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Etymological Dictionary of Arabic

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Click to Expand/Collapse OptionEtymArab
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ǧurṯūm جُرْثوم , also ǧurṯūmaẗ, pl. ǧarāṯīmᵘ 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√ǦRṮM 
n., and n.f., respectively 
1 root; 2 origin; 3 germ; 4 microbe, bacillus, bacterium – WehrCowan1979 
▪ As both √ǦRṮM and ǧurṯūm are without obvious cognates outside Ar, and as also the n.s and vb.s seem to have existed alongside each other from early on, it is difficult to decide what was first. DRS #GRṮM gives both Ar ǧurṯūm ‘petit amas de terre, obstacle; souche, noyau’ and taǧarṯama ‘tomber, choir; se pelotonner, se blottir’ as basic values. For a suggested line of semantic development, see DISC, below.
 
▪ Historically, the values given in DRS – ‘small heap of earth, obstacle; stump, snag, nucleus’ and ‘to fall, fall down; to shrink, contract’ – seem to have existed alongside each other from early on.
▪ al-Mawrid1995 does not have the verbal root any longer but only lists ǧurṯūm, -aẗ.
▪ For the n., the earliest attestation (according to HDAL) is in a verse by the pre-Islamic poet ʿĀmir b. Wahb al-Muḥāribī, dated around 538 CE (as a terminus ante quem): wa-nursī ʾilà ǧurṯūmaẗin ʾadrakat lanā / ḥadīṯan wa-ʿādiyan min-a ’l-maǧdi ḫiḍrimā (ed. M.N. Ṭarīfī 1999), where ǧurṯūmaẗ means ‘anything that falls down and piles up around its root’ (kull šayʾ mā yatarākamu minhu muǧtamiʿan ʿalā ʾaṣlih).
▪ Earlier values encountered in the root, but become obsolete in MSA, are:
ǦRṮM_3 ‘(to take) the largest part’ (ǧarṯama, taǧarṯama; ǧurṯūm, aẗ); ‘grandees, lords’ (ǧarāṯīmᵘ, pl. of ǧurṯūm, aẗ)
ǦRṮM_4 ‘to shrink’: taǧarṯama, ĭǧranṯama.
▪ [v4] Monteil1960: 1955 (Académie de langue arabe du Caire, Congrès scientifique arabe) ʕilm al-ǧarāṯīm ‘bacteriology’. 
▪ No obvious cognates outside Ar.
▪ Inside Ar, one may see a relation to the 2-cons. root nucleus √ǦM- which has ‘to gather, accumulate, pile up’ as one of its basic meanings, cf. ↗√ǦMD, ↗√ǦMʕ, ↗√ǦML, ↗√ǦMHR, etc. 
▪ As a hypothesis, one may perhaps assume a semantic development along the line:

‘to fall down’ (ǦRṮM_1) > ‘to gather, pile up (where s.th. has fallen down); place of collection, of piling up, heap’ (ǦRṮM_2a, cf., e.g., ǧurṯūmaẗ al-naml ‘ant-hill’ ) (and ‘to shrink’, ǦRṮM_4) > ‘(to take) the largest part’, i.e., what has piled up in one place, condensed portion (ǦRṮM_3a), metaphorically used for the elite, ‘grandees, lords’ (ǧarāṯīmᵘ, ǦRṮM_3b) > ‘place on the earth where the things that have fallen down landed, lowest part, root, base’ (ǦRṮM_2b, MSA [v1]), hence ‘epiglottis’ (root of the tongue) and ‘origin; source’ [v2] > ‘to take root, come into existence, germinate; germ’ [v3], from eC20 onwards also used for ‘microbe, bacillus, bacterium’ [v4].
 
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taḥt al-ǧurṯūm, n., inframicrobe
ʕilm al-ǧarāṯīm, n., bacteriology; for the latter, al-Mawrid1995 also gives ǧurṯūmiyyāt (n.f.pl.).

taǧarṯama, vb. II, to take root, come into existence, germinate: denominative? 
ǦRǦB جرجب 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Jan2023
√ǦRǦB 
“root” 
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▪ According to DRS 3 (1994), the Ar root √ǦRǦB (TunAr gərgɛb ‘rouler’) is an extension from a 2-cons. root nucleus ↗*ǦR- with the basic meaning (among others) of *‘rondeur’ > *‘rouler’, etc. – See also ↗ǦRː (ǦRR)_1.
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ǦRǦR جرجر 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Jan2023
√ǦRǦR 
“root” 
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▪ According to DRS 3 (1994), the Ar root √ǦRǦR (with ǧurǧūr ‘(gorge) bruyante’, ǧurāǧir ‘qui boit à grandes gorgées’) is an extension from a 2-cons. root nucleus ↗*ǦR- with the basic meaning (among others) of *‘gorge’, *‘gosier’, *‘avaler, engloutir’. – See also ↗ǦRǦM, ↗ǦRDB, ↗ǦRZ, ↗ǦRʕ, ↗ǦRʕB.
▪ According to DRS 3 (1994), the Ar root √ǦRǦR (with ↗ǧarǧara ‘murmurer, faire glouglou; grogner, blatérer, gronder (tonnerre)’) is an extension from a 2-cons. root nucleus ↗*ǦR- with the basic meaning (among others) of an onomatopoetic imitation of the *‘sounds produced by the throat or the mouth’. – See also ↗ǦRDM.
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ǦRǦM جرجم 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 14Jan2023
√ǦRǦM 
“root” 
This root has become obsolete in MSA. Earlier values include (BK1860):

