Bibliotheca Polyglotta

♦ 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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¹ḫamar‑ خمر , u (ḫamr)

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

√ḪMR

vb., I

to leaven, raise (dough); to ferment, cause fermentation; for another value cf. ↗ḫamara_2 – WehrCowan1979.

▪ From Ar root √ḪMR ‘to cover, conceal’ – Huehnergard2011.
…

▪ …

▪ 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. — Outside Sem, there is Copt ḥamir ‘levure, levain’, but this is probably a loan from Aram.

▪ Ar lexicographers regard this value as secondary, derived from ↗ḫamara_2 ‘to cover’, the leavening of dough, or fermentation of juice, etc. being the result of letting the dough, juice, etc., stand covered in a place for some time. EtymArab follows DRS where the value is listed separately.
▪ Ar ḫamr ‘wine’ (and deriv.), though belonging to the same Sem root, may not be taken directly from Sem, but have come in only later via Aram., see s.v..

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► ḫammara, vb. II, = I. – Cf. also ↗ḫamara_2.
► ḫāmara, vb. III, to permeate, pervade, mix, blend; to seize, permeate (s.o., feeling, thought, doubt):.
► ʔaḫmara, vb. IV, 1 to leaven, raise (dough); 2 to ferment, cause fermentation; to harbour, entertain; 3 to bear a grudge, feel resentment (li‑ against):.
► taḫammara, vb. V, to ferment, be in a staate of fermentation; to rise (dough); – For another value cf. ↗ḫamara_2.
► taḫāmara, vb. VI, to conspire, plot, collude, scheme, intrigue (ʕalà against):.
► ĭḫtamara, vb. VIII, 1 to ferment, be in a state of fermentation; to rise (dough); 2 to become ripe, ripen (also fig.: an idea in s.o.’s mind).

► ^BP#2982ḫamr, n.m. & f., wine; pl. ḫumūr, alcoholic beverages, liquor: ↗s.v..
► ḫamraẗ, n.f., wine: ↗ ḫamr.
► ḫamrī, adj., golden brown, reddish brown, bronze-coloured: ↗ ḫamr.
► ḫamriyyaẗ, n.f., wine poem, bacchanalian verse: ↗ ḫamr.
► ḫumār, n., aftereffect of intoxication, hang-over: ↗ ḫamr.
► ḫamīr, 1 adj., leavened (dough); ripe, mature, mellow; leaven; 2 n., leavened bread
► ḫamīraẗ, pl. ḫamāʔirᵘ, n., 1 leaven; ferment; barm, yeast; enzyme (chem.); 2 (fig.) starter, nucleus, basis (from which s.th. greater develops): according to Jeffery1938 directly of Aram origin, e.g. Syr ḥᵃmīrā ‘leaven’.
► ḫammār, n., wine merchant, keeper of a wineshop: ↗ ḫamr.
► ḫammāraẗ, n.f., wineshop, tavern; bar: ↗ ḫamr.
► ḫimmīr, n., winebibber, drunkard, tippler, sot: ↗ ḫamr.
► taḫmīr, n., leavening, raising (of dough); fermenting, fermentation
► ĭḫtimār, n., (process of) fermentation
► maḫmūr, adj., drunk, intoxicated, inebriated: ↗ ḫamr.
► muḫtamir, adj., 1 fermenting, fermented; 2 alcoholic: PA VIII; 2 ↗ ḫamr.

²ḫamar‑ خمر , u (ḫamr)

√ḪMR

vb., I

to cover, hide, conceal; for other meanings see ↗ḫamara_1 – WehrCowan1979.

▪ …

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ḪMR-5 sees Ar ḫamira ‘se cacher devant qn’, ḫamara ‘couvrir, envelopper, cacher’ as a value that neither has cognates in Sem, nor outside. So also Huehnergard 2011. Cf., however, section "Discussion" below, as well as ↗ḪMR.

Ar lexicographers regard this value as the original one, of which ↗ḫamara_1 ‘to leaven, ferment’ is derived (*‘to cover s.th., esp. dough, juice, etc., so that it leavens, ferments, etc.’). EtymArab follows DRS where the value is listed separately.

▪ Ar ḫimār has been loaned into Engl as khimar (Huehnergard2011).

► ḫammara, vb. II, = I. – Cf. also ↗ḫamara_1.
► taḫammara, vb. V, to veil the head and face (woman): probably denom. from ḫimār. – For another value cf. ↗ḫamara_1.
► ḫimār, pl. ʔaḫmiraẗ, ḫumur, n., veil covering head and face of a woman:.

