Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ǦNḤ_1 ‘side’ ↗ǧinḥ, ‘wing; side, flank’ ↗ǧanāḥ, ‘to incline, tend to, lean toward; to strand (ship)’ ↗ǧanaḥa
▪ ǦNḤ_2 ‘darkness, gloom’ ↗ǧunḥ
▪ ǦNḤ_3 ‘misdemeanor; sin’ ↗ǧunāḥ
▪ ǦNḤ_4 ‘rib; bosom, heart, soul’ ↗ǧāniḥaẗ

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘wings of a bird; side; arm, hand; to lean on, tilt, incline, go over, turn away; error, crime, harm’.

▪ [gnrl] : Ultimately, almost all values in √ǦNḤ seem to go back to the same etymon ([v3] may be a borrowing from Pers). Militarev&Kogan2005 (SED I #86) concede that attestation in Sem is very scarce (only Ar and Soq, where it may be an Arabism); nevertheless, they believe that it is reasonable to postulate Sem *ganaḥ- ‘chest with upper arm/wing’, meanly due to extra-Sem (Eg) evidence. (See below, sections COGN and DISC.) If their assumption is valid, the authors may be right in reconstructing AfrAs *g˅n˅ḥ- ‘arm/leg; wing’.
▪ [v1],[v4] : If Militarev&Kogan2005 are right, the original meaning (Sem *‘chest with upper arm/wing’) has been reduced in Ar to either ‘wing’ (ǧinḥ) or ‘rib’ (ǧāniḥaẗ), each producing new derived values, such as ‘side, flank’ (> ǧanaḥa ‘to lean toward, tend to’, denom.) and ‘bosom, heart, soul’ (fig. use).
▪ [v2] : The semantic connection betw. ǧunḥ ‘darkness, gloom’ and the basic notions as found in [v1] and [v4] remains somewhat unclear. Prob., [v2] is derived from one of them. However, one should perh. not exclude fig. use of [v3] either.
▪ [v3] : Following Jeffery1938, ǧunāḥ ‘misdemeanor; sin’ is usually regarded as a borrowing from Pers gonāh. If from Pers, final ḥ instead of h will have arisen due to possible association with √ǦNḤ; after all, the value ‘misdemeanor; sin’ can easily be imagined as fig. use of ǧanaḥa ‘to incline’ > ‘to incline to the wrong side, deviate from the right path’. Cf., however, the fact that DRS classifies the item neither as a borrowing nor as belonging to ‘wing’ etc., but as forming a distinct group together with some Syr and EthSem items.
▪ [v4] : While the meaning ‘rib’ is a reduction of the original *‘chest with upper arm/wing’, the spiritual meaning ‘bosom, heart, soul’ is clearly fig. use of the latter.
▪ …

▪ [gnrl] : DRS 3 (1993) #GNḤ-1 JudPalAram gannaḥ ‘couper’. -2 [with Engl accord. to Leslau2006 (CDG)] Akk ganāḫu ‘to have a fit of coughing’, postBiblHbr gānaḥ ‘to groan, moan’, Syr gᵊnaḥ ‘s’étonner, admirer’, gūnḥā ‘stupeur, crainte, calamité’, Ar ǧunāḥ ‘méfait, faute’; reproche | reproach, remonstrance’, Gz ganḥa ‘être orgueilleux et violent | to behave impetuously, arrogantly, get angry, speak vehemently, reprimand’, gənāḥ ‘orgueil, violence | vehemence, haughtiness, rebuke, reprimand, scolding’, Te gänḥä ‘voir, observer; négliger’, gənḥät ‘regard, observation’, perh. Te təganḥa ‘to show o.s. > be proud > behave impetously’, Tña gänḥe ‘faire des reproches, améliorer | to get angry, make reproaches’. -3 Ar ǧanāḥ ‘aile, bord, côté’, ǧinḥ ‘bord, côté’, ǧunḥ ‘crépuscule’, ǧanaḥa ‘(se) pencher, s’incliner, décliner’, Jib génaḥ ‘aile’, Mhr agonəḥ ‘voler’, Soq ganḥ ‘côté’.
▪ [v1],[v4] : MilitarevKogan2005 (SED II) #86: Ar ǧanāḥ, ǧāniḥaẗ, Soq ganḥ. | Outside Sem: Eg ḏnḥ (Pyr) ‘wing’, (18th Dyn) ‘leg or part of it’. Also related may be certain terms meaning ‘hand/arm’, ‘foot/leg’ and ‘wing’ in those Cush, Omot and Chad languages which do not differenciate between AfrAs *-ḥ and *-ʕ and are usually united under AfrAs *ga/in(a)ʕ- ‘hand’; the last may be eventually related to the present entry as a variant root.
▪ ...

