Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ḤRM_1 ‘forbidden, prohibited, taboo, sacred’ ↗ḥarām; ‘inviolable place, sacred precinct, sanctuary; wife’ ↗ḥaram; ‘harem; female members of the family, women’ ↗ḥarīm
▪ ḤRM_2 ‘thief, robber, bandit’ ↗ḥarāmī
▪ ḤRM_3 ‘woolen blanket (worn as a garment around head and body)’ ↗ḥirām
▪ ḤRM_4 ‘handkerchief’ ↗maḥramaẗ

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘inviolable place, sanctuary, that which is under one’s protection; womenfolk, wife; to forbid, forbidden; sinful, illegitimate, taboo; to deny s.o. s.th., to preclude, exclusion; to respect, to honour, to revere, to venerate’

▪ [v1] : Huehnergard2011 reconstructs protSem *X̣RM ‘to separate, ban, prohibit’, while Kogan2015 is reluctant to accept suggested Akk cognates and, pointing also to the »noteworthy … complete absence of *ḥrm from extant Ug texts«, restricts his reconstruction to protWSem *ḤRM ‘to forbid’. – The term has developed three important connotations: religious (sanctuary, holy place, etc.), sexual-moral-legal (women, forbidden for others to see\touch\marry), and ethical (respect, dignity) – see section DERIV in entry ↗ḥaram.
▪ Ultimately, all other values [v2]–[v4] may be derived from [v1] so that one could imagine a development along the line *ʻto forbid, sanctity, inviolability, taboo > to cover and thereby protect (from being violated) > piece of cloth used for veiling head\body (and thereby protecting it from violation), scarf, foulard, turban > handkerchief’.
▪ [v2] : prob. a simple nisba formation from ḥarām ‘forbidden, prohibited, taboo, sacred’, thus depending on [v1].
▪ [v3] : According to DRS (#ḤRM-1), Ar ḥirām ‘woolen blanket (worn as a garment around head and body)’ is cognate to Akk ḫarāmu ‘to cover’ (CAD: ʻto stretch or place a membrane, skin or a layer of metal over and object; to place a tablet in a clay case’). Moreover, the authors think the value [v3] ʻto cover’ and the complex [v1] ‘to forbid, exclude, deny, prohibit’ »peuvent être liées« – see below, section DISC.
▪ [v4] : In MSA and many Ar dialects, the word maḥramaẗ means ‘handkerchief’, while it signifies ‘turban’ in ḤḍrAr (as does also Soq mḥármeh). For Soq, Leslau suggests a connection with Ar ↗ḫimār ʻveil covering head and face of a woman’.¹ In contrast, the authors of DRS rather feel inclined to compare [v4] to [v3] ʻto cover’ (and in this way also [v1] ʻto forbid’). Thus, etymologically, [v3] and [v4] may indeed be essentially one. – Any interference of Engl handkerchief or Fr mouchoir? Like the Ar ‘handkerchief’, the Eur words seem to have been, originally, pieces of cloth to veil/protect the head or body… See below, section DISC.
▪ …

1. Allegedly also akin to an Aram ḥūmrā ʻcover (n.)’, but I was unable to verify this word in any of the dictionaries at my disposal – SG.

