Bibliotheca Polyglotta

The root displays a variety of meanings that, at first sight, seem to be unconnected:
▪ BHM_1 ‘(to be) obscure, dark, cryptic’ ↗bahīm
▪ BHM_2 ‘animal, quadruped, lamb, sheep, cattle’ ↗bahīmaẗ
▪ BHM_3 ‘thumb; big toe’ ↗ʔibhām_2‑ .
Nevertheless, WehrCowan1979 treats all in one entry. In contrast, EtymArab follows (most of) the disctinctions made in DRS 2 (1994).

▪ Cf. BAH2008: ‘four-footed animals; to be dumb; obscure, unintelligible; to be dark; unmarked’

While BHM_2 ‘animal, quadruped, lamb, sheep, cattle’ may be dependent on BHM_1 (with the original value of ‘unable to speak, dumb’, cf. Huehnergard2011: WSem *√BHM ‘to be dumb’), animals being those who are unable to speak, a connection of these two values with BHM_3 ‘thumb, toe’ seems highly unlikely.

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▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BHM-1: Ar ʔabham ‘qui ne sait pas parler: barbare, étranger’, Gz bəhām, bəhum ‘muet’, bəhma ‘être muet’, Tña Te bähamä ‘être muet’.
▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BHM-2: Ug bhmt ‘bétail, vaches’, Hbr bᵉhēmā ‘animal’, EmpAram bhmyth (?), bhmth (?) ‘bétail’, Mand bʔhymʔ ‘âne’, Ar bahmaẗ ‘agneau, chevreau, veau’, bahīmaẗ ‘bête, animal’, Tham bhm (pl.) ‘agneaux’, MġrAr bhīm ‘âne’; Ar buhmaẗ ‘obscurité, ténèbres; bloc de pierre’.
▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BHM/N: Akk ubān‑ ‘doigt’, Hbr bōhen, Ar ʔibhām, dial bihām, bāhim, Mhr hābīn ‘pouce’.

▪ For BHM_1 cf. also ↗BǦM, ↗BKM, ↗BLM.

▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BHM: BHM_2, for which Sem *bahīmat‑ ‘animal, cattle’ can be reconstructed, »dépend vraisemblablement de [BHM_]1, même si, comme le pense Jeffery1938, Ar bahīmaẗ est un empr. à l’Hbr.«
▪ »Une reconstruction de la forme proto-Sem reste problématique« (is it BHM or BHN?).

▪ Assigning Ar buhmaẗ ‘obscurité, ténèbres; bloc de pierre’ to BHM_2 ‘animal, cattle’ seems not really plausible; why not to BHM_1 ‘unable to speak, dumb, mute’? – SG

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bahīm بهيم , pl. buhum

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

√BHM_1

adj.

jet-black – WehrCowan1979.

Related to BHM_1 ‘obscurity, darkness’ or (as suggested by DRS) to BHM_2 ‘animal, cattle’?
▪ Huehnergard2011: WSem *√BHM ‘to be dumb’.

▪ …

▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BHM-2 groups the value ‘obscurité, ténèbres’ together with Ug bhmt ‘bétail, vaches’, Hbr bᵉhēmā ‘animal’, EmpAram bhmyth (?), bhmth (?) ‘bétail’, Mand bʔhymʔ ‘âne’, Ar bahmaẗ ‘agneau, chevreau, veau’, bahīmaẗ ‘bête, animal’, Tham bhm (pl.) ‘agneaux’, MġrAr bhīm ‘âne’; Ar buhmaẗ ‘obscurité, ténèbres; bloc de pierre’.
▪ In our view, however, the semantics would rather suggest a grouping unter DRS 2 (1994)#BHM-1, i.e., together with Ar ʔabham ‘qui ne sait pas parler: barbare, étranger’, Gz bəhām, bəhum ‘muet’, bəhma ‘être muet’, Tña Te bähamä ‘être muet’.

▪ Semantically, it seems easier to connect the value ‘jet-black’ to BHM_1 ‘obscurity, darkness’ than (as suggested by DRS ) to BHM_2 ‘animal, cattle’
▪ No connection with BHM_3 ‘thumb, toe’.