▪ MilitarevKogan2005 (SED II) #86: Reconstruction of Sem etymon is questionable. Anatomic terms valid for comparison are scarcely attested only in Ar and Soq where it can be an Ar loan. Cf. Mhr agōnəḥ ‘to fly’, likely related; Jib gɛ́naḥ ‘wing’ is an Arabism, according to Johnstone. The protSem reconstruction is, however, supported by the existence of an AfrAs (Eg) parallel.
▪ ...

ǧanaḥ‑ جَنَحَ , a (ǧunūḥ)

ID – • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 13Apr2023, last update 21May2023

√ǦNḤ

vb., I

1a to incline, be inclined, tend (li‑, ʔilà to); b to lean (li‑, ʔilà to, toward); c to turn, go over (ʔilà to), join (ʔilà s.th.), associate o.s. (ʔilà with); 2 to strand (ʕalà, ʔilà on a coast; ship); 3a to diverge, deviate, depart (ʕan from); b to turn away (ʕan from), break (ʕan with) – WehrCowan1976

▪ The vb. I ǧanaḥa is prob. denom. from ↗ǧinḥ ‘side’ for which Militarev&Kogan2005 suggest (with some reluctance) Sem *ganaḥ- ‘chest with upper arm/wing’ as protSem origin (< AfrAs *g˅n˅ḥ- ‘arm/leg; wing’).
▪ …

▪ ↗ǧinḥ
▪ ...

▪ A connection betw. ǧanaḥa and ↗ǧunḥ ‘darkness, gloom’ is not impossible though semantically problematic.
▪ ↗ǧunāḥ ‘misdemeanor; sin’ is usually regarded as a borrowing from Pers gonāh (with final *-h > -ḥ, perh. due to association with √ǦNḤ, as a ‘misdemeanor; sin’ can easily be imagined as fig. use of ǧanaḥa ‘to incline’ > ‘to incline to the wrong side, deviate from the right path, go astray’).
▪ ...

►ʔaǧnaḥa, vb. IV, 1a to incline, be inclined, tend (li‑, ʔilà to); b to lean (li‑, ʔilà to, toward); c to turn (li‑, ʔilà to s.th.); 2 to strand (ship): *Š-stem, (?) denom., from ǧinḥ or ǧanāḥ

►ǧunḥaẗ, pl. ǧunaḥ, n.f., misdemeanor (jur., less than a felony, ǧināyaẗ, and more than an infraction, ↗muḫālafaẗ)
►ǧunāḥ, n., 1a misdemeanor (jur.); b sin | lā ǧunāḥᵃ ʕalayh ʔin... it won’t be held against him if he... ; it won't do any harm if he...
►ʔaǧnaḥᵘ, adj., more inclined (ʔilà to): elat. formation
►ǧanūḥ, adj., inclined (ʔilà to s.th.)
►ǧunūḥ, n., inclination, leaning, bent, tendency (ʔilà to): vn. I

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ǧinḥ, ↗ǧunḥ, ↗ǧanāḥ, ↗ǧunāḥ, and ↗ǧāniḥaẗ, as well as, for the whole picture, root entry ↗ǦNḤ.