–

▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤRM-1 Akk ḫarāmu ‘couvrir’ (CAD: arāmu~ḫarāmu~erēmu ʻto stretch or place (a membrane, skin or a layer of metal) over and object, place a tablet in a clay case’), Ar ḥirām ‘couverture’. -?2 Akk ḫarāmu ‘séparer’; – Moab *hḥrm, Hbr hęḥ^ęrīm ‘consacrer, vouer’; Hbr ‘vouer à la destruction totale’, JP ḥarem ‘excommunier, interdire, déclarer qc mise à part pour l’usage du Temple, vouer à la destruction’, Nab ḥrm ‘chose sacrée, inviolable’, hḥrm ‘vouer’, Mnd ḥrm ‘interdire, maudire’; Ar ḥarama ‘repousser, tenir à distance, prohiber, déclarer illicite’, ḥarima ‘être illicite, être sacré et interdit à l’usage profane’, ḥaram ‘chose illicite, sacrée; enceinte sacrée; femme’; ḥurumāt ‘ordres et interdits inviolables (de Dieu)’, DaṯAr miḥrām ‘sanctuaire’; SAr ḥrm (vb.): Sab ‘être interdit, proscrit; être en état de sacralisation (pèlerin)’, Qat ‘être prohibé, puni; décréter, commander’, Soq ḥrm ‘maudire’, Ḥrs ḥerm ‘être privé (de droits conjugaux)’, Mhr ḥōrəm, Ḥrs ḥārəm ‘se repentir, jurer de ne pas’, Jib oḥúrm ‘jurer de ne pas’, Mhr ḥrūm ‘provoquer un désastre en enfreignant un interdit’, Jib aḥrím ‘interdire’; – ḥrm (n.): Sab ḥrm, Sab Qat Min mḥrm ‘enclos, sanctuaire’, Mhr Ḥrs ḥərōm, Jib ḥárúm ‘interdit, tabou’, Ḥrs ḥərām ‘mariage, légitimité’, Mhr ḥərmēt ‘femme, épouse; femme sans défense, veuve’, Jib ḥarmɛ́t ‘veuve’; Gz ḥarama, Te ḥarräma, Amh harrämä,arrämä ‘interdire’, Te məḥram ‘sanctuaire’, Tña ḥarämä ‘être interdit’. – ? YemAr ḥaram(ä) ‘mort naturelle’. -3 ḤḍrAr maḥrameh ‘foulard de tête’, EAr maḥrameh, MġrAr maḥramah, mḥarmah ‘mouchoir, foulard’, Soq mḥármeh ‘turban’. -4 Mhr ḥōrem ‘route, voie’.
▪ [v1] Kogan2015: 84 #23: Hbr ḥrm (hip.) ‘to put under a ban’, Syr ḥrm (ap.) ‘devovit, Ar ḥrm ‘to be forbidden, prohibited’, Sab ḥrm ‘to put under restraint’, Min ḥrm ‘proclamer sacre’, Qat ḥrm ‘to be forbidden’, Gz ḥarama ‘to forbid’, Mhr ḥōrəm ‘to repent; to swear not to do s.th.’, ḥrūm ‘to bring disaster by doing s.th. forbidden’, Jib aḥrím ‘to forbid’, Soq ḥórim ‘maudire’.
▪ …

▪ [v1] Kogan2015: 84 #23 reports that protWSem *ḤRM ‘to forbid’ has been often compared with Akk ḫarimtu ‘prostitute’, which, however, as Kogan himself thinks, »is far from evident either phonologically or semantically.« Moreover, »[t]he presumably related verb [Akk] ḫarāmu ‘to separate’ is very sparsely attested« (ibid., n.246), and Akk does not seem to have an »exact verbal match corresponding to the semantic sphere of protWSem *ḤRM.«¹ Taken together with the absence of Ug cognates, the lack of an Akk verbal match and the doubtfulness of Akk ḫarimtu as a parallel, Kogan feels it is safer to posit the basic *ḤRM ʻto forbid’ only for protWSem rather than for the common protSem lexicon.
▪ [v1] : DRS asks whether one should perh. also compare protSem √ḪRM »dont certaines valeurs sont assez proches de celles de ḤRM, pour qu’il soit difficile, parfois, de différencier avec certitude, celles qui relèvent de l’une ou l’autre racine; ainsi par exemple dans le cas de Akk ḫarāmu ʻséparer’« (which, in their opinion, could be either from *ḤRM or *ḪRM). – See root entry ↗ḪRM (basic value: ‘to pierce, make a hole’).
▪ [v2] : The very widespread word for ‘thief, robber, bandit’, Ar ḥarāmī, is not mentioned in DRS, prob. because the authors regard its dependence on ḥarām as unquestionable. It could indeed be a simple nisba formation from the latter, thus meaning *ʻs.o. dealing with forbidden\unlawful things’ or (from ḥarām in the sense of ʻcursed, accursed’) *ʻperson who may\should be cursed’.
▪ [v4] (≙ DRS #ḤRM-3) : If we assume that [v3] ʻwoolen blanket’ and [v4] ʻhandkerchief’ essentially are one and that they are related to [v1] ʻto forbid’, one may posit the hypothetical semantic development within the root as follows: *ʻto forbid, sanctity, inviolability, taboo (incl. women, and dignity, respect) > to cover and thereby protect (s.th. taboo from being violated) > piece of cloth used for veiling head\body (and thereby protecting it from violation), scarf, foulard, turban > handkerchief’. The transition ʻhead\body cloth > handkerchief’ was perh. motivated by, or itself a motivating factor behind, a similar development in Eur langs, where e.g. Engl kerchief originally was a *ʻsquare piece of fabric folded and worn about the head, cloth for covering the head’, from mEngl kovrechief ʻpiece of cloth used to cover part of the head’, esp. a woman’s head-cloth or veil, from AngloFr courchief, oFr couvrechief ʻa kerchief’, lit. *ʻcover head’, from couvrir ʻto cover’ + chief ʻhead’ (< Lat caput ʻhead’). It was from lC14 that the Engl word came to be used as ʻpiece of cloth used about the person’ generally, for purposes other than covering the head; and from c. 1400 as ʻpiece of cloth used about the person, carried in the hand’ to wipe the face, etc., »a curious confluence of words for ʻhand’ and ʻhead’« (EtymOnline, as of 25Nov2020). If the parallel is not a mere coincidence, or due to a typologically similar development in Eastern and Western cultural history, esp. court culture, then one would have to search for the environment of cultural contact in which a calquing may have happened – in whatever direction.
▪ …

