Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ḤFR_1 ‘to dig’ ↗ḥafara
▪ ḤFR_2 ‘hoof; ungular, ungulate’ ↗ḥāfir
▪ ḤFR_3 ‘original condition, beginning’ ↗ḥāfiraẗ
▪ ḤFR_4 ‘tartar of the teeth; (SyrAr) scurvy’ ↗ḥafr, ‘barren land, desolate area’ ↗EgAr ḥafraẗ gafraẗ.

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1 hoof; 2 to dig, carve, engrave; hole in the ground, pit; 3 to expose; 4 to return to the original state, a former state; 5 to emaciate’

▪ ḤFR_1 : from protSem *ḥpr ‘to dig’.
▪ ḤFR_2 : ‘Hoof’ is, prob. correctly, grouped in DRS together with ‘to dig’ (ḤFR_1). The item’s form (FāʕiL, PA I) makes it very likely that ‘hoof’ is originally the *‘digger, the digging one’, »as though it [the animal] dug the ground by reason of the vehemence of its tread upon it«, as already the ClassAr dictionaries assume (Lane ii 1865).
▪ ḤFR_3 : If Ar lexicographers are right, ḥāfiraẗ derives its meaning ‘original condition, beginning’ from ḤFR_2 ‘hoof’ and is thus ultimately dependent on ‘to dig’. The connection between ‘hoof’ and ‘original condition’ goes back to ancient merchant language: apparently, it refers to the situation immediately after a deal when the buyer of an animal is not allowed to take it with him as long as he has not paid its price; given that »horses were the most excellent and precious of the things that they [sc., the Arabs] possessed […] they used not to sell them on credit: a man used to say […] that its [the horse’s] hoof should not remove until he received its price« – Lane ii 1865.
▪ ḤFR_4 : The meanings ‘tartar of the teeth’ and (SyrAr) ‘scurvy’ have as their common denominator ‘rottenness, erosion’ and, hence, ‘emaciation’, a value still attested in ClassAr ^†ḥafara ‘to emaciate, render lean’, said of a young animal »rendering the mother flabby in flesh by much sucking« (Lane ii 1865) or in the EgAr expr. ḥafraẗ gafraẗ ‘barren and uninhabited land, desolate area’. All these values build on ḤFR_1 ‘to dig, make a hole’: teeth leave a hole when they fall out > rottenness; the young animal ‘digs’ into its mother when sucking intensely, rendering her weak > emaciation > barrenness.

See individual entries.

▪ DRS #ḤPR-1 Akk ḫapāru, ḫepēru, Hbr *ḥāpar, Aram ḥᵊpar, Palm ḥpr, Ar ḥafara, Liḥ ḥafar, Sab Min ḥfr ‘creuser’, Qat ‘enterrer’, Mhr ḥəfūr, Ḥrs ḥəfōr, Jib ḥfɔr, Soq ḥfr ‘creuser’, Jib ḥfərɛ́t, Mhr məḥfərūt, Ḥrs məḥfərōt ‘trou, fosse’; Ar ḥāfir ‘sabot d’une bête’. -?¹ 2 Hbr ḥāpar ‘épier, espionner; rechercher, explorer’. ‑3 Akk ēpēru ‘nourrir, pourvoir’, ipr ‘subsistance, nourriture’, Ug ḥpr ‘ration’. ‑4 Mhr Ḥrs məḥfīr, Jib maḥfér ‘panier, plat en sparterie’. -5 Ar ḥāfiraẗ ‘début, état initial, caractère inné’.

1. Dilmann 1339 suggère un approchement avec des formes éthiopiennes de PḤR: Gz faḥara, fahara, Tña fäḥarä, Amh farä ‘creuser’ et -2 peuvent être liés. Gesenius souligne le parallélisme avec BQR; de même Palache 32; voir aussi Barth ES 25, WU 57.

▪ Cf. above, section CONC, as well as individual entries.
▪ Badawi&AbdelHaleem2008 seem to regard ‘hoof’ as the primary value, but this is not supported by the overall Sem evidence.
▪ The presentation in DRS is not convincing. #ḤPR-2 ‘to research, explore’ is very likely to be fig. use of #ḤPR-1 (<*‘digging’ into a matter, a problem). For #ḤPR-5 cf. ḤFR_3 in section CONC above. (#ḤPR-3 and #ḤPR-4 seem to be irrelevant for Ar.)
▪ Ehret1995#744 posits an Ar ḥafr (vn.) with the meaning ‘to lie with’ and regards this as an extension in »diffusive« *‑r, derived from a bi-consonantal preprotSem √*ḤP ‘to put down’ < AfrAs *‑ḥaf‑ ‘to lay’.¹ However, ‘to lie with’ is hardly an independent value; rather, it is fig. use of ‘to dig’ (< *a man ‘digging’ into a woman), cf. above, section HIST.
▪ …

