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Etymological Dictionary of Arabic
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Click to Expand/Collapse OptionEtymArab
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ʔiḥṣān إِحْصان 
ID … • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√ḤṢN 
n. 
blamelessness, unblemished reputation, integrity (Isl. Law) – WehrCowan1979. 
▪ Morphologically, ʔiḥṣān is the vn. of ʔaḥṣana, a caus. vb. IV that in MSA either refers to the chastity of a woman and hence her unblemished reputation (↗²ḥaṣuna) or the inaccessibility of a fortress (↗¹ḥaṣuna, ↗ḥiṣn), or to inaccessibility in general. ClassAr lexicography tends to derive all values in √ḤṢN from ḥiṣn ʻfortress’. In contrast, DRS 9 (2010) suggests to keep ²ḥaṣuna ʻto be chaste’ (#ḤṢN) apart from ¹ḥaṣuna ʻto be strong, fortified’ (#ḤS/ṢN, *ʻpower, violence, strength, force, fortification’). – For more details, cf. root entry ↗√ḤṢN as well as ↗ḥaṣuna and ↗ḥiṣn.
▪ For muḥṣan as a term in Islamic Law, see below, section DISC.
▪ … 
▪ †ʔaḥṣana, vb. IV, caus., ʻto protect, defend’ (< *ʻto fortify, make inaccessible’), but also ʻto keep o.s. chaste (woman)’ (< *ʻto make o.s. inaccessible’), hence also ʻto be chaste, virtuous (woman)’, as well as ʻto give (a woman) in marriage; to marry (man or woman)’ (to protect o.’s own or s.o.’s chastity); cf. Q 21:91 and 66:12 (on Maryam bt. ʕImrān): allatī ʔaḥṣanat farǧahā ʻwho preserved her pudendum from that which is unlawful or indecorous / who abstained from what is unlawful or indecorous \ was continent, chaste’; cf. also Q 4:25 fa-ʔiḏā ʔuḥṣinna fa-ʔin ʔatayna bi-fāḥišatin fa-ʕalay-hinna niṣfu mā ʕalà ’l-muḥṣanāti mina ’l-ʕaḏābi ʻbut when they [sc., slave girls] enter wedlock, if they commit indecency, they shall be liable to half the punishment prescribed for free women’.
▪ … 
▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤṢN-1 Ar *ḥaṣuna ‘être chaste, vertueuse (femme)’, ḥāṣinaẗ ‘femme vertueuse’, ḥaṣān ‘femme vertueuse, épouse légitime’, ḥiṣn, ḥuṣn ‘vertu (d’une femme)’; Sab ḥṣn ‘prendre sous sa protection’, ʔḥṣn (pl.) ‘épouses’. -2 Ar ḥiṣān ‘étalon, cheval de race’, Ḥrs ḥəṣān, Jib hásún ‘cheval’. -3 YemAr ĭḥtiṣān ‘biens, possessions’. -4 Tña ḥad̮in ‘fer’, Ar ʔaḥṣinaẗ ‘fers, pointes de lances’; Soq ḥaṣəhan ‘fer, lame’.

▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤS/ṢN-1 Hbr ḥosen ‘force’, EmpAram ḥsn ‘violence’, JP ḥᵃsen ‘être fort, véhément’, Ar ḥaṣuna ‘être fort, fortifié’; oAram ḥsn, JP ḥisnā ‘forteresse, force’, Syr ḥesnā, Ar ḥiṣn ‘forteresse’, SAr mḥṣn ‘ouvrage défensif, fortification’, Mhr Ḥrs ḥāṣən ‘grande maison’, Jib ḥeṣn, Soq ḥóṣon ‘château’; Gz ḥəṣn ‘forteresse, château’; Hbr ḥāsīn, Aram ḥassīnā, Ar ḥaṣīn ‘fort’. -2 ʔabū ’l-ḥiṣn, LevAr ʔabū ḥsēn, DaṯAr ḥuṣaynī, Soq ḥṣáyni ‘renard’.
▪ … 
▪ muḥṣan: »a term of Islamic law denoting a certain personal status. – The Ḳurʔān’s impersonal uses of the root ḥ-ṣ-n refer to warehousing, shelter, fortification and protection (xii: 48; xxi: 80; lix: 2, 14). Used personally of the Virgin Mary (xxi: 91; lxvi: 12), the verb refers to chastity. A cluster of participial derivatives (iv: 24-5; v: 5) relate to the intent underlying the Islamic marriage contract where muḥṣin / muḥṣanaẗ are perhaps best understood in terms of the provision of accommodation. The muḥṣanaẗ need not be Muslim (v: 5); if Muslim, she need not be free (iv: 24-5). Muḥṣanāt are thus marriageable women: free muslimāt or kitābiyyāt, or Muslim slave women. Muḥṣanāt / muḥṣinūn are contrasted with musāfiḥāt / musāfiḥūn, i.e. with such as engage in illicit sexual relations. The category muḥṣanāt may include slave women (iv: 24) yet be contrasted with slave women (iv: 25)« – J. Burton, art. “Muḥṣan”, in: EI² (online, as of 12Dec2020).
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►ʔaḥṣana, vb. IV, 1 to make inaccessible (s.th.); 2 ↗ḥiṣn; 3a to be chaste, pure (woman); b to remain chaste, be of unblemished reputation (woman): [v1] caus., either from ↗²ḥaṣuna ‘to be chaste’ or from ↗ḥiṣn ‘fortress’; [v2] clearly from ḥiṣn; [v3] only personal use, cf. section HIST.

►muḥṣanaẗ, var. muḥṣinaẗ, pl. ‑āt, adj.f., 1 sheltered, well-protected, chaste; 2 of unblemished reputation (woman; Isl. Law): PP (var. PA) IV; the variation betw. PP and PA owes itself to the perspective: the woman can be protected or actively protecing herself.

For other values of the root, cf. ↗ḥaṣuna, ↗ḥiṣn, ↗ḥiṣān, and ʔabū ’l- ↗ḥuṣayn, as well as, for the overall picture, root entry √ḤṢN. 
ḤṢY حصي 
ID – • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 9Mar2023
√ḤṢY 
“root” 
▪ ḤṢY_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤṢY_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤṢY_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘pebbles, to count; to comprehend; to keep, stick with; mind, discerning faculty; ability to express o.s. clearly’ 
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ḤḌː (ḤḌḌ) حضّ/حضض 
ID – • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 10Mar2023
√ ḤḌː (ḤḌḌ) 
“root” 
▪ ḤḌː (ḤḌḌ)_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤḌː (ḤḌḌ)_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤḌː (ḤḌḌ)_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘foot of a mountain, depth, bottom of a valley; to incite, encourage, urge’ 
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ḤḌR حضر 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√ḤḌR 
“root” 
▪ ḤḌR_1 ‘to be present, attend; to come, arrive, visit, go to, appear, show up; to be readily called’ ↗ḥaḍara, ↗ḥuḍūr, ↗ḥāḍir; ‘to prepare’ ↗ḥaḍḍara; ‘to die’ ↗ĭḥtaḍara; ‘civilized region; settled population, town dwellers’ ↗ḥaḍar; ‘presence; His Highness, Monsieur’ ↗ḥaḍraẗ; ‘sedentary life; civilisation, culture’ ↗ḥaḍāraẗ; ‘minutes, official report’ ↗maḥḍar; ‘lecture’ ↗muḥāḍaraẗ
▪ ḤḌR_2 ‘a small group of 6 to 12 people, patrol, squad’ ↗ḥaḍīraẗ

Other values, now obsolete, include (Lane ii 1865, Hava1899):

▪ †ḤḌR_3 ‘fleet (horse)’: †miḥḍīr (pl. maḥāḍīrᵘ)
▪ †ḤḌR_4 ‘thick purulent matter in a wound, afterbirth’: †ḥaḍīr(aẗ)
▪ †ḤḌR_5 ‘…’ : †ḥḍr

