f., government press.
► ʔammār, adj., constantly urging, always demanding (bi‑ to do s.th.); inciting, instigating: ints. formation, quasi-PA. | al-nafs al-ʔammāraẗ bi’l-sūʔ, n.f., the baser self (of man) that incites to evil.
► taʔammur, n., 1a imperiousness, domineeringness; 1b imperious deportment, overbearing manners: vn. V.
► ĭstiʔmāraẗ (frequently written ĭstimāraẗ), n.f., form, blank: singulative of vn. X, from *‘(document/move) to ask for a decree, ¹ʔamr, or to look into a matter, ²ʔamr’ (?).
► ʔāmir, n., 1 commander; 2 lord, master; 3 orderer, purchaser, customer, client: PA I. | al-ʔāmir al-nāhī, n., absolute master, vested with unlimited authority.
► maʔmūr, 1 adj. commissioned, charged; 2 n., a commissioner; 2b civil officer, official, esp., one in executive capacity; 2c the head of a markaz and qism (Eg.): PP I. | maʔmūr al-būlīs, n., commissioner of police; maʔmūr al-taflīsaẗ, n., receiver (in bankruptcy; jur.); maʔmūr al-ḥarakaẗ, n., traffic manager (railroad); maʔmūr al-taṣfiyaẗ, n., receiver (in equity, in bankruptcy; jur.).
► maʔmūriyyaẗ, pl. ‑āt, n.f., 1 order, instruction; errand; task, assignment, mission; 2 commission; 3 commissioner’s office, administrative branch of a government agency, e.g., maʔmūriyyaẗ qaḍāʔiyyaẗ, n.f., judicial commission charged with jurisdiction in outlying communities (Eg.): nisba formation from maʔmūr.

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

ʔamr أَمْر , pl. ʔumūr

ID 037 • Sw – • BP 1667 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʔMR

I ¹ʔamr (pl. ʔawāmirᵘ) ↗¹ʔamara. – II matter, affair, concern, business – WehrCowan1976. –
^†III ³ʔamr (Q only) revelation ↗ʔamāraẗ.

▪ While ¹ʔamr ‘command, order’ belongs together with ↗ʔamara ‘to command, order, instruct’, and the Qur’ānic ³ʔamr ‘revelation’ probably is a borrowing from Syr, semantically close to the complex of ‘showing, demonstrating, indicating’ treated s.v. ↗ʔamāraẗ, ²ʔamr in the sense of ‘matter, affair, issue, case, etc.’ seems to reflect one of the primary values attached to √ʔMR in Sem: visibility. The original meaning may have been *‘s.th. visible (from afar), observable, attracting one’s attention’. – The idea of *‘visibility’ may ultimately stem from a Nostr *‘morning, daylight’ (> AfrAs *ʔMR ‘id.’) × *‘to burn (intr.), shine, be bright; dawn’ (though Dolgopolsky2012 rejected this possibility for phonological reasons).
▪ If ²ʔamr, interpreted as *‘visible, obvious, evident fact’, belongs to the complex of *‘visibility’, then its closest relatives within √ʔMR are ↗ʔamāraẗ ‘sign, token, mark’ and perh. ^†tāmūr(aẗ) ‘(little) tower’ (though the latter may derive from √TMR ‘date palm, dates’). Instead of a primary *‘visibility’, Barth1894 had assumed as sufficiently proven a basic *‘altitude, to be high’ to be the earliest sense of Sem √ʔMR, in which case ²ʔamr ‘matter, fact, etc.’ would originally by *‘s.th. high’, hence ‘noticeable, catching one’s attention, fact’. But neither ‘date palm, dates’ nor *‘altitude, to be high’ are needed to sketch a plausible theory of semantic development in Ar and Sem, *‘visibility’ being sufficiently convincing. – Other close relatives may be ^†ʔamir ‘multiplied, much, abundant’ (lit., *‘visible and calling for one’s attention due to its sheer quantity’), and ^†ʔimr ‘severe, distressful, grievous, afflictive (due to the fact that s.th. is obviously painful, hurting, etc.)’.
▪ …