1. Other extensions from the same pre-protSem root would be: ↗ḤFʔ, ↗ḤFṢ, ↗ḤFḌ.

–

ḥafar‑ حَفَرَ , i (ḥafr)

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

√ḤFR

vb., I

1a to dig; 1b to drill (for oil); 1c to excavate (archeol.); 2a to carve; 2b to engrave, etch (metal) | ḥafara ḫanādiqᵃ, vb. I, to dig trenches; ḥafara ḥufraẗ, expr., to prepare a pitfall, prepare an ambush – WehrCowan1976.

▪ From protSem *ḤPR ‘to dig’, widely attested throughout Sem.
▪ The primary meaning of the Sem root is well preserved in Ar ḥafara ‘to dig’, ḥufraẗ ‘pit, cavity, hole’, ʔuḥfūr ‘s.th. excavated; fossil’ etc. In the course of time, however, the vb. has taken on several additional, mostly fig. meanings, such as ^†‘to have sexual intercourse, lie with (a woman)’ (< *to ‘dig’ into her), ^†‘to emaciate’ (said of a young animal vehemently sucking its mother’s breast, ‘digging’ into her and rendering her weak), ^†‘to lose one’s teeth, esp. milk-teeth’ (the teeth leaving a hole when falling out), or ^†‘to paw the ground (said of horses, etc.)’. From the latter is ↗ḥāfir ‘hoof’ (lit., *‘the digging one, digger’) (and from there also idiomatic use of ḥāfir and ↗ḥāfiraẗ, see s.vv.). Further developments along the line *‘to dig > to leave holes, emaciate, render rotten > …’ are ↗ḥafr ‘tartar of the teeth’ and (SyrAr) ‘scurvy’, as well as the EgAr expression ↗ḥafraẗ gafraẗ ‘barren land, desolate area’.

▪ Among the fig. meanings of ‘digging’, cf. also ClassAr †ḥafara ‘to penetrate, have sex (with a woman)’, »the action being likened to that of a man digging a river« (Lane ii 1865).
▪ Cf. also ^†ḥaf(a)r, ^†ḥafīr(ẗ) ‘well that is widened beyond measure’; ^†ḥafīr ‘newly-dug well; grave’; ^†ḥāfara, vb. III, ‘to go deep into a hole/burrow, so deep that one cannot be dug out (said of a jerboa)’ (Lane ii 1865, Hava1899).
▪ eC7 (pit) Q 3:103 wa-kuntum ʕalà šafā ḥufraẗin min-a ’l-nāri fa-ʔanqaḏakum minhā ‘and you were on the brink of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it’.
▪ …

▪ Bergsträsser1928: (*‘to dig’) Akk (ḫpr (i)), Hbr ḥpr a (o), Syr ḥpr a (u), SAr ḥfr.
▪ DRS #ḤPR-1 Akk ḫapāru, ḫepēru, Hbr *ḥāpar, Aram ḥᵊpar, Palm ḥpr, Ar ḥafara, Liḥ ḥafar, Sab Min ḥfr ‘creuser’, Qat ‘enterrer’, Mhr ḥəfūr, Ḥrs ḥəfōr, Jib ḥfɔr, Soq ḥfr ‘creuser’, Jib ḥfərɛ́t, Mhr məḥfərūt, Ḥrs məḥfərōt ‘trou, fosse’; Ar ḥāfir ‘sabot d’une bête’. - ?² 2 Hbr ḥāpar ‘épier, espionner; rechercher, explorer’. ‑3–4 […]. -5 Ar ḥāfiraẗ ‘début, état initial, caractère inné’.
▪ …

2. Dillmann 1339 suggère un approchement avec des formes éthiopiennes de PḤR: Gz faḥara, fahara, Tña fäḥarä, Amh farä ‘creuser’ et #ḤPR-2 peuvent être liés. Gesenius souligne le parallélisme avec BQR; de même Palache 32; voir aussi Barth ES 25, WU 57.