1. »Partially equivalent [to Akk ḫarimtu ‘prostitute’] are the nouns asakku and ikkibu, both borrowed from Sum.«

▪ Engl harem, harmattan, ihram, Marrano, Muharram ↗ḥaram (with further references).

–

ḥaram حَرَم , pl. ʔaḥrām

ID 207 • Sw – • BP 1688 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ḤRM

I adj., 1a forbidden, prohibited, interdicted; b taboo; 2a holy, sacred, sacrosanct; II n., 2b s.th. sacred, sacred object; c sacred possession; d sanctum, sanctuary, sacred precinct; 3 wife – WehrCowan1976.

▪ From protWSem *ḤRM ‘to forbid’ (Kogan2015). If the Akk evidence can be counted in, one may perh. even posit a common protSem *X̣RM ‘to separate, ban, prohibit’ (Huehnergard2011).
▪ The term and derivations from it cover three semantic fields of high cultural importance: religious (sanctuary, holy place, etc.), sexual-moral-legal (women, forbidden for others to see\touch\marry), and ethical (respect, dignity) – see section DERIV, particularly the terms figuring in BuckwalterParkinson’s frequency list (marked »BP«).
▪ Perh. also ↗ḥirām ʻwoolen blanket’ and ↗maḥramaẗ ʻhandkerchief’ are ultimately akin, as both seem to be built, originally, on the idea of ʻcovering, protecting’, which is a kind of ‘separating, denying, prohibiting, forbidding’, sc. others from seeing or touching taboo parts.
▪ …

▪ …

▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤRM-?1 Akk ḫarāmu ‘couvrir’ (CAD: arāmu~ḫarāmu~erēmu ʻto stretch or place (a membrane, skin or a layer of metal) over and object, place a tablet in a clay case’), Ar ḥirām ‘couverture’. -2 Akk ḫarāmu ‘séparer’; – Moab *hḥrm, Hbr hęḥ^ęrīm ‘consacrer, vouer’; Hbr ‘vouer à la destruction totale’, JP ḥarem ‘excommunier, interdire, déclarer qc mise à part pour l’usage du Temple, vouer à la destruction’, Nab ḥrm ‘chose sacrée, inviolable’, hḥrm ‘vouer’, Mnd ḥrm ‘interdire, maudire’; Ar ḥarama ‘repousser, tenir à distance, prohiber, déclarer illicite’, ḥarima ‘être illicite, être sacré et interdit à l’usage profane’, ḥaram ‘chose illicite, sacrée; enceinte sacrée; femme’; ḥurumāt ‘ordres et interdits inviolables (de Dieu)’, DaṯAr miḥrām ‘sanctuaire’; SAr ḥrm (vb.): Sab ‘être interdit, proscrit; être en état de sacralisation (pèlerin)’, Qat ‘être prohibé, puni; décréter, commander’, Soq ḥrm ‘maudire’, Ḥrs ḥerm ‘être privé (de droits conjugaux)’, Mhr ḥōrəm, Ḥrs ḥārəm ‘se repentir, jurer de ne pas’, Jib oḥúrm ‘jurer de ne pas’, Mhr ḥrūm ‘provoquer un désastre en enfreignant un interdit’, Jib aḥrím ‘interdire’; – ḥrm (n.): Sab ḥrm, Sab Qat Min mḥrm ‘enclos, sanctuaire’, Mhr Ḥrs ḥərōm, Jib ḥárúm ‘interdit, tabou’, Ḥrs ḥərām ‘mariage, légitimité’, Mhr ḥərmēt ‘femme, épouse; femme sans défense, veuve’, Jib ḥarmɛ́t ‘veuve’; Gz ḥarama, Te ḥarräma, Amh harrämä,arrämä ‘interdire’, Te məḥram ‘sanctuaire’, Tña ḥarämä ‘être interdit’. – ? YemAr ḥaram(ä) ‘mort naturelle’. -3 ḤḍrAr maḥrameh ‘foulard de tête’, EAr maḥrameh, MġrAr maḥramah, mḥarmah ‘mouchoir, foulard’, Soq mḥármeh ‘turban’. -4 […].
▪ Kogan2015, 84 #23: Hbr ḥrm (hip.) ‘to put under a ban’, Syr ḥrm (ap.) ‘devovit, Ar ḥrm ‘to be forbidden, prohibited’, Sab ḥrm ‘to put under restraint’, Min ḥrm ‘proclamer sacre’, Qat ḥrm ‘to be forbidden’, Gz ḥarama ‘to forbid’, Mhr ḥōrəm ‘to repent; to swear not to do s.th.’, ḥrūm ‘to bring disaster by doing s.th. forbidden’, Jib aḥrím ‘to forbid’, Soq ḥórim ‘maudire’.
▪ …