▪ eC7 Q 16:1, 17:85, 32:5, 40:15, 42:52, 65:12, 97:4.
▪ eC7 I ¹ʔamr ↗ʔamara. – II ²ʔamr (pl. ʔumūr) 1 (affair, matter) Q 8:43 ʔiḏ yurī‑ka‑humu ’llāhu fī manāmika qalīlan wa‑law ʔarā‑ka‑hum kaṯīran la‑fašiltum wa‑la‑tanāzaʕtum fī ’l‑ʔamri ‘Remember when God made you see them in your sleep as few – had He shown them to you as many, you would certainly have lost heart and disputed over the affair’; *Q 12:102 ʔaǧmaʕū ʔamrahum ‘they settled upon their plans’; *Q 9:50 qad ʔaḫaḏnā ʔamranā ‘we have taken our precautions beforehand’; *Q 21:93 taqaṭṭaʕū ʔamrahum baynahum ‘they fell into disunity, caused a schism amongst themselves [lit., they fragmented their affairs between them]’; *Q 3:186 ʕazmi ’l‑ʔumūri ‘matters of great importance, serious undertakings, a task requiring great capability’; 2 (situation, condition) Q 18:21 ʔiḏ yatanāzaʕūna baynahum ʔamrahum ‘when they were discussing their situation among themselves’; 3 (what exists) Q 11:123 wa‑li‑llāhi ġaybu ’l‑samāwāti wa’l‑ʔarḍi wa‑ʔilayhi yurǧaʕu ’l‑ʔamru kulluhū ‘to God belongs all that is hidden in the heavens and earth, and to Him all that exists shall return’.
▪ …

▪ ¹ʔamr ↗ʔamara.
▪ Zammit2002: Akk amāru ‘to see’, Ug ʔamr ‘saying, command; to be visible, to see’, Phoen ʔmr ‘to say’, Hbr ʔāmar ‘to utter, say’, lHbr maʔamär ‘word, command’, BiblAram ʔamar ‘to say, tell; command’, Syr ʔemar ‘to say, speak’, ʔamīrā ‘praefectus’, SAr ʔmr ‘to proclaim; command (of a god), oracle’, Gz ʔammara ‘monstrare, ostendere; notum facere; demonstrare’, Ar ʔmr ‘to command, order, enjoin’.
▪ DRS 1 (1994) #ʔMR‑ 1 Ar ʔamara ‘ordonner’; SAr ʔmr ‘ordonner, manifester’; Soq ʕemor, Śḥr ʕoñr, Mhr amor ‘dire’; EpigrAram ʔmr, JP ʔāmar, Syr ʔemar, Mand amar ‘dire, parler, ordonner’; Ya ʔmrh ‘ordre(?)’; Phoen Pun Moab EpigrHbr ʔmr, Hbr ʔāmar ‘dire’; Ug ʔamr ‘souhait, parole(?)’. – Akk amāru ‘voir, regarder’; Ug ʔamr ‘être visible, voir’; Ar taʔammala ‘examiner’; Gz ʔammara ‘montrer, indiquer’; təʔmərt ‘signe’; ʔəm(m)ur ‘clair, bien connu’; Tña ʔamära ‘savoir’; Te ʔammärä ‘être clair’; ʔamir ‘connaissance’; Amh ʔamro ‘raison, intelligence’; təmərt ‘signe, marque, science’. – Hbr ʔāmir ‘sommet d’arbre ou montagne’; tīmārā ‘colonne pilier’, Ar ʔamāraẗ ‘signe, indice, repère’, tāmūr(aẗ) ‘tour, tourelles’; ?Amh ʔamärä ‘être beau, plaisant, aimable’.
▪ …▪ …

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ Jeffery 1938: »In the two senses (i) ‘command’ or ‘decree’, (ii) ‘matter’, ‘affair’, it is a genuine Ar word, and commonly used in the Qurʔān. – In its use in connection with the Qurʔānic doctrine of revelation, however, it would seem to represent the Aram מימרא (Rudolph, Abhängigkeit, 41; Horovitz, JPN, 188; Fischer, Glossar, Nachtrag to 86; Ahrens, Christliches, 26; Muḥammad, 134). The whole conception seems to have been strongly influenced by the Christian Logos doctrine,¹ though the word would seem to have arisen from the Targumic use of מימרא.«
▪ …

1. Grimme, System, 50 ff.

▪ (Huehnergard2011:) Engl emir; admiral ↗ʔamīr.

► ʔamr wāqiʕ, n., (accomplished) fact
► ʔamr maʕrūf, n., common knowledge
► fī ʔawwal al-ʔamr, adv., at first, in the beginning
► li-ʔamrⁱⁿ mā, adv., for some reason or other
► ʔa‑laysa ’l-ʔamr kaḏālik?, expr., isn’t it so?
► ʔammā wa-ʔamr kaḏālik, expr., things being as they are, there will, no doubt
► mahmā yakun min ʔamr, expr., whatever may happen; however things may be
► huwa bayna ʔamraynⁱ, expr., he has two possibilities (or alternatives)
► al-ʔamr allaḏī, rel.n., which (introducing a relative clause the antecedent of which is another clause)
► quḍiya ʔamruh, expr., it’s all over with him; in the latter and similar phrases, ʔamruh is a frequent paraphrase of ‘he’.