ǧinḥ جِنْح

ID – • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 13Apr2023, last update 21May2023

√ǦNḤ

1 side; 2 var. of ↗ǧunḥ – WehrCowan1976

▪ [v1] Ar ǧinḥ ‘side’ is a reflexion of a Sem word that Militarev&Kogan2005 (SED I #86) reconstruct (with some reluctance) as Sem *ganaḥ- ‘chest with upper arm/wing’ (< AfrAs *g˅n˅ḥ- ‘arm/leg; wing’). If their hypothesis is valid, ǧinḥ can be seen as the result of a semantic reduction and generalisation, orig. meaning *‘side of the chest where an arm/wing is’. The *‘wing’ component of the Sem etymon lives on in ↗ǧanāḥ ‘wing’, while *‘chest’ is still present in ↗ǧāniḥaẗ ‘rib; bosom’. The vb. I ↗ǧanaḥa ‘to lean toward, tend to’ is prob. denom. from ǧinḥ.
▪ [v2] : ǧinḥ sometimes also is exchangeable with ↗ǧunḥ ‘darkness, gloom’, perh. due to lexicalisation of frequent fig. expressions like fī ǧunḥ al-layl ‘in the dark of night, under cover of night’ (< *‘under the wings of the night’) or bayna ǧunḥay al-karà, lit. ‘between the two halves (*‘sides’) of slumber’, i.e., ‘at night when everyone’s asleep’.
▪ …

▪ DRS 3 (1993) #GNḤ-1-2 .... -3 Ar ǧanāḥ ‘aile, bord, côté’, ǧinḥ ‘bord, côté’, ǧunḥ ‘crépuscule’, ǧanaḥa ‘(se) pencher, s’incliner, décliner’, Jib génaḥ ‘aile’, Mhr agonəḥ ‘voler’, Soq ganḥ ‘côté’.
▪ MilitarevKogan2005 (SED II) #86: Ar ǧanāḥ, ǧāniḥaẗ, Soq ganḥ. | Outside Sem: Eg ḏnḥ (Pyr) ‘wing’, (18th Dyn) ‘leg or part of it’. Also related may be certain terms meaning ‘hand/arm’, ‘foot/leg’ and ‘wing’ in those Cush, Omot and Chad languages which do not differenciate between AfrAs *-ḥ and *-ʕ and are usually united under AfrAs *ga/in(a)ʕ- ‘hand’; the last may be eventually related to the present entry as a variant root.
▪ ...

►ǧanaḥa, a (ǧunūḥ), vb., I, 1a to incline, be inclined, tend (li‑, ʔilà to); b to lean (li‑, ʔilà to, toward); c to turn, go over (ʔilà to), join (ʔilà s.th.), associate o.s. (ʔilà with); 2 to strand (ʕalà, ʔilà on a coast; ship); 3a to diverge, deviate, depart (ʕan from); b to turn away (ʕan from), break (ʕan with)
►ʔaǧnaḥa, vb. IV, 1a to incline, be inclined, tend (li‑, ʔilà to); b to lean (li‑, ʔilà to, toward); c to turn (li‑, ʔilà to s.th.); 2 to strand (ship): *Š-stem, (?) denom., from ǧinḥ or ǧanāḥ

►ʔaǧnaḥᵘ, adj., more inclined (ʔilà to): elat. formation
►ǧanūḥ, adj., inclined (ʔilà to s.th.)
►ǧunūḥ, n., inclination, leaning, bent, tendency (ʔilà to): vn. I
►ǧāniḥ, n., side, flank, wing
►ǧāniḥaẗ, pl. ǧawāniḥᵘ, n.f., 1 rib; 2 (pl. also:) bosom, heart, soul | bayna ǧawāniḥī, in my bosom, at heart; ṭafarat ǧawāniḥu-hā, she became happily excited, she trembled with joy

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ǧanaḥa, ↗ǧunḥ, ↗ǧanāḥ, ↗ǧunāḥ, and ↗ǧāniḥaẗ, as well as, for the whole picture, root entry ↗ǦNḤ.