▪ Kogan2015: 84 #23 is reluctant to accept an ESem dimension. He points to the absence of Ug cognates; the lack of an exact verbal match in Akk – ḫarāmu ‘to separate’ is »presumably related«, but only »very sparsely attested« (n.246) – ; and the doubtfulness of Akk ḫarimtu ‘prostitute’ as a parallel. Taken together, he posits protWSem *ḤRM ‘to forbid’, while others, like Huehnergard2011, reconstruct a common protSem *X̣RM.
▪ The values treated in DRS as #ḤRM-1 (incl. Ar ḥirām ‘woolen blanket, worn as a garment around head and body)’ and #ḤRM-3 (incl. Ar maḥramaẗ ʻhandkerchief’) »peuvent être liées«, not only among each other, but also to ḥaram etc., i.e., the complex ‘to forbid, deny, prohibit’, as covering the head and\or body is a form of protecting one’s sanctity\inviolability\dignity by denying, preventing, forbidding others to see and\or touch the head or body, or because wrapping one’s head with a piece of cloth resembles the wrapping of a writing tablet in a protecting clay case (as in Akk arāmu~ḫarāmu~erēmu). See also s.v. ↗ḥirām and ↗maḥramaẗ.
▪ …

▪ Accord. to Huehnergard2011, Engl harem ‘part of a Middle Eastern house reserved for women’ is directly from Ar ↗ḥarīm ‘sanctuary, inviolable place, harem’. In contrast, EtymOnline thinks the borrowing happened in the 1630s via Tu harem, from Ar ḥaram ‘wives and concubines’, orig. ‘women’s quarters’, lit. *‘s.th. forbidden or kept safe’, from ḥarama ‘to guard, forbid’. From 1784 in Engl as ‘wives, female relatives and female slaves in a Middle Eastern household’. The harem-skirt was introduced in fashion 1911. Harem pants attested from 1921; fashionable c. 1944 – EtymOnline (as of 25Nov2020).
▪ (Huehnergard2011:) Engl Muharram, from Ar muḥarram ‘forbidden’, PP of ḥarrama, vb. II, ‘to declare sacred or unlawful, forbid’, D-stem of ḥarama, vb. I, ‘to exclude, deny, prohibit’. – Engl ihram, from Ar ʔiḥrām ‘state of ritual purity of pilgrims to Mecca’, vn. of ʔaḥrama, vb. IV, ‘to enter ihram’, *Š-stem of ḥarama, vb. I (see preceding).
▪ Accord. to Huehnergard2011, Engl Marrano ‘a Jew or Moor in Spain who, to avoid persecution, publicly professed conversion to Christianity while privately continuing in the practices and beliefs of their old religion’ is prob. from Ar maḥram ‘something forbidden’, quasi-n.loc., from ḥarama (as preceding). – In contrast, EtymOnline has: »1580s, from Span, prob. lit. *‘pig, swine’, an expr. of contempt, from Ar muḥarram ‘forbidden thing’ (eating of pork is forbidden by Muslim and Jewish religious law), from ḥaruma ‘to be forbidden’ – EtymOnline (as of 25Nov2020).
▪ For Engl harmattan , cf. ↗ḥarām.

►al-ḥaramān, n.du., the two Holy Places, Mecca and Medina
►ṯāliṯ al-ḥaramayn, n., the third Holy Place, i.e., Jerusalem.

