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Click to Expand/Collapse OptionEtymArab
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RḤB رحب 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√RḤB 
“root” 
▪ RḤB_1 ‘(to be, grow) wide, large, spacious’ ↗raḥ˅ba
▪ RḤB_2 ‘welcome!’ ↗marḥaban

Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to be wide, to be spacious, to be ample; to welcome; courtyard, flood channels in a valley, spacious fertile lands’ 
▪ … 
– 
raḥ˅ba 
RḤB_2 ‘welcome!’ is probably related to RḤB_1; but cf. entry ↗marḥaban for theories that derive it from Aram or Pers. 
– 
– 
raḥib‑ رحِب , a (raḥab), and raḥub‑ رحُب , u (ruḥb, raḥābaẗ
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√RḤB 
vb., I 
to be wide, spacious, roomy 
According to Huehnergard2011, the root can be traced back not farther than WSem *rḥb ‘to be(come) wide, large’. 
▪ eC7 Q 9:25 wa-ḍāqat ʕalay-kumu l-ʔarḍu bi-mā raḥubat ‘and the earth, vast as it is, was straitened for you’.1 Cf. also the parallel in Q 9:118. 
▪ BDB1906: Hbr rāḥab, Aram rəḥab (in deriv.), Ar raḥiba, raḥuba, Gz rəḥəba ‘to be, or grow, wide, large’. – Cf. also Hbr raḥab ‘breadth, broad expanse’, rōḥab ‘breadth, width’, rāḥāb ‘wide, broad’, rəḥôb ‘broad, open place, plaza’, märḥāb ‘broad, roomy place’. – BDB1906 gives also a Akk rêbitu ‘open place’, but I could not verify this in CAD. There, one finds only rību ‘street’ and ribītu ‘street, main street, thoroughfare’; but are these related?
▪ Müller2010: Sab rḥb ‘umfassend sein’, rḥb ‘erweitern, vergrößern’. 
▪ Huehnergard2011: < WSem *rḥb ‘to be(come) wide, large’ 
– 
BP#2022raḥḥaba, vb. II, to welcome (bi‑ s.o., s.th.), bid welcome (bi‑ to s.o.); to receive graciously, make welcome (bi‑ s.o.): caus. of I (then ‘to welcome’ is, literally, ‘to make the space wide (for a guest, etc.)’), or denom. from ↗marḥaban ?
taraḥḥaba, vb. V, to welcome (bi‑ s.o.), bid welcome (bi‑ to): refl. of II ?

raḥb, adj., wide, spacious, roomy; unconfined: this (or ruḥb, or raḥab) may be the proper etymon from which all the other items derive. | r. al-ṣadr, adj., generous, magnanimous; broad minded, open-minded, liberal; frank, candid, open hearted; carefree; r. ṣadr, n., generosity, magnanimity; open-mindedness, broad-mindedness, liberality; frankness, candor; r. al-bāʕ, adj., generous, open handed, liberal; r. al-ḏirāʕ, adj., dto.
ruḥb, n., vastness, wideness, spaciousness, unconfinedness: this (or raḥb, or raḥab) may be the proper etymon from which all the other items derive. | ʔatà ʕalà ’l-r. wa’l-saʕaẗ, vb., to be welcome; wajada r~an wa-saʕatan, vb., to meet with a friendly reception.
raḥab, n., vastness, wideness, spaciousness, unconfinedness: this (or raḥb, or ruḥb) may be the proper etymon from which all the other items derive. | r. al-ṣadr, n., magnanimity, generosity; lightheartedness.
BP#4753raḥbaẗ, raḥabaẗ, pl. raḥabāt, riḥāb, n., wide area, wide space; large square; courtyard, inner court (e.g., of a mosque); pl. riḥāb, wideness, vastness; generosity, magnanimity, big-heartedness; sacred precinct, protected area: f. formation of raḥb; the pl. riḥāb may be, originally, a sg. (cf. Hbr rəḥôb ‘broad, open place, plaza’). | riḥāb al-kawn and riḥāb al-faḍāʔ, n.pl., vastness of outer space; ʔanā fī riḥābika, I am under your protection, in the realm of your generosity! (spoken at the grave of a saint); nazala fī riḥābihī ḍayfan, he came to him as a guest; riḥāb al-ǧāmiʕaẗ, n.pl., university grounds, campus.
raḥīb = raḥb : ints. formation.
raḥābaẗ, n.f., wideness, vastness, spaciousness, unconfinedness | r. al-ṣadr, n., magnanimity, generosity.
BP#1072marḥaban bika, adv., welcome!: ↗s.v..
tarḥāb, n., welcome, greeting:. | qābalahū bi-t., vb. III, to receive s.o. with open arms.
BP#2889tarḥīb, n., welcoming, welcome, greeting: vn. II.
tarḥībī, adj.: nsb-adj from tarḥīb | kalimaẗ tarḥībiyyaẗ, n., welcoming speech, word of welcome. 

