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Etymological Dictionary of Arabic
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Click to Expand/Collapse OptionEtymArab
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²Ḥalabᵘ حَلَبُ 
ID … • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 19Feb2021
√ḤLB 
n.geogr. 
Aleppo – WehrCowan1976. 
▪ »According to a popular legend in the Middle Ages, the name Aleppo (Ḥalab) came from the Ar vb. ḥalaba ʻto milk’ because Abraham would have milked his flocks here. This origin myth thus linked Aleppo to one of the most prestigious figures in the Muslim tradition. In reality, however, Ḥalab derives from the name the city had as early as the second millennium B.C.E. (Khalab in Hittite, Khrb in Eg, and Khallaba in Akk)« – A.-M. Eddé, “Aleppo (pre-Ottoman)”, in EI³.
▪ When the name first appears in the sources the city »already had a very long past behind it. It seems that a rural settlement was formed there in prehistoric times and that this village gradually gained ascendance over the others in the area, owing to the relatively wide resources of its site and in particular to the presence there of a rocky eminence on which the citadel still stands today: it was this acropolis, one of the strongest and the most easily manned defensive positions in the whole of northern Syria, which enabled the masters of the place to extend control over their neighbours so as to found the “great kingdom” which was, in the 20th century B.C., to enter into relations with the Hittites of Anatolia« – J. Sauvaget, “Ḥalab”, in EI².
▪ »[The name Ḥalab] is of obscure origin. Some have proposed that Ḥalab means ʻiron’ or ʻcopper’ in Amorite languages, since the area served as a major source of these metals in antiquity. Another possibility is that Ḥalab means ʻwhite’, as this is the word for ʻwhite’ in Aramaic, the local language which preceded regional Arabization« – en.wiki, “Aleppo#Etymology”. 
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▪ See above, section CONC.
 
▪ The form Aleppo represents the Italianised version of the Arabic name.
 
For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗¹ḥalab, ↗ḥalbaẗ, ↗ḥulbaẗ, ↗maḥlab, ↗ḥālib, as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ḤLB. 
ḤLF حلف 
ID – • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 10Mar2023
√ḤLF 
“root” 
▪ ḤLF_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤLF_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤLF_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to be solid; an oath, to swear, to take an oath; to become an ally, enter into an alliance, an alliance’ 
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ḤLQ حلق 
ID – • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 10Mar2023
√ḤLQ 
“root” 
▪ ḤLQ_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤLQ_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤLQ_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘throat; circle, to encircle; to fly, to hover, circle in the air; to peel off, shave off hair; famine’ 
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ḤLQM حلقم 
ID – • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 10Mar2023
√ḤLQM 
“root” 
▪ ḤLQM_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤLQM_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḤLQM_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘throat, gullet, windpipe; extreme ends, dates ripe at one end’ 
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ḤLM حلم 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 22Feb2021
√ḤLM 
“root” 
▪ ḤLM_1 ‘dream, to dream’ ↗ḥulm
▪ ḤLM_2 ‘to have wet dreams, nightly pollutions’ ↗ĭḥtalama
▪ ḤLM_3 ‘sexual maturity, puberty, to attain puberty’ ↗ḥulum
▪ ḤLM_4 ‘gentleness, clemency, patience’ ↗ḥilm
▪ ḤLM_5 ‘tick; mite; nipple, mammilla’ ↗ḥalam
▪ ḤLM_6 ‘haloomi (a kind of cheese)’ ↗ḥalūm