ǧunḥ جُنْح , var. ǧinḥ

√ǦNḤ

darkness, gloom – WehrCowan1976

▪ It seems that ǧunḥ ‘darkness, gloom’ belongs to ↗ǧinḥ ‘side’ (with which it sometimes is exchangeable) and ↗ǧanāḥ ‘wing; side, flank’, perh. as a result of lexicalisation of frequent fig. expressions like fī ǧunḥ al-layl ‘in the dark of night, under cover of night’ (< *‘under the wings of the night’) or bayna ǧunḥay al-karà, lit. ‘between the two halves (*‘sides’) of slumber’, i.e., ‘at night when everyone’s asleep’. Such an etymology is supported by DRS where ǧunḥ ‘crépuscule | dawn, dusk’ is treated as belonging to the same group as ǧinḥ etc. – For the latter’s etymology, see ↗s.v.
▪ …

▪ ...

►fī ǧunḥ al-layl, expr., in the dark of night, under cover of night;
►bayna ǧunḥay al-karà, expr., lit.: between the two halves of slumber, i.e., at night when everyone’s asleep

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ǧanaḥa, ↗ǧinḥ, ↗ǧanāḥ, ↗ǧunāḥ, and ↗ǧāniḥaẗ, as well as, for the whole picture, root entry ↗ǦNḤ.

ǧanāḥ جَناح , pl. ʔaǧniḥaẗ, ʔaǧnuḥ

√ǦNḤ

1 wing (of a bird, of an airplane, of a building, of an army); 2a side; b flank – WehrCowan1976

▪ Ar ǧanāḥ ‘wing; side, flank’ is a reflexion of a Sem word that Militarev&Kogan2005 (SED I #86) reconstruct (with some reluctance) as Sem *ganaḥ- ‘chest with upper arm/wing’ (< AfrAs *g˅n˅ḥ- ‘arm/leg; wing’). If their reconstruction is valid, ǧanāḥ has preserved one of the aspects of the Sem etymon (in [v1] ‘wing’) while the notion of ‘chest’ underwent semantic change, becoming *‘side of the chest where an arm/wing is’, then finally [v2] ‘side, flank’. In contrast, original *‘chest’ lives on in ↗ǧāniḥaẗ ‘rib; bosom’.
▪ …

►ʔanā fī ǧanāḥi-h, expr., I am under his protection;
►ʕalà ǧanāḥ al-ʔaṯīr, expr., over the ether, by radio;
►ʕalà ǧanāḥ al-surʕaẗ, expr., with winged haste

►ǧannaḥa, vb. II, to provide (s.th.) with wings, lend wings (to s.th.): D-stem, denom. from ǧanāḥ
►ǧāniḥ, n., side, flank, wing
►muǧannaḥ, adj., winged: PP II, denom. from ǧinḥ or ǧāniḥ

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ǧanaḥa, ↗ǧinḥ, ↗ǧunḥ, ↗ǧunāḥ, and ↗ǧāniḥaẗ, as well as, for the whole picture, root entry ↗ǦNḤ.

ǧunāḥ جُناح

√ǦNḤ

1a misdemeanor (jur.); b sin – WehrCowan1976

▪ Cheung2017rev: prob. a direct borrowing from early nPers gunāh ‘id.’. For details, see below, section DISC.
▪ Following Jeffery1938 (see below, section DISC), ǧunāḥ ‘misdemeanor; sin’ is usually regarded as a borrowing from Pers gonāh. If from Pers, the emphatisation -h > -ḥ may have arisen due to possible association with ↗ǧanaḥa; after all, the value ‘misdemeanor; sin’ can easily be imagined as fig. use of ‘to incline, lean towards’ > ‘to incline to the wrong side, deviate from the right path’. Cf., however, the fact that DRS classifies the item neither as a borrowing nor as belonging to ‘wing’ etc., but as forming a distinct group together with some Syr and EthSem items.
▪ …