► ʔāmara, vb. III, to ask s.o.’s (DO) advice, consult (s.o.): L-stem, assoc., from ²ʔamr.
► taʔāmara, vb. VI, 1 to take counsel, deliberate together, confer, consult with each other; 2 to plot, conspire (ʕalà against): Lt-stem, recipr., from ²ʔamr (lit., *‘to take each other’s advice on an issue, ʔamr); [v2] seems to be a rather late development.
► ĭʔtamara, vb. VIII, 1 to deliberate, take counsel (bi‑ about); 2 to conspire, plot, hatch a plot (ʕalà against s.o.): Gt-stem, self-ref., from ²ʔamr (lit., *‘to ponder for o.s. over an issue, ʔamr) | ĭʔtamara bi-ʔamrih, vb. VIII, to carry out s.o.’s orders.

► ʔamāraẗ, pl. ‑āt, ʔamāʔirᵘ, n.f., sign, token, indication, symptom, mark, characteristic: exact semantic relation to ²ʔamr unclear.
► ^BP#2838muʔāmaraẗ, pl. ‑āt, n.f., 1 deliberation, counsel, conference; 2 plot, conspiracy: vn. III.
► taʔāmur, n., 1 joint consultation, counsel, deliberation, conference; 2 plot, conspiracy: vn. VI.
► ĭʔtimār, n., 1 deliberation, counsel, conference; 2 plot, conspiracy: vn. VIII.
► ĭstiʔmāraẗ (frequently written ĭstimāraẗ), n.f., form, blank: singulative of vn. X, from *‘(document/move) to ask for a decree, ¹ʔamr, or to look into a matter, ²ʔamr’ (?).
► mutaʔāmirūn, n.pl., conspirators, plotters: PA VI, pl.m.
► muʔtamirūn, n.pl., 1 conspirators, plotters; 2 members of a congress, convention, or conference, conferees: PA VIII, pl.m.
► ^BP#394muʔtamar, pl. ‑āt, n., conference; convention, congress: n.loc. VIII, lit., *‘place to consult each other’. | muʔtamar al-ṣulḥ, n., peace conference.

ʔimmar إمّر

ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʔMR

¹adj.; ²n.

1 simple-minded, stupid; 2 ^†ram, lamb – WehrCowan1976.

▪ Kogan2011: from protSem *ʔimmar‑ ‘ram’.
▪ In ClassAr, ʔimmar can also mean ‘ram, lamb’. For systematic reasons, DRS 1 (1994) diffentiates between this ʔimmar ‘ram, lamb’ (#ʔMR-3) and ʔimmar~ʔammar in the sense of ‘simple-minded, stupid’ (#ʔMR-4), although the latter »peut représenter un usage figuré du nom de l’‘agneau’«. In contrast, ClassAr lexicographers explain the meaning ‘simple-minded, stupid’ as *‘who consults everyone respecting his case, resembling a kid, one who obeys the command of everybody, complies with everyone’s desires’, thus deriving the value ‘simple-minded, stupid’ either from ¹ʔamr (*‘one who obeys the command, ʔamr, of everybody’, ↗ʔamara) or from ↗²ʔamr (*‘asking advice in all kinds of affairs, ʔumūr, sg. ²ʔamr’). In this view, ‘lamb’ tends to be seen as dependent on ‘simple-minded, stupid’ (»resembling a kid…«).
▪ However, none of the above options may reflect etymological reality. In fact, the reason why DRS keeps ‘ram, lamb’ and ‘simple-minded, stupid’ apart is that ʔimmar in the sense of ‘ram, lamb’ is believed to be a borrowing, via Aram ʔemmᵊrā~ʔimmᵊrā, from Akk ʔimmeru ‘lamb’. »According to a widespread opinion (cf., e.g., (cf. Zimmern1914: 50), the WSem forms are Akkadisms« (SED II #5). Scholars like Hommel (1879: 237) who hold that Ar ʔimmar ‘lamb’ is from Aram »emphasize[.] the late attestation of the Ar term« (SED II: 8). Indeed, while the value ‘simple-minded’ is attested already in pre-Islamic poetry, DHAL has, as of 30Oct2020, no evidence for ‘lamb’ yet, which means that the value is not attested in the period covered by DHAL so far, i.e., up to 750 CE.
▪ …

▪ ca. 525 (‘weak, simple-minded, having no opinion’) in a verse by Imruʔ al-Qays – DHAL.