►ḥaruma, u, var. ḥarima, a, vb. I, to be forbidden, prohibited, interdicted, unlawful, unpermitted (ʕalà to s.o.): vb.intr., perh. denom. from ḥaram or ḥarām.
► ^BP#2430ḥarama, i (ḥirm, var. ḥirmān), vb. I, 1 to deprive, bereave, dispossess, divest (s.th. or min s.o. of s.th.), take away, withdraw, withhold (s.th. or min from s.o. s.th.), deny, refuse (s.th. or min to s.o. s.th.); 2 to exclude, debar, preclude, cut off (s.o., s.th. or min s.o. from s.th.); 3 to excommunicate (s.o.; Chr.): vb.tr., perh. denom. from ḥaram or ḥarām.
► ^BP#3966ḥarrama, vb. II, 1 to declare (s.th.) sacred, sacrosanct, inviolable, or taboo, to taboo (s.th.); 2 to declare (s.th.) unlawful, not permissible, forbid, interdict, proscribe (s.th., to s
.o.); 3 to render (s.o.) immune or proof (min against), immunize (min s.o. against): D-stem, declar./caus. | ~ ʕalà nafsi-hī, vb., to deny o.s. s.th., abstain, refrain from s.th.
►ʔaḥrama, vb. IV, 1 to excommunicate (s.o.; Chr.); 2 to enter into the state of ritual consecration (esp., of a Mecca pilgrim; see ʔiḥrām): *Š-stem, [v1] declar., specialised used in rel. context, from ḥirm (see below), [v2] denom. from ʔiḥrām.
►taḥarrama, vb. V, 1 to be forbidden, interdicted, prohibited; 2 to be holy, sacred, sacrosanct, inviolable: Dt-stem, intr./self-ref.
► ^BP#3070ĭḥtarama, vb. VIII, to honor, revere, venerate, esteem, respect (s.o., s.th.): Gt-stem, self-ref. (*ʻto have o.s. a respectful attitude towards’) | ~ nafsa-hū, vb., to be self-respecting.
►ĭstaḥrama, vb. X, 1 to deem (s.th.) sacrosanct, sacred, holy, inviolable; 2 to deem (s.th.) unlawful or unpermissible: *Št-stem, desid.-declar.

►ḥirm, n., excommunication (Chr.): vn. I.
► ^BP#1688ḥaram, pl. ʔaḥrām, I adj., 1a forbidden, prohibited, interdicted; b taboo; 2 holy, sacred, sacrosanct; II n., 3a s.th. sacred, sacred object; b sacred possession; c sanctum, sanctuary, sacred precinct; 4 wife | al-ḥaramān, n.du., the two Holy Places, Mecca and Medina; ṯāliṯ al-ḥaramayn, n., the third Holy Place, i.e., Jerusalem.
► ^BP#3581ḥurmaẗ, pl. ḥuram, var. ḥurumāt, ḥuramāt, n.f., 1 holiness, sacredness, sanctity, sacrosanctity, inviolability; 2 reverence, veneration, esteem, deference, respect; 3 that which is holy, sacred, sacrosanct, inviolable, or taboo; 4 pl. ḥuram, a woman, lady; b wife.
► ^BP#1261ḥarām, pl. ḥurum, I adj., 1a forbidden, interdicted, prohibited, unlawful; b inviolable, taboo; 2 sacred, sacrosanct; 3 cursed, accursed; II n., 4 s.th. forbidden, offense, sin | ĭbn ~, n., illegitimate son, bastard; al-ʔarāḍī al-ḥarām, nonhum.pl., 1a no man’s land; b neutral territory; al-bayt al-ḥarām, n., the Kaaba; al-šahr al-ḥarām, n., the Holy Month Muḥarram; al-masǧid al-ḥarām, n., the Holy Mosque in Mecca; ḥarām ʕalay-ka, expr., you mustn’t do (say) that; bi-ḥarām, adv., illicitly, illegally, unlawfully.
►ḥirām, pl. ‑āt, var. ʔaḥrimaẗ, n., a woolen blanket (worn as a garment around head and body): prob. akin to ḥaram etc.; see ↗s.v. and sections CONC and DISC, above.
► ^BP#4832ḥarīm, pl. ḥurum, n., 1 a sacred, inviolable place, sanctum, sanctuary, sacred precinct; 2a harem; b female members of the family, women; c wife: quasi-PP I.
►ḥarīmī, adj., women’s (in compounds), for women: nisba formation from the preceding.
►ḥurūm, pl. ‑āt, n., excommunication (Chr.): < vn. I ?
►ḥarāmī, pl. ‑iyyaẗ, n., thief, robber, bandit: nisba formation, from ḥarām in the sense of ʻcursed, accursed’ (?) or *ʻs.o. dealing with forbidden\unlawful things’.
► ^BP#3004ḥirmān, n., 1a deprivation, bereavement, dispossession (of s.o., of a.th.); b debarment, exclusion, preclusion (min from); c privation; 2 excommunication (Chr.): vn. I. | ḥirmān al-ʔirṯ, n., exclusion from inheritance, disinheritance (Isl. Law).
►maḥram, pl. maḥārimᵘ, n., 1 s.th. forbidden, inviolable, taboo, sacrosanct, holy, or sacred; 2 unmarriageable, being in a degree of consanguinity precluding marriage (Isl. Law): n.loc., with specialised sense [v2].
►maḥramaẗ, pl. maḥārimᵘ, n.f., handkerchief: orig. perh. *ʻpiece of cloth used to cover head\body and protect taboo parts from being violated’? See DISC in root entry ↗√ḤRM as well as own entry ↗maḥramaẗ.
►taḥrīm, n., forbiddance, interdiction, prohibition, ban: vn. II.
►ʔiḥrām, n., 1 state of ritual consecration of the Mecca pilgrim (during which the pilgrim, wearing two seamless woolen or linen sheets, usually white, neither combs nor shares, and observes sexual continence); 2 garments of the Mecca pilgrim: vn. IV, [v2] synecdoch. use.
► ^BP#1044ĭḥtirām, pl ‑āt, 1a deference, respect, regard, esteem, reverence; b honoring (e.g., of a privilege); c pl. honors, respects, tributes: vn. VIII.
►maḥrūm, adj., 1 deprived, bereaved, bereft (min of); 2 excluded, precluded, debarred (min from); 3 suffering privation (as opposed to marzūq); 4 excommunicated (Chr.): PP I.
► ^BP#3580muḥarram, adj., n., 1 forbidden, interdicted; 2 Muharram, name of the first Islamic month: PP II. | Muḥarram al-ḥarām, honorific name of this month.
►muḥrim, n., Mecca pilgrim who has entered the state of ritual consecration (see ʔiḥrām): PA IV.
► ^BP#2905muḥtaram, adj., 1 honored, revered, venerated, esteemed, respected; 2 (in the salutation of letters:) my dear; 3 venerable, reverend; 4 notable, remarkable, considerable: PP VIII.