ǦRǦM_1 ‘renverser, démolir, faire crouler’: ¹ǧarǧama
ǦRǦM_2 ‘boire; manger’: ²ǧarǧama
ǦRǦM_3 ‘se blottir dans un trou (se dit des bêtes); descendre au fond, en bas (p.ex. dans un puits)’: taǧarǧama
ǦRǦM_ ‘…’:
 
[v1] : According to Ehret1995#285, Ar ǧarǧama ‘to throw down’ represents an extension in *-g (“finitive, fortative”) and *-m (“as fortative”) from a bi-consonantal “pre-Proto-Semitic” root *GR-‘to go down’ < AfrAs *-GǏR- ‘to sit’. – Other extensions from the same pre-protSem root: ↗ǦRː (ǦRR), ↗ ǦRBZ, ↗ǦRṮM, ↗ǦRDL, ↗ǦRFS .
[v1] : According to DRS 3 (1994), the Ar root √ǦRǦM (with ǧarǧama ‘terrasser qn, démolir (un mur)’) is an extension from a 2-cons. root nucleus ↗*ǦR- with the basic meaning (among others) of *‘couper’ > *‘enlever’, *‘arracher’, *‘casser’, etc. – See also ↗ǦRḤ, ↗ǦRD, ↗ǦRDM, ↗ǦRM.
[v2] : According to DRS 3 (1994), the Ar root √ǦRǦM (with ǧarǧama ‘engloutir, dévorer’) is an extension from a 2-cons. root nucleus ↗*ǦR- with the basic meaning (among others) of *‘gorge’, *‘gosier’, *‘avaler, engloutir’. – See also ↗ǦRǦR, ↗ǦRDB, ↗ǦRZ, ↗ǦRʕ, ↗ǦRʕB.
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ǦRḤ جرح 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021, last update 15Jan2023
√ǦRḤ 
“root” 
▪ ǦRḤ_1 ‘wound’ ↗ġurḥ, ‘surgery’ ↗ǧirāḥaẗ, ‘surgeon’ ↗ǧarrāḥ
▪ ǦRḤ_2 ‘…’ ↗

Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to wound, to injure; to defame, to invalidate, deficiency; to strive to earn one’s living; birds and animals of prey’ 
▪ [v1] : According to DRS 3 (1994), the Ar root √ǦRḤ (with ↗ǧaraḥa ‘blesser’, etc., ↗ǧarrāḥ ‘chirurgien’, ↗ǧāriḥaẗ ‘bête de proie’) is an extension from a 2-cons. root nucleus ↗*ǦR- with the basic meaning (among others) of *‘couper’ > *‘enlever’, *‘arracher’, *‘casser’, etc. – See also ↗ǦRǦM, ↗ǦRD, ↗ǦRDM, ↗ǦRM.
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DRS 3 (1993) #GRḤ-1 Syr garāḥā ‘blessure’, Ar ǧaraḥa ‘blesser’, ǧurḥ ‘blessure’, ǧarīḥ ‘blessé’, ǧarrāḥ ‘chirurgien’, ǧāriḥat ‘bête de proie’, Sab grḥ ‘blessé’, Jib géraḥ, egórḥ ‘faire une coupure’, egórḥ ‘insulter’, gerḥún ‘blessé, insulté’, Soq gorḥ ‘blessure’, Te (tə)gärräḥa ‘être blessé’. -2 Gz garḥ ‘cheval dressé’, Te gärḥa ‘être bien dressé (cheval)’, Tña gärḥe, gärhe, Amh gärra, Arg gärräha, Gur gärra ‘domestiquer, dompter’. -3 Aram gūrḥā ‘grenier’. -?4 Ar ǧaraḥa ‘gagner, acquérir’, Jib géraḥ ‘mettre du riz bien réparti sur une assiette’, s̃əgraḥ ‘être nourri’, Soq gáraḥ ‘ramasser’. – ? Gz garḥ, garoḥ ‘marchandise’. -5 Ḥrs gerḥét ‘dune de sable’.
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