Bibliotheca Polyglotta

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to be vacant, be solitary, to vacate, be vacated; wide open space; to be set free, divorce; to be alone or in seclusion with s.o.; cell, hive; to devote o.s. to s.th.; to go past in time, s.th. of the past, passage of time; to produce herbage, pasture’

▪ …

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ḪMD خمد

√ḪMD

“root”

▪ ḪMD_1 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḪMD_2 ‘...’ ↗...
▪ ḪMD_3 ‘...’ ↗...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘(of fire) to die out, abate; to faint, be silent, contemplative’

▪ …

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ḪMR خمر

√ḪMR

“root”

▪ ḪMR_1 ‘to cover, hide, conceal’ ↗ḫamara_1
▪ ḪMR_2 ‘to leaven, raise, ferment; wine’ ↗ḫamara_2, ↗ḫamr

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1a to mix, infect, intoxicate, intoxicating drinks, wine and spirits, to ferment; 1b to leaven, raise; 2 to hide, head‑cover, (of a woman) to cover the head and face; 3 to bear a grudge’

A “root” with (according to DRS) up to 5 values in ClassAr. Whether some of these are related to each other, and if so, how, is not possible to decide from the material we have so far. Only 2 values (probably not connected) have survived into MSA: [v1] ‘to cover, hide, conceal’, and [v2] ‘to leaven, raise, ferment; wine’.

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▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ḪMR–1 Hbr ḥāmar ‘bouillonner, fermenter’, ḥamīr, Syr ḥᵃmīrā, Mand hmira, Ar ḫamraẗ ‘ferment, levain’, ḫamīraẗ ‘parcelle de levain’, ḫamara ‘faire lever (la pâte)’, MġrAr ‘fermenter, lever, cuver, macérer, s’imbiber’; Ug ḫmr, Hbr ḥā̈mär, Phn ḫmr, Syr ḥamrā, Mand hamra ‘vin’, Ar ḫamr ‘vin, toute boisson fermentée et enivrante’, YemAr ḫamr ‘grappe de raisin’, MġrAr ḫmər ‘fermenter, enter en transe’, Mhr ḫāmər, Jib ḫä̃r ‘vin’, oḫõr ‘enivrer’, ḫotmər ‘fermenter, pourrir, sentir mauvais’, ? Akk ḫammurt sorte de bière. –2 Akk ḫamāru, ḫemēru ‘dessécher’, ? Ar ^†ḫamira ‘subir un changement’. –3 Ar ^†ʔaḫmara ‘donner qc à qn’, YemAr ḫamar ‘octroyer, donner’, Sab ḫmr ‘accorder une faveur’, ḫmrn ‘donation, faveur’. –4 Ar ^†ḫāmara ‘vendre comme esclave (un être libre d’origine)’, SAr ḫmr ‘esclave’. –5 Ar ḫamira ‘se cacher devant qn’, ḫamara ‘couvrir, envelopper, cacher’. –6 Akk ḫamurīt ‘gorge’. — Outside Sem, there is Copt ḥamir ‘levure, levain’, but this is probably a loan from Aram.

▪ The identification in EtymArab of semantic values attached to the “root” ḪMR follows the differentiation made in DRS, see section "Cognates" above. Out of the 6 values listed in DRS only 4-5 are attested in Ar, and of these only 2 have survived into MSA.
▪ Arab lexicographers tend to connect ḪMR_1 and ḪMR_2, deriving the latter from the former, so that ‘leavening (of the dough)’ or ‘fermentation (of juice, etc.)’ is interpreted as the result of letting s.th. (dough, juice) stand ‘covered’ in a place.
▪ Also, ‘wine’ is said to be called ↗ḫamr because it ‘covers’ the mind. Popular etymology.

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