See also ↗ḥarām, ↗ḥirām, ↗ḥarīm, ↗ḥarāmī, ↗maḥramaẗ, and, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤRM.

ḥarām حَرام, pl. ḥurum

ID 206 • Sw – • BP 1261 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ḤRM

adj.; n.

I adj., 1a forbidden, interdicted, prohibited, unlawful; b inviolable, taboo; 2 sacred, sacrosanct; 3 cursed, accursed; II n., 4 s.th. forbidden, offense, sin – WehrCowan1976.

▪ From protWSem *ḤRM ‘to forbid’ (Kogan2015) or protSem *X̣RM ‘to separate, ban, prohibit’ (Huehnergard2011). For discussion and further details, cf. ↗ḥaram and root entry ↗√ḤRM.
▪ …

▪ …

▪ ↗ḥaram.
▪ …

▪ Engl harmattan, possibly from Ar ḥarām ‘evil thing’, from ḥarama, vb. I, ‘to exclude, deny, prohibit’ – Huehnergard2011. – Cf., however, TLFi which, for Fr harmattan says that it is borrowed from Fanti (a language of Ghana) haramata ʻid.’ (as of 29Nov2020).

►ĭbn ḥarām, n., illegitimate son, bastard
►al-ʔarāḍī al-ḥarām, nonhum.pl., 1a no man’s land; b neutral territory
►al-bayt al-ḥarām, n., the Kaaba
►al-šahr al-ḥarām, n., the Holy Month Muḥarram
►al-masǧid al-ḥarām, n., the Holy Mosque in Mecca
►ḥarām ʕalay-ka, expr., you mustn’t do (say) that
►bi-ḥarām, adv., illicitly, illegally, unlawfully.

►ḥarāmī, pl. ‑iyyaẗ, n., thief, robber, bandit: nisba formation, from ḥarām in the sense of ʻcursed, accursed’ (?) or *ʻs.o. dealing with forbidden\unlawful things’.

See also ↗ḥaram, ↗ḥirām, ↗ḥarīm, ↗ḥarāmī, ↗maḥramaẗ, and, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤRM.

ḥirām حِرام , pl. ‑āt, var. ʔaḥrimaẗ

√ḤRM

a woolen blanket (worn as a garment around head and body) – WehrCowan1976.