▪ DRS 1 (1994) #ʔMR‑ 1 Ar ʔamara ‘ordonner’; SAr ʔmr ‘ordonner, manifester’; Soq ʕemor, Śḥr ʕoñr, Mhr amor ‘dire’; EpigrAram ʔmr, JP ʔāmar, Syr ʔemar, Mand amar ‘dire, parler, ordonner’; Ya ʔmrh ‘ordre(?)’; Phoen Pun Moab EpigrHbr ʔmr, Hbr ʔāmar ‘dire’; Ug ʔamr ‘souhait, parole(?)’. – Akk amāru ‘voir, regarder’; Ug ʔamr ‘être visible, voir’; Ar taʔammala ‘examiner’; Gz ʔammara ‘montrer, indiquer’; təʔmərt ‘signe’; ʔəm(m)ur ‘clair, bien connu’; Tña ʔamära ‘savoir’; Te ʔammärä ‘être clair’; ʔamir ‘connaissance’; Amh ʔamro ‘raison, intelligence’; təmərt ‘signe, marque, science’. – Hbr ʔāmir ‘sommet d’arbre ou montagne’; tīmārā ‘colonne pilier’, Ar ʔamāraẗ ‘signe, indice, repère’, tāmūr(aẗ) ‘tour, tourelles’; ?Amh ʔamärä ‘être beau, plaisant, aimable’. -2 […] -3 Akk immer‑, Ug ʔimr, Phoen Pun ʔmr, oAram EmpAram Palm *ʔmr, BiblAram ʔimmar, JP ʔimmᵊrā, Syr ʔemmᵊrā, Ar ʔimmar ‘chevreau, agneau’. -4 Soq *emer ‘être oisif’; (intensif conatif) ʔomir ‘gâter, rendre oisif’; ?Ar ʔimmar ‘sans jugement, stupide’. -5-15 […].
▪ …
▪ …

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ Lipiński1997#30.10 thinks the word can be segmented into root plus ‎AfrAs “postpositive determinant” *‑l or *‑r “for domestic or tamed animals”, cf. also ʔayyil ‘deer’, baqar‑ ‘cattle’, ṯawr‑ ‘ox’, ǧamal ‘camel’, ḥimār‑ ‘donkey’, ḫinzīr ‘swine, pig’, ʕiǧl ‘calf’, ʕayr‑ ‘ass-fowl’, ^†karr‑ ‘lamb’, naml ‘ant’.

–

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

ʔamāraẗ أَمارة , pl. ‑āt, ʔamāʔirᵘ

ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʔMR

n.f.

sign, token, indication, symptom, mark, characteristic – WehrCowan1976.

▪ If semantics within the Sem root √ʔMR developed along the line sketched and discussed s.v.↗√ʔMR (section CONC), namely *(? Nostr *‘morning, daylight’ × *‘to burn (intr.); to shine, be bright; dawn’ >) Sem ‘to be visible, observable; fact, issue, matter, affair > to see, take notice of s.th. (that is visible or comes into sight, a fact, an issue, etc.) > to indicate, show, demonstrate, point to s.th. (a thing, matter, case, etc.) > to say > to command’, then Ar ʔamāraẗ ‘sign, token, mark, etc.’ and items with related meaning reflect one of the earliest stages of a long semantic history. To the same group seem to belong ʔamr ‘matter, affair, issue, etc.’ (↗²ʔamr) and ʔamr in the (probably borrowed) Qur’ānic sense of ‘revelation’ (³ʔamr – see below, section DISC).
▪ ….

▪ Cf. also the ClassAr ^†ʔamaraẗ or ʔamār(aẗ) ‘heap of stones set up in order that one may be directed thereby to the right way, sign, mark by which s.th. is known’ (Lane).
▪ …

▪ DRS 1 (1994) #ʔMR‑ 1 Ar ʔamara ‘ordonner’; SAr ʔmr ‘ordonner, manifester’; Soq ʕemor, Śḥr ʕoñr, Mhr amor ‘dire’; EpigrAram ʔmr, JP ʔāmar, Syr ʔemar, Mand amar ‘dire, parler, ordonner’; Ya ʔmrh ‘ordre(?)’; Phoen Pun Moab EpigrHbr ʔmr, Hbr ʔāmar ‘dire’; Ug ʔamr ‘souhait, parole(?)’. – Akk amāru ‘voir, regarder’; Ug ʔamr ‘être visible, voir’; Ar taʔammala ‘examiner’; Gz ʔammara ‘montrer, indiquer’; təʔmərt ‘signe’; ʔəm(m)ur ‘clair, bien connu’; Tña ʔamära ‘savoir’; Te ʔammärä ‘être clair’; ʔamir ‘connaissance’; Amh ʔamro ‘raison, intelligence’; təmərt ‘signe, marque, science’. – Hbr ʔāmir ‘sommet d’arbre ou montagne’; tīmārā ‘colonne pilier’, Ar ʔamāraẗ ‘signe, indice, repère’, tāmūr(aẗ) ‘tour, tourelles’; ?Amh ʔamärä ‘être beau, plaisant, aimable’. -2-4. -5 Ar ʔamira ‘être nombreux, abondant, croître’. -6-15 […].
▪ ↗ʔamara.
▪ …