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘urban areas, a community settled around a water source; to be present, to be at home, adjacency to water; to bring, to fetch; to lie down dying, hardship, strife’ 
▪ [v1] : DRS 9 (2010) #ḤḌR-1 suggests to compare also ↗√ḤṢR and ↗√ḤẒR, without however elaborating on the exact nature of such a conceivable relation. On the Ar, SAr, and modSAr evidence the authors comment: »Ici les valeurs de présence et de sédentarité sont liées, comme le montrent bien l’Ar et le Ḥrṣ; en Sab, il s’agit du fait d’être présent au pélerinage ou à la fête.«1 – In contrast, Orel&Stolbova1994 #1214 seem to interpret Ar ḥaḍar outright as ʻ[enclosed, fenced?] area’ and derive it from protSem *ḥaṣ́ar‑ < AfrAs *ḥać̣ar‑ ‘fence, enclosure’. – In √ḤṢR we find items such as ḥaṣara ‘to surround, encircle’ and ḥiṣār ‘blockade, siege’; similarly, in √ḤẒR we find, e.g., ḥaẓara ‘to fence in’ or ḥaẓīraẗ ‘enclosure’.
[v2] : Accord. to Lane ii (1865), the meaning of ḥaḍīraẗ in ClassAr is ‘collective body of a people’. Perh. somehow related to [v1], but the exact semantics remain unclear. An obsol. meaning of ḥaḍīr(aẗ), sharing with ‘collective body’ the notion of *‘gathering, coming together’, is also [v4] †‘what collects in a wound, of thick purulent matter; what collects in the membrane that encloses the fœtus, of the [fluid called] suḫd and the like; […] what a woman emits after childbirth and [after] the stopping of her blood; […] what a she-camel emits after bringing forth’.
▪ †[v3] : The light-footedness of a horse seems to be a development from [v1]: *‘present > ready > quick’. Value not mentioned in DRS.
▪ †[v4] : Is the *‘gathering, coming together’ that this value shares with [v2] based on [v1] *‘to settle’ (= *‘to gather in a place’)?
▪ [other] : None of the values [v2]–[v4] are mentioned in DRS. In contrast, DRS lists the values #ḤḌR-2 ‘pubis’ (†ḥaḍr) and #ḤḌR-3 ‘anse de vase’ (†ḥāḍiraẗ), which we were unable to identify elsewhere.
▪ … 
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▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤḌR-1 Ar ḥaḍara ‘être présent, prêt; assister à’, ḥaḍar, ḥāḍiraẗ ‘présence, demeure fixe (par opp. au nomadisme)’, Qat tḥḍr ‘être présent (dans un lieu)’, Jib ḥɔ́źɔ́r, Mhr ḥəźáwr ‘être présent; persuader’, Ḥrs ḥəźáwr ‘migrer du désert vers la ville en été; être présent’. – Sab ḥḍr ‘célébrer une fête (pour une divinité), accomplir un pélerinage; offrir’. -2 Ar ḥaḍr ‘pubis’. -3 ḥāḍiraẗ ‘anse de vase’.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994 #1214: Akk ḫaṣāru ‘enclosure’, Phn ḥṣr ‘yard’, Hbr ḥāṣer ‘camp; yard’, Syr ḥəṣārā ‘yard’, Ar ḥaḍar, SAr ḥṣwr ‘area’, Gz ḥaṣur ‘enclosure’. – For extra-Sem cognates cf. below, section DISC.
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▪ [v1] : Orel&Stolbova’s (1994 #1214) reconstruction of the AfrAs dimension (see above, section CONC) is based, in addition to their assumption of a Sem *ḥaṣ́ar‑, on the reconstruction of extra-Sem proto-forms, stipulated from sparse evidence in a few, mainly WCh and CCh langs. The authors posit protWCh *ć̣˅r‑ (from 1 siri ‘fence’), protCCh *ḥaẑar‑ (based on actual forms like ẑaẑar, gəẑar) ‘fence’, Bed eseer ‘enclosure’. Any connection with LEC *ʔaraʒ‑ (Or areddaa ‘dwelling’)?
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