▪ Together with what is likely to be an Akk cognate, Ar ḥirām ‘woolen blanket (garment around head and body)’ seems to be based on the notion of ‘covering’ and thereby ʻprotecting’. The authors of DRS think (s.v. #ḤRM-1) that this ʻcovering-protecting’ could be related to the larger semantic complex ʻforbidding, denying, preventing’ (DRS #ḤRM-2, see ↗ḥaram), prob. because covering the head and\or body is a form of protecting one’s sanctity\inviolability\dignity by denying, preventing, forbidding others to see and\or touch the head\body, or because wrapping one’s head with a piece of cloth resembles the wrapping of a writing tablet in a protecting clay case (cf. Akk arāmu~ḫarāmu~erēmu).
▪ Akin, and etymologically perh. even identical, is prob. ↗maḥramah ‘handkerchief’, as also this latter may originally have been a head/body cover or scarf.
▪ …

▪ …

▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤRM-1 Akk ḫarāmu ‘couvrir’ [CAD: arāmu~ḫarāmu~erēmu ʻto stretch or place (a membrane, skin or a layer of metal) over and object, place a tablet in a clay case’], Ar ḥirām ‘couverture’. -?2 Akk ḫarāmu ‘séparer’; – Moab *hḥrm, Hbr hęḥ^ęrīm ‘consacrer, vouer’; Hbr ‘vouer à la destruction totale’, JP ḥarem ‘excommunier, interdire, déclarer qc mise à part pour l’usage du Temple, vouer à la destruction’, Nab ḥrm ‘chose sacrée, inviolable’, hḥrm ‘vouer’, Mnd ḥrm ‘interdire, maudire’; Ar ḥarama ‘repousser, tenir à distance, prohiber, déclarer illicite’, ḥarima ‘être illicite, être sacré et interdit à l’usage profane’, ḥaram ‘chose illicite, sacrée; enceinte sacrée; femme’; ḥurumāt ‘ordres et interdits inviolables (de Dieu)’, DaṯAr miḥrām ‘sanctuaire’; SAr ḥrm (vb.): Sab ‘être interdit, proscrit; être en état de sacralisation (pèlerin)’, Qat ‘être prohibé, puni; décréter, commander’, Soq ḥrm ‘maudire’, Ḥrs ḥerm ‘être privé (de droits conjugaux)’, Mhr ḥōrəm, Ḥrs ḥārəm ‘se repentir, jurer de ne pas’, Jib oḥúrm ‘jurer de ne pas’, Mhr ḥrūm ‘provoquer un désastre en enfreignant un interdit’, Jib aḥrím ‘interdire’; – ḥrm (n.): Sab ḥrm, Sab Qat Min mḥrm ‘enclos, sanctuaire’, Mhr Ḥrs ḥərōm, Jib ḥárúm ‘interdit, tabou’, Ḥrs ḥərām ‘mariage, légitimité’, Mhr ḥərmēt ‘femme, épouse; femme sans défense, veuve’, Jib ḥarmɛ́t ‘veuve’; Gz ḥarama, Te ḥarräma, Amh harrämä,arrämä ‘interdire’, Te məḥram ‘sanctuaire’, Tña ḥarämä ‘être interdit’. – ? YemAr ḥaram(ä) ‘mort naturelle’. -3 ḤḍrAr maḥrameh ‘foulard de tête’, EAr maḥrameh, MġrAr maḥramah, mḥarmah ‘mouchoir, foulard’, Soq mḥármeh ‘turban’. -4 […].
▪ …

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ …

–

See also ↗ḥaram, ↗ḥarām, ↗ḥarīm, ↗ḥarāmī, ↗maḥramaẗ, and, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤRM.

ḥarīm حَريم , pl. ḥurum

√ḤRM

1 a sacred, inviolable place, sanctum, sanctuary, sacred precinct; 2a harem; b female members of the family, women; c wife – WehrCowan1976.

▪ A quasi-PP I, *ʻseparated, secluded, taboo’, from ḥarama ʻto deprive, withdraw, withhold, deny; to exclude, preclude, cut off’, perh. denom. from ↗ḥaram ‘forbidden, prohibited, inviolable, taboo, sacred’, hence also especially ‘female members of the family, women’.
▪ Accord. to Huehnergard2011, ḥarīm is the source of Engl harem; see below, section WEST, as well as s.v. ↗ḥaram.
▪ …

▪ …

▪ ↗ḥaram.
▪ …

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ …

▪ Engl harem, from Ar ḥarīm ‘sanctuary, inviolable place, harem’, from ḥarama, vb. I, ‘to exclude, deny, prohibit’ – Huehnergard2011. – According to EtymOnline, the etymology of Engl harem is rather via Tu ḥarem from Ar ↗ḥaram.