marḥaban مرْحباً 
ID … • Sw – • BP 1072 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√RḤB, MRḤB 
adv. 
welcome! 
The popular greeting is often claimed (by Christians or non-Arabs) to be of Aram/Syr or Pers origin. But there is no cogent reason why it should not be genuinly Arabic. The meaning ‘welcome!’ is in any case attested already in the Q. 
▪ eC7 Q 38:59-60 hāḏā fawǧun muqtaḥimun maʕa-kum, lā marḥaban bi-him [▪ …] qālū: bal ʔantum lā marḥaban bi-kum ‘Here is an army rushing blindly with you. (Those who are already in the Fire say): No word of welcome for them. [▪ …] They say: Nay, but you (misleaders), for you there is no word of welcome.’
 
▪ BDB1906: Hbr märḥāb ‘broad, roomy place’, which is also used figuratively »of freedom from distress and anxiety«.
▪ Cf. also ↗raḥ˅ba
Several etymologies have been suggested:

▪ Arab lexicographers derive it from ↗√RḤB ‘ample, wide’ as a vn. or n.loc. »You say marḥaban and marḥaban bi-ka meaning ‘Thou hast come to, or found, ampleness, spaciousness, or roominess’, or ‘alight you, or abide you in ampleness, etc.’, for such we have for thee, the word being put in the acc. because of a verb understood; or ‘thou hast alighted in an ample […] space’, ‘welcome to ampleness [etc.]’« (Lane iii 1867). – Cf. Hbr märḥāb ‘broad, roomy place’, which is also used figuratively »of freedom from distress and anxiety« (BDB1906).
▪ Another theory traces it back to Syr mār ḥūbā ‘The Lord is (full of) love’, allegedly a greating among Aramaic-speaking Christians.
▪ A third explanation sees it as an Arabized form of Pers mehr-bān, an adj. signifying (accord. to Steingass) ‘benevolent, benficient, kind, affectionate, friendly, compassionate, favouring, loving; […] a friend’. 

– 
BP#2022raḥḥaba, vb. II, to welcome (bi‑ s.o., s.th.), bid welcome (bi‑ to s.o.); to receive graciously, make welcome (bi‑ s.o.): caus. of vb. I ↗raḥVba ‘to be wide, spacious’ (then ‘to welcome’ is, literally, ‘to make the space wide (for a guest, etc.)’), or denom. from ↗marḥaban ?
taraḥḥaba, vb. V, to welcome (bi‑ s.o.), bid welcome (bi‑ to): refl. of II ?

tarḥāb, n., welcome, greeting:. | qābalahū bi-t., vb. III, to receive s.o. with open arms.
BP#2889tarḥīb, n., welcoming, welcome, greeting: vn. II.
tarḥībī, adj.: nsb-adj from tarḥīb | kalimaẗ tarḥībiyyaẗ, n., welcoming speech, word of welcome. 

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