▪ In an attempt to explain some values attached to Hbr ʔMR items, such as ʔāmîr ‘top, summit’ and tîmārāʰ ‘column’, Barth1902 took as evident and sufficiently proven that one has to assume a homonymous Sem root √ʔMR meaning *‘to be high’ alongside ʔMR ‘to see > say > command’ (1902: 5-6). He saw reflexes of this *‘to be high’ also in ^†ʔamaraẗ~ʔamār(aẗ) ‘(high) heap of stones’ as well as in ^†ʔamira ‘to be plentiful, many’ and ^†ʔimr ‘serious, painful, very difficult (affair)’ (cf. also BAH2008 ‘to afflict’). His theory comes close to others that derive Ar ^†tuʔmur ‘sign, mark’ from the root √TMR, particularly ↗tamr ‘date palm’, sharing with the latter the notion of ‘altitude’. (On Hbr tîmārāʰ ‘column’, DRS thinks it may be from ‘to be visible, to see’, but also adds: »Il n’est pas exclu cependant que nous ayons affaire à des racines différentes, v.s. TMR.«) Accordingly, also ↗ʔamīr, usually interpreted as *‘person who commands, gives orders’ (< ↗ʔamara ‘to command’) is thought by some to have developed from an original *‘person of high standing’, or *‘person excelling among the people, being more visible than others’. However, both ‘palm tree’ and ‘s.th. high’ are at the same time s.th. visible, observable from afar and/or attracting attention, so that *‘altitude’ and ‘palm tree’ are not really necessary to explain the semantic variety in this group.
▪ ʔamāraẗ seems to be akin to the obsol. ^†tuʔmūr ‘sign, mark, token (on the wayside)’ which Barth1894: 300 analyzed as formed after the nominal pattern taFʕūL, thought to be an extension formed on the basis of the “transitive infinitive [protSem *]qŭtûl”, exhibiting the same transitivity. He thinks Ar taʔmūr and (with vowel assimilation) tuʔmūr are derived from √ʔMR in the sense of ‘to know’, giving taʔmūr ‘knowledge, to get to know’ and tuʔmūr (‘recognition’ =) ‘sign, mark, token (on the wayside)’.
▪ The Qur’anic ʔamr meaning ‘revelation’ may belong together with ʔamāraẗ etc., either directly or as a borrowing from Aram, as suggested by Jeffery1938: »In the two senses (i) ‘command’ or ‘decree¬’ [↗ʔamara], (ii) ‘matter’, ‘affair’ [↗²ʔamr], it is a genuine Ar word, and commonly used in the Qurʔān. – In its use in connection with the Qurʔānic doctrine of revelation, however, it would seem to represent the Aram מימרא (Rudolph, Abhängigkeit, 41; Horovitz, JPN, 188; Fischer, Glossar, Nachtrag to 86; Ahrens, Christliches, 26; Muḥammad, 134). The whole conception seems to have been strongly influenced by the Christian Logos doctrine,² though the word would seem to have arisen from the Targumic use of מימרא.«)]
▪ To the same complex of ‘visibility’ and/or ‘pointing to, indicating s.th.’ belongs prob. also ↗taʔammala ‘to observe’, (with assumed sound shift *r > l) from *taʔammara ‘to take s.th. as an indicator\sign for o.s.’.
▪ …

2. Grimme, System, 50 ff.

–

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

ʔamīr أَمير , pl. ʔumarāʔᵘ

ID … • Sw – • BP 589 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʔMR

1 commander; 2a prince, emir; 2b title of princes of a ruling house; 3 tribal chief – WehrCowan1976.

▪ quasi-PP, lit. *‘endowed with power, authority’, from ʔimraẗ or ¹ʔamr in the sense of ‘power, authority’, from ↗ʔamara ‘to order, command, bid, instruct, commission, charge, entrust’. – In ClassAr, the term is also attested in the meaning ‘person with whom one consults, one of whom one begs counsel, or advice, in a case of fear’ etc.; cf., e.g., the expr. huwa ʔamīrī ‘he is the person with whom I consult’. This usage suggests a derivation from ²matter, case, issue, etc. rather than from ‘power, authority’. – Barth1894 who assumed *‘to be high’ to be the basic meaning of the Sem √ʔMR would interpret ʔamīr as *‘high-ranking, person of high standing’. If this etymology should be true, ʔamīr would belong together with other ʔMR items expressing ‘highness, altitude’ and, hence, *‘visibility’, such as ↗ʔamāraẗ ‘sign, token, mark’ and perh. ^†tāmūr(aẗ) ‘(little) tower’.
▪ »Although in early Islam this […] title used to denote the head of the Muslim community [ʔamīr al-muʔminīn], it was downgraded over the ages, and during Ayyūbid and Mamlūk times was given to military officers, including low-ranking ones. Under the Ottomans, the term resumed its initial importance and [the corresponding nisba adj., ↗ʔamīrī, Tu ʔemīrī, short mīrī] was singled out to designate assets that belong of right to the highest Muslim authority, the Sultan« – A. Cohen, »Mīrī«, in EI².
▪ …