▪ eC7 (‘sin, wrong, crime’) Q 5:93, 33:55:5, 51, 55, etc. (25 occurrences), e.g.,1 (sin, crime; blame, censure, discordance) Q 4:128 wa-ʔini mraʔaẗun ḫāfat min baʕli-hā nušūzan ʔaw ʔiʕrāḍan fa-lā ǧunāḥa ʕalay-himā ʔan yuṣliḥā bayna-humā ṣulḥan ‘and if a-woman experiences discordance or alienation from her husband, there is no blame on them if they agree between them on a settlement’; 2 (jur., financial obligations) Q 2:236 lā ǧunāḥa ʕalay-kum ʔin ṭallaqtumu n-nisāʔa mā lam tamassū-hunna ʔaw tafriḍū la-hunna farīḍaẗan ‘there are no financial obligations on you if you divorce women unless you have touched them or have appointed a dowry for them’
▪ ...

▪ DRS 3 (1993) #GNḤ-1 .... -2 [with Engl accord. to Leslau2006 (CDG)] Akk ganāḫu ‘to have a fit of coughing’, postBiblHbr gānaḥ ‘to groan, moan’, Syr gᵊnaḥ ‘s’étonner, admirer’, gūnḥā ‘stupeur, crainte, calamité’, Ar ǧunāḥ ‘méfait, faute’; reproche | reproach, remonstrance’, Gz ganḥa ‘être orgueilleux et violent | to behave impetuously, arrogantly, get angry, speak vehemently, reprimand’, gənāḥ ‘orgueil, violence | vehemence, haughtiness, rebuke, reprimand, scolding’, Te gänḥä ‘voir, observer; négliger’, gənḥät ‘regard, observation’, perh. Te təganḥa ‘to show o.s. > be proud > behave impetously’, Tña gänḥe ‘faire des reproches, améliorer | to get angry, make reproaches’. – ?Cf. also 3 Ar ǧanāḥ ‘aile, bord, côté’, ǧinḥ ‘bord, côté’, ǧunḥ ‘crépuscule’, ǧanaḥa ‘(se) pencher, s’incliner, décliner’, Jib génaḥ ‘aile’, Mhr agonəḥ ‘voler’, Soq ganḥ ‘côté’?
▪ Cf. perh. also ↗ǧinḥ.
▪ ...

▪ Jeffery1938: »A favourite Madina word, occuring only in late passages. The favourite phrase is lā ǧunāḥᵃ ʕalà, and it is used as a technical term in Muḥammad’s religious legislation.¹ – The Lexicons give no satisfactory explanation of the word, though they apparently treat it as a genuine Ar formation. As Hübschmann showed in 1895 in his Persische Studien, 162, 212, it is the Pers gunāh,² through the Pazend gunāh (Shikand, Glossary, 247) from Phlv vinās,³ a ‘crime’ or ‘sin’ (as is obvious from the Arm vnas = [Grk] ʰamártēma in the old Bible translation),⁴ and the fact that venāh still occurs in one of the Pers dialects as a direct descendant from the Phlv vinās,⁵ which is related to Skr vināša and is quite a good Indo-European word. In Phlv the word is used technically just as in the Qurʔān, and we find such combinations as avinās ‘sinless’ (PPGl, 77); vināskārīh ‘sinfulness, iniquity’ (West, Glossary, 248); and vināskār ‘a criminal, sinner’ (PPGl, 225).⁶ – The word was borrowed in the pre-Islamic period and occurs in the old poetry, e.g., in the Muʕallaqa of al-Ḥārith, 70, etc., and was doubtless adopted directly into Arabic from the spoken Persian of the period, for the word is not found in Syriac.«
▪ According to Nişanyan_1Jul2021, Tu günah ‘crime, guilt’ too is based on Pers gunāh ‘guilt’ < mPers vināh or vinās ‘id.’ < oPers vi-nath ‘damage’ (with protIran prefix vi ). Syr gunāyā ‘guilt, crime’ < oPers; cf. Ar ↗ǧināyaẗ (> Tu cinayet). Arm vnas ‘damage’ < mPers ‘damage’. mPers vināskār > Arm vnasagar = Pers gunahkār > Tu günahkâr ‘guilty’
▪ ...