►ḥarīmī, adj., women’s (in compounds), for women: nisba formation from the preceding.

For further related items, see ↗ḥaram, ↗ḥarām, ↗ḥirām, ↗ḥarāmī, ↗maḥramaẗ, and, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤRM.

ḥarāmī حَراميّ , , pl. ‑iyyaẗ

√ḤRM

thief, robber, bandit – WehrCowan1976.

▪ Prob. a nisba formation from ↗ḥarām in the sense of ʻcursed, accursed’, or *ʻs.o. dealing with forbidden\unlawful things’.
▪ …

▪ …

▪ ↗ḥarām, ↗ḥaram.
▪ …

–

See also ↗ḥaram, ↗ḥarām, ↗ḥirām, ↗ḥarīm, ↗maḥramaẗ, and, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤRM.

maḥramaẗ مَحْرَمة , pl. maḥārimᵘ

√ḤRM

n.f.

handkerchief – WehrCowan1976.

▪ In MSA and many Ar dialects, both eastern and western, the word maḥramaẗ means ‘handkerchief’, while it signifies ‘head-scarf, turban’ in ḤḍrAr (as does also Soq mḥármeh) –see DRS #ḤRM-3. For Soq mḥármeh, Leslau suggests a connection with Ar ↗ḫimār ʻveil covering head and face of a woman’.² In contrast, the authors of DRS rather feel inclined to relate it to the basic notion of ʻcovering’, cf. ↗ḥirām ʻwoolen blanket (worn as a garment around head and body)’ (DRS #ḤRM-1), which in turn may be related to the largest semantic field associated with the root √ḤRM, namely ʻto forbid, taboo, respect\dignity’ – see ↗ḥaram.
▪ Any interference of, or influence on, Engl (hand)kerchief or Fr mouchoir? Originally, the Eur words seem to have designated, like Ar maḥramaẗ, pieces of cloth used to veil/protect the head or body…
▪ …

2. Allegedly also akin to an Aram ḥūmrā ʻcover (n.)’, but I was unable to verify this word in any of the dictionaries at my disposal – SG.

▪ …

▪ As the meaning ‘head-scarf, turban’ of ḤḍrAr maḥrameh and Soq mḥármeh as well as the more general ‘scarf’ of EAr maḥrameh and MġrAr maḥramah~mḥarmah (alongside ‘handkerchief’) show, the exact meaning of the words vacillates between ‘handkerchief’ and ‘piece of tissue used to cover/protect (the head, or parts of the body)’. Therefore, maḥramaẗ ‘handkerchief’ is quite likely to be akin to ↗ḥirām ‘wooden blanket (worn as a garment around head and body)’ (DRS #ḤRM-1). Interestingly enough, a semantic shift from ‘head-cloth’ (via ‘scarf’) to ‘(hand)kerchief’ can be observed also for Engl kerchief: according to EtymOnline (as of 25Nov2020), Engl kerchief was originally a *ʻsquare piece of fabric folded and worn about the head, cloth for covering the head’, from mEngl kovrechief ʻpiece of cloth used to cover part of the head’, esp. a woman’s head-cloth or veil, from AngloFr courchief, oFr couvrechief ʻa kerchief’, lit. *ʻcover head’, from couvrir ʻto cover’ + chief ʻhead’ (< Lat caput ʻhead’). From lC14 onwards the Engl word came to be used as ʻpiece of cloth used about the person’ generally, for purposes other than covering the head; and from c. 1400 as ʻpiece of cloth used about the person, carried in the hand’ to wipe the face, etc., »a curious confluence of words for ʻhand’ and ʻhead’«. So, is this parallel a mere coincidence? Or is it due to a typological similarity in the development of Eastern and Western cultural history, esp. court culture? Or is it perh. the result of cultural contact and borrowing? In other words, is Ar maḥramaẗ in some way a calque from Engl kerchief, or the latter calqued on the model of the former? If this should be the case, one would have to search for the contact milieu through which the borrowing was initiated.
▪ …

▪ Was the semantic shift in Engl kerchief from ʻhead-cloth, veil’ to ʻhandkerchief’ (see above, section DISC) influenced by a similar shift in Ar, or the shift in Ar motivated by the development in Engl?
▪ …

See also ↗ḥaram, ↗ḥarām, ↗ḥirām, ↗ḥarīm, ↗ḥarāmī, and, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤRM.

Permanent link

http://www2.hf.uio.no/common/apps/permlink/permlink.php?app=polyglotta&context=ctext&uid=d8185d72-06ff-11ee-937a-005056a97067

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages

Choose display