▪ …
▪ See also above, section CONC.
▪ …

▪ Depending on which of the etymologies mentioned above, section CONC, is correct, cognates will be those listed s.v. ↗ʔamara ‘to order, command, etc.’, or ²ʔamr ‘matter, case, issue, etc., or ↗ʔamāraẗ ‘sign, token, mark’.
▪ ↗….
▪ …

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ …

▪ (Huehnergard2011:) Engl emir; admiral, from Ar ʔamīr ‘commander, prince’, and ʔamīr al-... ‘commander of the ...’ (as in ʔamīr al-baḥr ‘commander of the sea’), from ↗ʔamara ‘to command, order’.

► ʔamīr ʔalāy, n., commander of a regiment (formerly, Eg.; approx.: colonel; as a naval rank, approx.: captain)
► ʔamīr al-ʔumarāʔ, n., approx.: major general (Tun.)
► ʔamīr al-biḥār, n., (Eg. 1939) approx.: admiral
► kabīr ʔumarāʔ al-biḥār, n., (Eg. 1939) approx.: fleet admiral
► ʔamīr al-baḥr, n., admiral (when referring to a non‑Arab officer of this rank; Eg. 1939 approx.: vice‑admiral)
► ʔamīr al-biḥār al-ʔaʕẓam, n., fleet admiral (when referring to a non‑Arab officer of this rank)
► ʔamīr al-liwāʔ, n., (Ir., since 1933) brigadier
► ʔamīr liwāʔ al-ʕassaẗ, n., commandant of the Bey’s palace guard (formerly, Tun.)
► ʔamīr al-muʔminīn, n., Commander of the Faithful, Caliph.

► ^BP#810ʔimāraẗ, n.f., 1 position or rank of an emir; 2 princely bearing or manners; 3 principality, emirate; 4 authority, power: vn. I of ʔamura, from ʔamīr, from ¹ʔamr in the sense of ‘power, authority’ | ʔimāraẗ al-baḥr, n.f., office or jurisdiction of an admiral, admiralty; ʔimārāt sāḥil ʕUmān, n.pl.f., Trucial Oman.
► ʔamīraẗ, pl. ‑āt, n.f., princess: f. of ʔamīr.
► ʔamīrī (and mīrī), adj., government(al), state‑owned, state, public: nisba formation from ʔamīr in the sense of *‘holder of power, authority’. | ʔarḍ ʔamīrī, n., government land (Syr.); al-maṭbaʕaẗ al-ʔamīriyyaẗ, n.f., government press.
► taʔammur, n., 1a imperiousness, domineeringness; 1b imperious deportment, overbearing manners: vn. V.

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

ʔamīrī أَميريّ , var. mīrī

√ʔMR

adj.

government(al), state‑owned, state, public – WehrCowan1976.

▪ Nisba formation from ↗ʔamīr in the sense of *‘holder of power, authority’.
▪ The shortened form, mīrī, seems to go back to Ottoman times when the term ↗ʔamīr resumed its initial importance and ʔamīrī, Tu (ʔe)mīrī, »was singled out to designate assets that belong of right to the highest Muslim authority, the Sultan. Throughout Ottoman history, it was used as a noun meaning ‘lands belonging to the government’, ‘land tax’ levied from them, as well as ‘the public treasury’. […] Muslim jurisprudence drew a distinction between privately-owned lands, mulk (either ʕušr or ḫarāǧ land, possessed by Muslims or by non-believers, respectively) and state property, ʔarḍ al-mamlakaẗ. In earlier years, the latter was designated by several names (e.g. ḫāṣṣ), and it was only under the Ottomans that it assumed the name mīrī. […] Upon the conquest of a given area by the Ottomans its agricultural lands, the most promising source of income, were declared mīrī« – A. Cohen, »Mīrī«, in EI².

▪ ↗ʔamīr.
▪ …

▪ ↗ʔamīr.
▪ See also above, section CONC.

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ …

–

► ʔarḍ ʔamīrī, n., government land (Syr.)
► al‑maṭbaʕaẗ al‑ʔamīriyyaẗ, n.f., government press.

