Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ 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’.¹ 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…
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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.

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▪ 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 […].
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▪ 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.
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▪ 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?
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See also ↗ḥaram, ↗ḥarām, ↗ḥirām, ↗ḥarīm, ↗ḥarāmī, and, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤRM.

ḤRW/Y حرو/ي

√ḤRW/Y

“root”

▪ ḤRW/Y_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤRW/Y_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤRW/Y_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘nest, den, inviolable place; to take great care, be intent; to be worthy; to be hot’

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ḤZB حزب

√ḤZB

“root”

▪ ḤZB_1 ‘to befall, happen, occur’ ↗ḥazaba
▪ ḤZB_2 ‘group, troop, band, gang; party’ ↗ḥizb
▪ ḤZB_3 ‘old hag’ ↗ḥayzabūn

Other values, now obsolete, include:

ḤZB_4 ‘rocky hill, rugged ground’: ^†ḥizbāʔ
ḤZB_5 ‘thick, coarse, rude, bulky and short’: ^†ḥazābⁱⁿ, ^†ḥinzāb (meaning also ‘wild carrot’ and ‘cock’)

BAH2008: ‘1 hardship, to afflict; 2 group, faction, to devide, partition, gang up; 3 rocky hill’

▪ Relations within this root still rather unclear. According to DRS, ḤZB_3-5 may be related to ḤZB_1.

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DRS 9 (2010)#ḤZB-1 Ar ḥazaba ‘advenir, survenir, atteindre qn. soudainement’, ḥazb ‘difficultés’; ? Mhr ḥəzūb ‘être vigilant, prêt à agir’. -2 Ar ḥizb ‘portion, part, lot, troupe, parti’, ḥazaba ‘être partisan’, ḥazzaba ‘assembler, réunir; partager’; SAr ʔḥzb (pl.) ‘bandes armées’; Gz ḥəzb ‘nation, tribu, secte, foule’, Te ‘peuple, nation’, Tña ḥəzbi, Amh Gur həzb, Gur äzb, kəzb, kəbz ‘peuple, foule’. -3 Gz ḥazzaba ‘attacher, lier’, Tña ḥəzab, Amh Gur (ə)zab ‘rêne, bride’, Arg zab, Amh azzäbä ‘tresser, faire de courroies’. -4 Gz ḥazaba, ḥazzaba ‘penser, considérer, supposer, soupçonner’, Te täḥazzäba ‘douter’, täḥazäba ‘jeter la suspicion sur’, Amh azzäbä : entendre qc. qu’on désapprouve tacitement, tazzäbä ‘être témoin silencieux, soupçonner, juger à part soi’; Gur azzäbä, Har ḥazäba ‘garder en mémoire ce que qn. a fait’.¹ -5 Ar ḥizbāʔ ‘terrain raboteux’; ḥazābⁱⁿ ‘épais, rude, courtaud, massif’, ḥayzabūn ‘vieille femme (rusée, mauvaise)’.

1. »Sur des rapports possibles avec le Sem ḤSB, voir sous cette racine.«

▪ ḤZB_2: Ar ḥizb is believed to be from Gz ḥəzb. – On DRS #3 (EthSem only): »Peut-être la notion de ‘lier, attacher’ est-elle en rapport avec celle de ‘rassembler, grouper, unir dans un parti, etc.’ [ḤZB_2]«.
▪ ḤZB_3: Ar ḥayzabūn ‘old hag’ is the last remnant of a value that in DRS #5 is treated as one, together with ḤZB_4 ^†ḥizbāʔ ‘rocky hill, rugged ground’ and ḤZB_5, comprising the strange items ^†ḥazābⁱⁿ ‘thick, coarse, rude, (etc.)’ and ^†ḥinzāb ‘dto.; wild carrot; cock’. The common denominator here would be the coarseness, rudeness, compactness. The authors of DRS also consider the possibility that all this “perhaps” should be connected ḤZB_1, »comme les aspérités et surprises de la vie et du chemin.«

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