▪ The value ‘épier, espionner; rechercher, explorer’ (DRS #ḤPR-2), now obsolete in Ar, is almost certainly fig. use of [v1]/#ḤPR-1 ‘to dig’ (< *‘to dig into a matter’).
▪ For dependence of DRS #ḤPR-5 on [v1]/#ḤPR-1 ‘to dig’, cf. ↗ḥāfiraẗ.
▪ Ehret1995#744 posits an Ar ḥafr (vn.) with the meaning ‘to lie with’ and regards this as an extension in »diffusive« *‑r, derived from a bi-consonantal preprotSem √*ḤP ‘to put down’ < AfrAs *‑ḥaf‑ ‘to lay’.² However, ‘to lie with’ is hardly an independent value; rather, it is fig. use of ‘to dig’ (< *a man ‘digging’ into a woman), cf. above, section HIST.
▪ …

2. Other extensions from the same pre-protSem root would be: ↗ḤFʔ, ↗ḤFṢ, ↗ḤFḌ.

…

►ĭnḥafara, vb. VII, pass. of I: N-stem.
►ĭḥtafara, vb. VII, to dig: Gt-stem, focus on the agent/speaker.

► ^BP#3312ḥafr, n., 1a digging, earthwork, excavation (also archeol.); 1b unearthing; 1c drilling (for oil); 2a carving, inscribing (e.g., of letters); 2b engraving, etching; graphic arts (etching, wood engraving); 3 tartar, dental calculus (Mawrid1995); 4 scurvy (SyrAr): vn. I and extended usages, cf. individual entry ↗ḥafr. | ǧahāz al-ḥafr, n., oil rig; oil derrick
► ^BP#3883ḥufraẗ, pl. ḥufar, n.f., 1 pit; 2 hollow, cavity, excavation; 3 hole.
►ḥafriyyaẗ, n.f., 1 digging, excavation; 2 gravure; 3 pl. ḥafriyyāt, excavations (archeol.): f. (pl.) of nisba formation.
►ḥaffār, n., 1 digger; 2 engraver; 3 driller; 4 stone mason: ints. FaʕʕāL for professions | ḥaffār al-qubūr, n., gravedigger.
►ḥafīr, n., dug, dug out, excavated, unearthed: quasi-PP I.
►ḥafīraẗ, pl. ḥafāʔirᵘ, n.f., 1 s.th. excavated or unearthed; 2 pl. excavations (archeol.).
►ʔuḥfūr, pl. ʔaḥāfīrᵘ, 1 s.th. excavated; 2 fossil; 3 pl. excavations (archeol.).
►miḥfar, pl. maḥāfirᵘ, spade: n.instr.
►ḥāfir, pl. ḥawāfirᵘ, n., hoof: lit., *‘digger, the digging one’; for details see individual entry, ↗ḥāfir. | waqaʕa ’l-ḥāfir ʕalà ’l-ḥāfir, expr., to coincide, happen to correspond exactly; ʕalà ’l-ḥāfir, adv., on the spot, right away, at once (of payments): see ↗ḥāfir.
►ḥāfirī, adj., ungular, ungulate: nisba formation from ḥāfir ‘hoof’.
►ḥāfiraẗ, n.f., original condition, beginning: cf. individual entry ↗ḥāfiraẗ. | ʕinda ’l-ḥāfiraẗ, adv., on the spot, right away, at once; raǧaʕa ʔilà ḥāfiratih, expr., to revert to its original state or origin.
►maḥfūr, adj., 1 dug; 2 inscribed, engraved; 3 carved: PP I.

ḥafr حَفْر

ID … • Sw – • BP 3312 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ḤFR

1a digging, earthwork, excavation (also archeol.); 1b unearthing; 1c drilling (for oil); 2a carving, inscribing (e.g., of letters); 2b engraving, etching; graphic arts (etching, wood engraving); 3 tartar of the teeth, dental calculus (Mawrid1995); 4 (SyrAr) scurvy – WehrCowan1976.

▪ While values [v1a-c] and [v2a-b] represent the primary meaning of the vn. of ↗ḥafara ‘to dig’, [v3] and [v4] are less obviously connected to the idea of digging. That there is such a relation and these values too are dependent on ‘to dig’ becomes clearer from a look into other historically attested items, such as:
▪ ad [v3]: ^†ḥafara and ^†ʔaḥfara ‘to shed one’s milk-teeth’; ^†ḥafara~ḥafira (intr.) ‘to become cankered, wobbling, loose (teeth)’ (Hava1899), »previously to their [the teeth’s] falling out, because, when they have fallen out, their sockets become hollow« (Lane ii 1865), (fig.) ‘to be(come) in a corrupt, or unsound, state’ (ibid.); ^†ḥaf(a)r ‘rottenness, unsound state of the roots of the teeth, erosion’, ^†ḥāfūr ‘tartar of the teeth’ (Hava1899), and
▪ ad [v4]: ^†ḥafara ‘to emaciate, render lean’, said of a young animal »rendering the mother flabby in flesh by much sucking« (Lane ii 1865); ^†ḥaf(a)r ‘emaciation, leanness’; cf. also EgAr ḥafraẗ gafraẗ ‘barren and uninhabited land, desolate area’.
▪ For the overall picture and lines of semantic development, cf. ↗ḥafara and ↗√ḤFR.