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

taʔmūr تَأْمور

√ʔMR

1 soul, mind, spirit; 2 pericardium (anat.) – WehrCowan1976.

▪ ClassAr dictionaries list several lexical items not only of the type taFʕūL, but also the f. taFʕūLaẗ as well as a variant with short u (taFʕuL(aẗ)) and or another with u also in the prefix (tuFʕuL(aẗ)). DRS classifies the lexeme that seems to correspond to the lemma of the present entry, taʔmūr(aẗ) ‘blood, heart’, as a value in its own right (#ʔMR-10), while tāmūr(aẗ) (~taʔmūr(aẗ)) ‘tower, little towers’ is grouped, together with ʔamāraẗ ‘signe, indice, repère’ and Hbr ʔāmir ‘tree or mountain top’ and tīmārā ‘column, pillar’ as the closest relatives, under the overarching #ʔMR-1, thus as belonging to the complex ‘to be visible > to take notice of, become aware of, observe > to see > to say > to command’ (the inner development of which is treated in root entry ↗√ʔMR).
▪ Unlike DRS where taʔmūr(aẗ) ‘sang, cœur’ remains without any relatives, neither in Ar nor outside, ClassAr lexica regard taʔmūr ‘soul, spirit’ as dependent on ↗ʔamara ‘to command’, »because it is that which is wont to command« (Lane i 1863). From ‘soul’ then also values like ‘intellect’ and ‘heart’ (as the *‘seat of the soul’), hence also ‘pericardium’ are derived. In a further step, taʔmūr(aẗ) may occasionally also signify, figuratively, the “soul” of s.th., i.e., its ‘essence’, its ‘life-blood’, which sometimes may turn out be ‘wine’, ‘water’, the ‘vizier (of a king)’, or the “heart” of a monastry, or a community of believers, hence the meaning ^†‘convent of monks’. Furthermore, if taʔmūr is used synecdochically, it can come to mean anybody having a ‘soul’, i.e., ‘man (in general), human being, anyone’ (also expressed by nisba formations such as ^†taʔmurī~taʔmūrī~tuʔmurī.
…

▪ …

▪ DRS 1 (1994) #ʔMR‑ 1 Ar ʔamara ‘ordonner’; SAr ʔmr ‘ordonner, manifester’; Soq ʕemor, Śḥr ʕoñr, Mhr amor ‘dire’; EpigrAram ʔmr, JP ʔāmar, Syr ʔemar, Mand amar ‘dire, parler, ordonner’; Ya ʔmrh ‘ordre(?)’; Phoen Pun Moab EpigrHbr ʔmr, Hbr ʔāmar ‘dire’; Ug ʔamr ‘souhait, parole(?)’. – Akk amāru ‘voir, regarder’; Ug ʔamr ‘être visible, voir’; Ar taʔammala ‘examiner’; Gz ʔammara ‘montrer, indiquer’; təʔmərt ‘signe’; ʔəm(m)ur ‘clair, bien connu’; Tña ʔamära ‘savoir’; Te ʔammärä ‘être clair’; ʔamir ‘connaissance’; Amh ʔamro ‘raison, intelligence’; təmərt ‘signe, marque, science’. – Hbr ʔāmir ‘sommet d’arbre ou montagne’; tīmārā ‘colonne pilier’, Ar ʔamāraẗ ‘signe, indice, repère’, tāmūr(aẗ) ‘tour, tourelles’; ?Amh ʔamärä ‘être beau, plaisant, aimable’. -2-9 […]. -10 Ar taʔmūr(aẗ) ‘sang, cœur’.
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▪ …

▪ ClassAr ^†taʔmurī~^†taʔmūrī~^†tuʔmurī ‘man’ is a nisba formed from taʔmur~taʔmūr~tuʔmur in the sense of ‘soul, spirit, mind’. Thus, ‘man’ is *‘the animate one, the one with a soul\spirit\mind’.
▪ In ClassAr ^†taʔmūr also appears as a variant of ^†yaʔmūr, which in its turn seems to be a modification of ↗yaḥmūr ‘small beast, kind of mountain-goat, having a single branching horn in the middle of his head, roebuck’ (grouped under ↗√ḤMR).

–

► ĭltihāb al-taʔmūr, n., pericarditis (med.).

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

muʔāmaraẗ مُؤامَرَة , pl. ‑āt

√ʔMR

n.f.

1 deliberation, counsel, conference; 2 plot, conspiracy – WehrCowan1976.