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘dream, to dream, to have wet dreams, to attain puberty; to gain wisdom, to be patient, clemency; a sensible person; nipple, a young goat’ 
▪ With the exception of [v6] ‘haloomi cheese’, all other values may be related – though [v5] ‘tick; mite; nipple, mammilla’ remains slightly difficult to connect. For the remaining items, however, one could imagine a development along the line *[v1] ‘dream, to dream’ > [v2] ‘to have wet dreams, nightly pollutions’ > [v3] ‘sexual maturity, puberty, to attain puberty’ > [v4] 4 ‘gentleness, clemency, patience’.
▪ [v1] Kogan2015, 82 #21 reconstructs protWSem *ḥlm ‘to dream’ (SED I #25ᵥ).
▪ [v3] Kogan2015, 190 #25 reconstructs protCSem *ḥlm ‘to be mature, fat, vigorous.’
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▪ DRS 9 (2010)#ḤLM–1 Hbr ḥālam, Aram ḥᵃlam, Syr ḥᵊlmā, Ar ḥalama, Soq ḥlm, Mhr Ḥrs ḥáyləm, Jib ḥélm, Gz Te ḥalma, Tña ḥalama, Amh allämä ‘rêver’; Ug ḥlm, Phn ḥlm, Hbr ḥalōm, oEmpAram ḥlm, JP Syr ḥelmā, Sab ḥlm, Mhr ḥāləm, ḥām, Ḥrs ḥāləm, Jib ḥum ‘rêve’; Gz ḥəlm, Amh ʔəlm ‘songe’; Sab ḥlmt ‘prophétesse, voyante’; Ar ĭḥtalama, Te täḥallämä, Mhr əḥtəlūm, Jib aḥtélím ‘avoir une pollution nocture’, Sab mḥtlm ‘qui a eu une pollution nocture’. –2 Ug ḥlm, Hbr *ḥālam ‘être fort (jeune animal)’, hęḥᵊlīm ‘rendre bien portant’, Syr ḥᵉlīmā ‘sain, en bonne santé’, Ar ĭḥtalama ‘arriver à l’âge de puberté’, ḥalīm ‘gras (animal)’; ? Mhr ḥəlūm ‘enfler (blessure)’; – Ar ḥaluma ‘être doux, indulgent, intelligent’, ḥilm ‘indulgence, tranquillité. –3 Ar ḥalima ‘avoir la peau infestée de parasites’, ḥalamaẗ ‘tique’. –4 Syr ḥᵃlametā, Ar ḥalamaẗ, Soq ḥálmeh ‘bout du sein’. – [5.-7. not relevant for Ar]. –8 Ar ḥālūm : sorte de fromage blanc. –9 Ar ḥullām ‘agneau, chevreau’.
▪ Badawi/AbdelHaleem2008 groups: 1 dream, to dream, to have wet dreams, to attain puberty; 2 to gain wisdom, be patient, clemency; 3 a sensible person; 4 nipple, a young goat.
▪ [v1] Kogan2015: 82 #21: Ug ḥlm, Hbr ḥlm, Syr ḥlam, Ar ḥlm, Sab ḥlm, Gz ḥalama, Mhr ḥáyləm, Jib ḥélm, Soq ḥᵃḷem ‘to dream’.
▪ [v3] Kogan2015, 190 #25: (Ug ḥlm ‘mature animal’1 ), Hbr ḥlm ‘to be healthy, strong’2 , Syr ḥallimā ‘sanus, integer, validus’, Ar ḥlm ‘to become fat’, ḥalīm ‘fat’.
▪ ...
 
▪ [v1] Kogan2015, 82 #21: There is no trace of *ḥlm ‘to dream’ in Akk, where the nominal concept *‘dream’ is expressed by šuttu, a secondary formation from protSem *šin‑at‑ ‘sleep’. (Conversely, such a usage is totally alien to WSem, where *šin‑at‑ and *wšn are strictly reserved for the concept *‘(to) sleep’.)
▪ [v2]: DRS 9 (2010) regards ḤLM_2 ‘to have wet dreams, nightly pollutions’ (↗ĭḥtalama) as a specialisation of ‘dream, to dream’. So also Badawi/AbdelHaleem2008, who, following Lane and some ClassAr lexicographers, also interprets ‘sexual maturity, puberty’ (ḤLM_3 ↗ḥulum) as the age that starts with having nightly pollutions. Semantically, one could even think of the idea of ‘insight, wisdom’ etc. (↗ḥilm) as being dependent on having reached ‘maturity’. Etymologically, however, this is not necessarily true.
▪ [v3]: ḤLM_3 ‘sexual maturity, puberty’ may be based on ḤLM_2 ‘to have nightly pollutions’ and thus, ultimately, perhaps on ḤLM_1 ‘dream, to dream’. Another etymology connects it to the idea of ‘strength, healthiness’ as attached to the root in Hbr and Aram.
▪ [v4]: ḤLM_4 ‘gentleness, clemency, patience’ is seen by DRS as a function of having reached ‘sexual maturity’ and, thus, akin to the ‘strength, healthiness’ of Hbr and Aram. In contrast, Zammit2002 regards Hbr ḥāmal ‘to spare, have compassion’ as a cognate (Ar showing metathesis). Should this be right, then ḤLM_4 would ultimately be akin to ↗ḥamala ‘to bear’.
▪ [v5]: DRS lists ‘tick, mite’ and ‘nipple, mammilla’ as distinct items but adds that the latter may be derived from the former. Badawi/AbdelHaleem2008 connect also the value ‘young goat’ (obsolete) to ‘nipple’, while DRS makes it an item in its own right.
▪ [v6]: ‘haloomi cheese’ is likely not to be connected to any of the above values. Youssef2003 suggested a Copt < Eg etymology, see s.v.
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