Bibliotheca Polyglotta

Rolland2014 summarizes the state of research on the word as follows: »Pour Belot,¹ le mot est d’origine grecque. Pour Rajki,² c’est un emprunt au turc bamya. Pour Nişanyan,³ le turc est un emprunt à l’arabe.« None of these sources are particularly reliable. The Engl gumbo, Fr gombo, which could be akin to bāmiyā etc., are said to go back to Africa, cf. ngombo ‘okra’ in a Central Bantu language, ki-ngombo ‘do.’ in a Bantu language from Angola.

1. Jean-Baptiste Belot, Dictionnaire arabe-français "El-faraïd", Beyrouth 1955. 2. Andras Rajki, Arabic Etymological Dictionary, online. 3. Sevan Nişanyan, Sözlerin Soyağacı, 2001.

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▪ See NUTSHELL and WESTLANG sections.
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▪ In Tu, the word is attested for the first time in Aḥmed Vefīḳ Paşa’s Luġat-ı ʕOs̱mānī (1876), where it is said to have come from the Sudan and recently have become popular – Nişanyan (24Jul2014).
▪ Engl gumbo may be akin to Ar bām(i)yā (bām(i)yaẗ, pronounced bamya). Its etymology is given by EtymOnline as »1805, from Louisiana Fr, probably ultimately from a Central Bantu dialect (compare Mbundu ngombo ‘okra’).«
▪ Fr gombo: First attested in 1757 as gombaut, 1764 gombo (Jacquin, Observationes botanicae, 2ᵉ part., p. 11 ds Roll, Flore, t. 3, p. 76). Terme des Antilles françaises issu du bantou de région angolaise ki-ngombo – http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/gombo.

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BTK بتك

ID – • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 20Feb2023

√BTK

“root”

▪ BTK_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ BTK_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ BTK_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to uproot, cut off at the base; to dedicate an animal to a certain idol, as was the custom in pre-Islamic Arabia, by cutting off, or slitting its ear; to be sharp’

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BTL بتل

√BTL

“root”

▪ BTL_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ BTL_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ BTL_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to cut off, separate, stay away from others; to give up pleasures; to be celibate’

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BṮː (BṮṮ) بثّ/بثث

√ BṮː (BṮṮ)

“root”

▪ BṮː (BṮṮ)_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ BṮː (BṮṮ)_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ BṮː (BṮṮ)_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to spread, disseminate; to cause to multiply; to disclose; sorrow, worry, illness’

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BǦS بجس

√BǦS

“root”

▪ BǦS_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ BǦS_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ BǦS_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to cause water to gush out; to come upon, be full of, boil over’

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BḤṮ بحث

√BḤṮ

“root”

▪ BḤṮ_1 ‘to scrape up (in search of s.th.); [and hence:] to look for, search for s.th., to research, investigate; to discuss’ ↗baḥaṯa
▪ BḤṮ_2 ^†‘mine’ ↗baḥṯ
▪ BḤṮ_3 ^†‘great serpent’ ↗baḥṯ

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to rummage in the dust looking for s.th., to claw the dust, to search, to seek information’

The original meaning of the root that today mostly means ‘to look for, search for s.th., to research, investigate; to discuss’ is ‘to scrape, dig up (the earth), scratch’. Cognates of a similar meaning are attested in Can and Aram, and probably also in Akk, so that one can assume a ComSem etymon *baḥaṯ‑ ‘to scrape up, stir’.

↗baḥaṯa

▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BḤṮ/Š: Akk beḫāšu ‘mélanger (?)’¹ , nHbr bāḥaš, JP Syr bᵉḥaš ‘agiter, remuer, rechercher, attiser’; Syr bᵉḥeš ‘se hâter’, bāḥūšā ‘spatule’; Talm bāḥᵃšā ‘cuiller à pot; cendres chaudes, ratissages’, biḥšā ‘creux de l’épaule’; Mand bḥaš ‘chercher, examiner’; nSyr bāḫiš, (m)berḫiš ‘agiter’, bāḫušā, bāḫüštā ‘cuiller à pot’; Ar baḥaṯa ‘gratter la terre, fouiller’; om. bḥš ‘creuser’, Syrie baḥaš ‘fouiller’.
▪ Outside Sem, Borg2021 #24 (b-ḥ-ṯ) compares Ar baḥaṯa ‘to be in quest of’ (and corresponding dialectal forms) to Eg bḥs (NK) ‘to hunt / jagen (Löwen, Elefanten, Wild)’ (Faulkner 1962: 34; DLE I 138; Wb I 469) ~ Dem wʕ rmt bḥs ‘ein Jägersmann’ (DG 121) ~ Copt ⲡⲁϩⲥ ‘prey’ (Crum 1939: 281a)
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1. Sens douteux. – But cf. CAD Akk (Ass) *beʔēšu, var. baʔāšu, beʔāšu, baḫāšu ‘to stir’.

▪ The original meaning in Ar is ‘to dig up, scrape ut the dust/earth’ (and search of s.th.). This value is still attested in ClassAr (BAH2008: ‘to rummage in the dust looking for s.th., to claw the dust, to search, to seek information’), where it also produced derivatives such as ^†buḥṯaẗ ‘a certain game (played in the dust, or earth), ʔibl ^†baḥūṯ ‘camels that scrape up the dust, or earth, with their forefeet’, baḥṯ ‘mine (in which one searches for gold and silver); great serpent (because it scrapes up the dust or earth)’, ^†baḥīṯ ‘secret (hidden in the dust and to be search for)’, ^†buḥāṯaẗ ‘dust, earth (which is scraped up from what is searched for therein)’. The modern meanings are amplifications of the earlier usage.
▪ The root is also attested, with similar meanings, in Sem. DRS thinks that the nHbr vb. is from Aram; the remaining forms, however, are probably sufficient to assume a ComSem origin (although DRS thinks the meaning of the Akk vb. is doubtful). – For the whole complex, the reader in DRS is also asked to conform the references given s.v. #BD and #BṮ. Furthermore, DRS states that »cette racine semble être, du fait de contaminations diverses (en particulier par B/MḤN/R, P/BḎR) à la base de plusieurs autres racines surtout arabes qui témoignent en outre d’échanges entre consonnes homorganiques, v. BHNS(Š), BHŚ(Š), BḤṮR, BḪṮR, BʕḎR, BʕṮR, BĠẒR, BRḤŠ; comp. aussi PḤṢ, PḤṮ (et BQṮ?).« The corresponding crossreferences in EtymArab would be ↗BḤṮR, ↗BḪTR, ↗BʕṮR, and also ↗FḤṢ.

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