▪ vn. III, from ʔāmara ‘to ask s.o.’s (DO) advice, consult (s.o.)’, L-stem, associative, from ↗²ʔamr ‘matter, issue, affair’, lit., *‘to turn to s.o. to consult him/her on an issue (²ʔamr)’.
▪ [v2] seems to be a rather late development, shared also by some items of form VIII (see ↗muʔtamar).
▪ Monteil1960: 214 mentions muʔāmaraẗ ʻconspiracy, plot’ among the »mots-clefs« of the modern period.
▪ According to Høigilt2024, the term muʔāmaraẗ »appears and rises to prominence in the late nineteenth century in the emerging Arabic-speaking public sphere. The term was probably coined in response to influence from European public discourse at the same time, which included conspiracy theories. Unlike that European discourse and today's Arabic conspiracy talk, the early usage of muʔāmara had little to do with either conspiracy theories or religion. The word was used in a more sober way than in Europe.«
▪…

▪ First attested as vn. (‘to consult, consulting, consultation’) in a letter (quoted in Bayhaqī’s Sunan) attributed to ʕUmar b. al-Ḫaṭṭāb; tentatively dated 644 CE by DHDA.
▪ First attestation as n. (‘s.th. that has been negociated and been agreed upon’, esp. a due payment) is dated c. 815 CE by DHDA (source: al-Iṣfahānī, K. al-Aġānī).
▪ ClassAr dictionaries do not give the value ‘conspiracy’ yet. The first attestation I was able to find for this value is in Bocthor’s Fr-Ar dictionary (Bocthor1828) where Fr conspiration is first explained as ‘entreprise secrète de plusieurs’, then translated as muʔāmaraẗ, ĭttifāq nās ʕalà šarr. But even here, the words muʔāmaraẗ and ĭttifāq alone do not seem to have a negative connotation yet, they simply mean ‘agreement, mutual consultation’; in order to signify conspiracy, the addition ʕalà šarr ‘on s.th. bad, on an evil action’ is needed. None of the dictionaries of the 19th and early 20th century list the value ‘conspiracy’.
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▪ ↗²ʔamr.
▪ …

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ …

–

► taʔāmur, n., 1 joint consultation, counsel, deliberation, conference; 2 plot, conspiracy: vn. VI.
► mutaʔāmirūn, n.pl., conspirators, plotters: PA VI, pl.m.

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

ĭstiʔmāraẗ اِسْتِئْمارة , frequently written اِسْتِمارة , pl. ‑āt

√ʔMR

n.f.

form, blank – WehrCowan1976.

▪ singulative of vn. X, desiderative, lit. either *‘document filled in / move made to ask for a decree, ¹ʔamr’ (↗ʔamara), or *‘document filled in / move made to look into a matter, ↗²ʔamr’ (?).
▪ BadawiHinds1986 groups ĭstimāraẗ under ¹ʔamr.

▪ …

▪ ↗¹ʔamr, ↗²ʔamr.
▪ …

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ …

–

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

muʔtamar مُؤْتَمَر , pl. ‑āt

√ʔMR

conference; convention, congress – WehrCowan1976.

▪ n.loc. VIII, lit., *‘place to consult each other’, from ĭʔtamara, vb. VIII, ‘to deliberate, take counsel’, Gt-stem, self-referential, lit., *‘to ponder (for o.s.) over an issue’, from ↗²ʔamr ‘matter, affair, issue, concern, business’.
▪ Some of the lexemes belonging to form VIII have, like those of form III (see ↗muʔāmaraẗ), developed the sense of ‘to conspire’. This is not the case for muʔtamar itself, but for most of the other form VIII lexemes (ĭʔtamara, ĭʔtimār, muʔtamirūn – see below, section DERIV).
▪ …

▪ …

▪ ↗²ʔamr.
▪ …

▪ The underlying vb. VIII, ĭʔtamara, is attested in ClassAr not only with the meaning ‘to consult s.o. (on an affair, case, issue)’, but also in the more original, self-referential sense of the Gt-stem, ‘to consult one’s own mind, form one’s own opinion, follow one’s own judgment’. This value may be derived either from ¹ʔamr ‘command, order’ (*‘to let o.s. be guided by one’s own commands’) or ²ʔamr ‘issue, affair’ (*‘to look o.s. into a matter, case’).
▪ …

–

► muʔtamar al-ṣulḥ, n., peace conference.

► ĭʔtamara, vb. VIII, 1 to deliberate, take counsel (bi‑ about); 2 to conspire, plot, hatch a plot (ʕalà against s.o.): Gt-stem, self-ref., from ²ʔamr (lit., *‘to ponder for o.s. over an issue, ʔamr) | ĭʔtamara bi-ʔamrih, vb. VIII, to carry out s.o.’s orders.

► ĭʔtimār, n., 1 deliberation, counsel, conference; 2 plot, conspiracy: vn. VIII.
► muʔtamirūn, n.pl., 1 conspirators, plotters; 2 members of a congress, convention, or conference, conferees: PA VIII, pl.m.

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

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