1. Horovitz, KU, 62, n. 2. Vollers hesitatingly accepts this in ZDMG, 1, 689 (but see p. 612, where he quotes it as an instance of sound change), and it is given as a Persian borrowing by Addai Sher, 45. 3. Hübschmann, Persische Studien, 159, and Haug in PPGl, 225. Cf. West, Glossary, 247, Nyberg, Glossar, 243. 4. Hübschmann, Arm. Gramm, i, 248. 5. Horn, Grundriss, 208. Kurdish gunāh cannot be quoted in illustration as it is a borrowing from modPers. 6. The Pazend has similar combinations, e.g. gunâhi ‘sinfulness’, gunâhkâr ‘sinful, mischievous’, gunâhkârî ‘culpability’, gunāh-sâmânihâ ‘proportionate to the sin’, ham-gunâh ... ‘accomplice’ (Shikand, Glossary, 247).

▪ Not from Ar ǧunāḥ but prob. from the same source is Tu günah: 1303 [Codex Cumanicus] Lat culpa – Pers guna – Tu günah yazuk | Lat culpabilis – Pers guna kar – Tu yazuklamiş günahkâr. | 1317 [Gülşehri, Manṭıḳu'ṭ-Ṭayr] biz perişānuz Ġanī Perverdigār / biz günehkāruz Ġafūr Âmürzigār. | 1330 [Aşık Paşa, Ġarīb-nāme] yavuz işden ḥāṣıl oldı çok günāh – Nişanyan_1Jul2021
▪ ...

►lā ǧunāḥᵃ ʕalay-hi ʔin ..., expr., it won’t be held against him if he ... ; it won't do any harm if he ...
►ǧunḥaẗ, pl. ǧunaḥ, n.f., misdemeanor (jur., less than a felony, ǧināyaẗ, and more than an infraction, ↗muḫālafaẗ)

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ǧanaḥa, ↗ǧinḥ, ↗ǧunḥ, ↗ǧanāḥ, and ↗ǧāniḥaẗ, as well as, for the whole picture, root entry ↗ǦNḤ.

ǧāniḥaẗ جانِحة , pl. ǧawāniḥᵘ

√ǦNḤ

n.f.

1 rib; 2 (pl. also:) bosom, heart, soul – WehrCowan1976

▪ Ar ǧāniḥaẗ ‘rib; bosom, heart, soul’ is a reflexion of a Sem word that Militarev&Kogan2005 (SED I #86) reconstruct (with some reluctance) as Sem *ganaḥ- ‘chest with upper arm/wing’ (< AfrAs *g˅n˅ḥ- ‘arm/leg; wing’). If their reconstruction is valid, ǧāniḥaẗ has preserved one of the aspects of the Sem etymon (*‘chest’ > [v2] ‘bosom’, hence also [v1] ‘rib’) while *‘arm/wing’ lives on in ↗ǧanāḥ ‘arm/wing is’ (hence also ‘side, flank’).
▪ …

►bayna ǧawāniḥī, expr., in my bosom, at heart
►ṭafarat ǧawāniḥu-hā, expr., she became happily excited, she trembled with joy

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ǧanaḥa, ↗ǧinḥ, ↗ǧunḥ, ↗ǧanāḥ, and ↗ǧunāḥ, as well as, for the whole picture, root entry ↗ǦNḤ.

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