▪ See above, section CONC.

See ↗ḥafara, ↗√ḤFR.

▪ See above, section CONC.

…

ǧahāz al-ḥafr, n., oil rig; oil derrick

ḥafriyyaẗ, n.f., 1 digging, excavation; 2 gravure; 3 pl. ḥafriyyāt, excavations (archeol.): f. (pl.) of nisba formation.

For other values of the root, cf. ↗ḥafara, ↗ḥāfir, ↗ḥāfiraẗ, as well as, for the general picture, ↗√ḤFR.

EgAr ḥafraẗ gafraẗ حَفْرة جَفْرة

√ḤFR

n.f.

barren land, desolate area – BadawiHinds1986.

▪ From *‘to emaciate, render barren, rotten’, fig. use of ↗ḥafara ‘to dig’ (i.e., make holes in the ground), perh. via use of the vb. for young animals ‘digging’ into their mothers’ breasts, sucking vehemently and thus rendering them weak and emaciated; ultimately from protSem *ḤPR ‘to dig.’

▪ …

See ↗ḥafara, ↗√ḤFR.

▪ See above, section CONC.

…

For other values of the root, cf. ↗ḥafara, ↗ḥafr,↗ḥāfir, ↗ḥāfiraẗ, as well as, for the general picture, ↗√ḤFR.

ḥāfir حافِر , pl. ḥawāfirᵘ

√ḤFR

hoof – WehrCowan1976.

▪ ḥāfir is a PA I (FāʕiL) of ↗ḥafara ‘to dig’ and thus means, lit., *‘the digger / digging one’. It is so called »as though it [a horse, mule, ass, etc.] dug the ground by reason of the vehemence of its tread upon it« (Lane ii 1865).

▪ …

See ↗ḥafara, ↗√ḤFR.

▪ See above, section CONC.

…

waqaʕa ’l-ḥāfir ʕalà ’l-ḥāfir, expr., to coincide, happen to correspond exactly.
ʕalà ’l-ḥāfir, adv., on the spot, right away, at once (of payments): proverbial, meaning »the payment in ready money is on the occasion of the first sentence spoken by the seller, when he says ‘I have sold to thee (such a thing)’. The origin of the saying was this: horses were the most excellent and precious of the things that they [sc., the Arabs] possessed; and they used not to sell them on credit: a man used to say the words above to another, meaning that its [the horse’s] hoof should not remove until he received its price« – Lane ii 1865.

ḥāfirī, adj., ungular, ungulate: nisba formation from ḥāfir ‘hoof’.
ḥāfiraẗ, n.f., original condition, beginning: lit. referring to the situation immediately after a deal, when the sold/bought animal is not to be removed until its price has been paid, i.e., when it is still ‘digging’ | ʕinda ’l-ḥāfiraẗ, adv., on the spot, right away, at once: see ʕalà ’l-ḥāfir, above; raǧaʕa ʔilà ḥāfiratih, expr., to revert to its original state or origin.

For other values of the root, cf. ↗ḥafara, ↗ḥafr, ↗ḥafraẗ gafraẗ, as well as, for the general picture, ↗√ḤFR.

ḥāfiraẗ حافِرة

√ḤFR

n.f.

original condition, beginning – WehrCowan1976.

▪ Accord. to ClassAr lexicographers, ḥāfiraẗ refers to the situation immediately after a deal, when the sold/bought animal is not to be removed until its price has been paid, i.e., when it is still ‘digging’, pawing the ground. From the expression ʕinda ’l-ḥāfir(aẗ) ‘lit., with [him/her] still digging/pawing’, is the meaning ‘on the spot, right away, at once’, still common today, and hence also ‘original state, initial condition’, attested as such already in the Qurʔān.

▪ eC7 (original state, former condition) Q 79:10-11 yaqūlūna ʔa-ʔinnā la-mardūdūna fī ’l-ḥāfiraẗi? ʔa-ʔiḏā kunnā ʕiẓāman naḫiraẗan? ‘(Now) they are saying: What?, shall we brought back to the original state [life] / after we have turned into decayed bones?’

See ↗ḥafara, ↗√ḤFR.

▪ See above, section CONC.

…

ʕinda ’l-ḥāfiraẗ, adv., on the spot, right away, at once: see ʕalà ’l- ↗ḥāfir.
raǧaʕa ʔilà ḥāfiratih, expr., to revert to its original state or origin.

For other values of the root, cf. ↗ḥafara, ↗ḥafr, ↗ḥafraẗ gafraẗ, ↗ḥāfir, as well as, for the general picture, ↗√ḤFR.

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