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Cf. also
► ʔabhama, vb. IV, to make obscure, dubious, unintelligible: caus. (from bahīm ?).
► tabahhama, vb. V, and ĭstabhama, vb. X, to be obscure, ambiguous, unintelligible: denom. (from bahīm ?).
► ʔibhām _1, n., obscurity; vagueness, ambiguity: vn. IV.
► mubham, adj., obscure, dark, cryptic, doubtful, vague, ambiguous; unintelligible: PP IV.

bahīmaẗ بهيمة , pl. bahāʔimᵘ

√BHM_2

n.f.

beast, animal, ‎quadruped; pl. livestock, cattle, (large) domestic animals – WehrCowan1979.

Jeffery1938 suggests an origin in Hbr bᵉhēmā ‘animal’, but the word may well stem directly from AfrAs *bahīmat‑ ‘animal, cattle’ (which is also the Hbr word’s ancestor). The value ‘animal, cattle’ is probably connected to the value ‘unable to speak, dumb, mute’ of BHM_1 (Huehnergard2011: WSem *√BHM ‘to be dumb’).

▪ eC7 Q 5:1, 22:28, 27:34 ‘animal’.

▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BHM-2: Ug bhmt ‘bétail, vaches’, Hbr bᵉhēmā ‘animal’, EmpAram bhmyth (?), bhmth (?) ‘bétail’, Mand bʔhymʔ ‘âne’, Ar bahmaẗ ‘agneau, chevreau, veau’, bahīmaẗ ‘bête, animal’, Tham bhm (pl.) ‘agneaux’, MġrAr bhīm ‘âne’; Ar buhmaẗ ‘obscurité, ténèbres; bloc de pierre’.

▪ Jeffery1938, 84-85: »A very late word, occurring only in material from towards the very end of the Madina period, and used only in connection with legislation about lawful and unlawful meats. It is well known that these food regulations were formed under Jewish influence,¹ so that it is significant that the word in the Jewish legislation (Lev. xi) is bᵉhēmā. The root of the word is probably a form BHM which we find in Eth [Gz] bəhəma ‘to be dumb’, connected with Ar ʔabham and ĭstabhama [↗BHM_1 ] ] both of which refer to incoherence or ambiguity of speech. The Lexicons, however, are troubled about the word (cf. LA, xiv, 323), and there is little doubt that it was a direct borrowing from the Jewish bᵉhēmā.² «
▪ Cf. also ↗√BHM.
▪ DRS 2 (1994) reconstructs Sem *bahīmat‑ ‘animal, cattle’ and says that this value probably depends on BHM_1 ‘(to be) unable to speak, mute’. – It is not clear, however, why DRS groups Ar value buhmaẗ ‘obscurité, ténèbres; bloc de pierre’ to BHM_2 ‘animal, cattle’ rather than under BHM_1 ‘(to be) unable to speak, mute’.

1. Rudolph, Abhängigkeit, 61; Horovitz, JPN, 193. 2. Addai Sher, 30, suggests that it is from the Pers bahīmān, which is absurd.

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► ‏‎ bahīmī, adj., animal, bestial, brutish: nsb-adj.
► bahīmiyyaẗ, n.f., brutishness, bestiality, brutality: abstr. formation in ‑iyyaẗ.

Cf. also
► ‏‎ bahmaẗ, n.f., lamb, sheep.

²ʔibhām إبْهام , pl. ʔabāhīmᵘ

√BHM_3

thumb; big toe – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Kogan2011: prob. akin to protSem *b˅h˅n ‘thumb’.
▪ It is not clear whether Ar has preserved an original final *‑m or whether this has developed from an earlier form in *‑n.
▪ …

▪ …

▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BHM/N: Akk ubān‑ ‘doigt’, Hbr bōhen, Ar ʔibhām, dial bihām, bāhim, Mhr hābīn ‘pouce’.

▪ Fronzaroli#2.86 reconstructs Sem *buhān‑ ‘finger’, Kogan2011 has Sem *b˅h˅n‑ ‘thumb’.
▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BHM/N: »Une reconstruction de la forme proto-Sem reste problématique« (*BHM or *BHN ?).
▪ Neither ʔibhām nor bāhim look as if they were the proper etymon. Rather are they derived from s.th. else that however has not left other traces.
▪ A connection with BHM_1 ‘(to be) unable to speak, dumb’ or BHM_2 ‘animal, cattle’ can well be excluded; see ↗BHM.

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Cf. also
► bāhim, n., big toe.

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