ḫamr خَمْر , pl. ḫumūr

√ḪMR

n., m. & f.

wine; pl. ḫumūr alcoholic beverages, liquor – WehrCowan1979.

Although the underlying Sem root itself is not absent from Ar, the language does not seem to have had a term derived from it before speakers of Ar came into contact with Christians who produced and traded in it. Following Jeffrey, we assume that the word is from Syr ḥamrā ‘wine’. Cf., however, Kogan2011: from protWSem *ḫamr‑ ‘wine’.
▪ …

▪ eC7 Q 2:219, 5:90-91, 12:36,41, 47:15 ‘wine’.
▪ eC7 1 (intoxifating drink, spirits, wine in particular) Q 2:219 yasʔalūnaka ʕan‑i ’l‑ḫamri wa’l‑maysiri qul fīhimā ʔiṯmun kabīrun ‘they ask you about intoxicants and gambling: say, “There is great sin in both”’; 2 (grapes and other fruits taht may be fermented into wine) Q 12:36 qāla ʔaḥaduhumā ʔinnī ʔarānī ʔaʕṣiru ḫamran ‘one of them said: I see myself pressing grapes’

▪ Out of the items mentioned in DRS 10 (2012)#ḪMR-1, there is only Syr ḥamrā ‘wine’ that is directly relevant here, since the word probably is a loan from there. For the wider context of ‘to ferment, leaven’, to which ḫamr belongs via this loan, cf. ↗ḫamara_1.

▪ Jeffery1938, 125: »The word is very commonly used in the old poetry, but as Guidi saw,¹ it is not a native word, but one imported along with the article. The Ar ḫamara means ‘to cover’, ‘to conceal’ [↗ḫamara_2 ], and from this was formed ḫimār ‘a muffler’, the pl. of which, ḫumur, occurs in Sūra xxiv, 31. In the sense of ‘to give wine to’, it is denominative.² – Its origin was doubtless the Aram חמרא = Syr ḥamrā which is of very common use. The Hbr ḥämär is poetical (BDB, 330) and probably of Aram origin.³ It is also suggestive that many of the other forms from ḫmr are clearly of Aram origin, e.g. ḥᵃmīrā ‘leaven’, gives [Ar] ḫamīr ‘ferment, leaven’, and Arm ḫmor ‘yeast'⁴ [Syr] ḥammārā ‘a wineseller is [Ar] ḫammār; [Syr] ḥamrān is [Ar] ḫamrān, etc. – The probabilities are all in favour of the word having come into Ar from a Christian source, for the wine trade was largely in the hands of Christians (vide supra, p. 21), and Jacob even suggests that Christianity spread among the Arabs in some parts along the routes of the wine trade.⁵ Most of the Ar terms used in the wine trade seem to be of Syriac origin, and ḫamr itself is doubtless an early borrowing from the Syr ḥamrā.«

1. Della Sede, 597, and note Bell, Origin, 145. 2. Fraenkel, Fremdw, 161. 3. We now have the word, however, in the Ras Shamra texts. 4. Lagarde, Arm. Stud, 901; Hübschmann, ZDMQ, xlvi, 238, and Arm. Gramm, i, 305. 5. Beduinenleben, 99. Fraenkel, Fremdw, 181, notes the curious fact that in early Ar the commonest word for merchant, viz. [[tājir|tājir ]], has the special significance of ‘wine merchant’, on which D. H. Müller remarks, WZKM, i, 27: »sie zeigt dass die Civilization im Alterthum wie heute erst mit der Einführung berauschender Getränke begonnen hat."

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► ḫamraẗ, n.f., wine:.
► ḫamrī, adj., golden brown, reddish brown, bronze-coloured: nsb-adj; actually, ‘wine-coloured’.
► ḫamriyyaẗ, n.f., wine poem, bacchanalian verse: actually a f. nisba adj., ‘the one related to, or about, wine’.
► ḫumār, n., aftereffect of intoxication, hang-over:.
► ḫammār, n., wine merchant, keeper of a wineshop: n.prof.; according to Jeffrey1938 from Syr ḥammārā ‘a wineseller’.
► ḫammāraẗ, n.f., wineshop, tavern; bar: ints. n.loc.
► ḫimmīr, n., winebibber, drunkard, tippler, sot: ints. n. formation, pej.
► maḫmūr, adj., drunk, intoxicated, inebriated: PP I.
► muḫtamir, adj., 1 fermenting, fermented; 2 alcoholic: PA VIII.

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