Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ṬFL_1 ‘infant, baby, child’ ↗ṭifl
▪ ṬFL_2 ‘tender, soft’ ↗ṭafl
▪ ṬFL_3 ‘clay, argil, loam’ ↗ṭufāl
▪ ṬFL_4 ‘uninvited guest, intruder, sponger, hanger-on, parasite’ ↗ṭufaylī

Other values, now obsolete, include:

ṬFL_5 ‘time before sunset’: ^†ṭafal ; cf. also vb. I ^†ṭafala u (ṭufūl), IV ^†ʔaṭfala ‘to be about to rise or set (sun)’ (Hava1899)

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1 infant, baby, child, the young of animals in general; 2 to be of a tender age, be tender, soft; 3 to be with child; 4 (of the sun) to be about to rise or set’

▪ Out of the four main values listed in DRS for √ṬPL in Sem, three are represented in Ar where all of them have survived into MSA.
▪ As for relations inside the root, DRS mentions only that the Akk ṭapālu ‘to scorn, treat scornfully, with disrespect’ (DRS #ṬPL-1) may have to be seen together with DRS #ṬPL-2 (≙ ṬFL_3) where the basic notion seems to be that of ‘dirt, soil, mud, dust’. All other values are kept apart in DRS although they are (with the exception of ṬFL_4 ≙ DRS ṬPL#4?) perhaps related etymologically as well. The basic meaning of the root could be that of ‘softness, tenderness, smoothness’ (ṬFL_2 ) which is a quality of both ‘clay, argil, loam’ (ṬFL_3) and ‘infant, baby, child’ (ṬFL_1). However, it is also possible, and perh. even more likely (given the wider Sem evidence), that ‘soil, mud, dust’ is the basic value, whence (fig. use) the Akk ‘to treat scornfully’ (*like dirt), but also (more specifically) ‘clay, argil, loam’ (Ar ṬFL_3). From the latter may have developed the idea of ‘softness, tenderness, smoothness’ and, hence, also ‘infant, baby, child’.

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▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬPL-1 Akk ṭapālu ‘insulter, mépriser, traiter sans respect, insulter’. ? -2 Hbr ṭāpal ‘enduire de’, JP ṭᵉpal ‘frotter de’, Syr ṭᵉfal ‘salir’, Ar ṭafila ‘être endommagé par la poussière (plante)’, ṭufāl ‘argile, boue’, Soq meṭfel ‘cavité’. -3 Syr ṭeflā ‘enfants’, Ar ṭifl, Mhr Ḥrs ṭāfəl, Jib ṭäfəl, Soq ṭafel ‘enfants en bas âge’, Te ʔaṭfal (pl.) ‘enfants’. -4 Ar taṭaffala ‘être pique-assiette’, ṭufaylī ‘pique-assiette‘.

▪ ṬFL_1 ṭifl ‘infant, baby, child’ : lit., *‘the tiny, soft, tender one’.
▪ ṬFL_2 ṭafl ‘tender, soft’ : represents perh. either the primary value from which most others are derived, or is in itself the result of a transfer of meaning from ṬFL_3 ṭufāl ‘clay, argil, loam’ (* > ‘the soft thing’ > ‘soft’).
▪ ṬFL_3 ṭufāl ‘clay, argil, loam’: cf. also ^†ṭafāl ~ ṭufāl ‘dry mud’, vb. I ^†ṭafila a (ṭafal) ‘to be(come) soiled by dust (herbage, plant)’, ^†ṭafīl ‘turbid water remaining in a watering-trough, in the bottom of a tank’ (Lane, Hava1899). – The value can is perh. a specialisation from a more general *‘soil, mud, dust’ (see above). There may be some overlapping with ↗TFL and/or ↗ṮFL (MSA tufl, tufāl ‘spit, spittle, saliva’, tafil ‘ill-smelling, malodorous’, EgAr tifl ‘fibrous vegetable sediment, dregs’ ≙ MSA ṯufl ‘dregs, lees, sediment’).
▪ ṬFL_4 ṭufaylī ‘uninvited guest, parasite’: accord. to ClassAr lexicographers an eponymous nisba formation from the n.prop. Ṭufayl, a person who used to show up invited at weddings. – Should we, however, also compare ṬFL_5 ?
▪ ṬFL_5 ^†ṭafal ‘time before sunset or sunrise’: any relation to ṬFL_2 ‘tender, soft’ (*‘period of the soft light’?) or to ṬFL_4 (sharing the notion of *‘intrusion’)? In the ClassAr vb. II ^†ṭaffala both values overlap: ‘1 to intrude at a feast; 2 to come on (night); to be near setting (sun)’ (Hava1899).

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ṭafl طَفْل

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

√ṬFL

adj.

1 tender, soft; 2 n., ↗ṭufāl .

▪ One could imagine that the idea of ‘softness, tenderness, smoothness’ represents a/the basic meaning of the root ↗ṬFL and that from it, both ‘clay, argil, loam’ (↗ṭufāl) and ‘infant, baby, child’ (↗ṭifl) have developed. It is also possible, however, and perh. even more likely (given the wider Sem evidence), that ‘softness, tenderness, smoothness’ derives from *‘soil, mud, dust’, as represented in Syr ṭᵉfal ‘to soil’, Ar ^†ṭafāl ~ ṭufāl ‘dry mud’, vb. I ^†ṭafila a (ṭafal) ‘to be(come) soiled by dust (herbage, plant)’, ^†ṭafīl ‘turbid water remaining in a watering-trough, in the bottom of a tank’ (Lane, Hava1899).

▪ …

▪ ? DRS 10 (2012)#ṬPL-2 Hbr ṭāpal ‘enduire de’, JP ṭᵉpal ‘frotter de’, Syr ṭᵉfal ‘salir’, Ar ṭafila ‘être endommagé par la poussière (plante)’, ṭufāl ‘argile, boue’, Soq meṭfel ‘cavité’. -3 Syr ṭeflā ‘enfants’, Ar ṭifl, Mhr Ḥrs ṭāfəl, Jib ṭäfəl, Soq ṭafel ‘enfants en bas âge’, Te ʔaṭfal (pl.) ‘enfants’.

▪ Is ↗ṭifl ‘infant, baby, child’ dependent on ṭafl as, lit., *‘of tender ager, tiny, soft’.
▪ Is ↗ṭufāl ‘clay, argil, loam’ literally *‘the soft (material)’.
▪ Is there perh. also a connection to ClassAr ^†ṭafal ‘time before sunset or sunrise’ (perh. *‘period of the soft light’)?

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For other items of the root, cf. ↗ṭifl, ↗ṭufāl, ↗ṭufaylī, and, for the general picture, ↗ṬFL.

ṭifl, pl. ʔaṭfāl

infant, baby, child – WehrCowan 1979.

▪ Literally prob. *‘the tiny, soft, tender one’, cf. ↗ṭafl ‘tender, soft’.

▪ eC7 1 (used as a n. of the species: the child population, children, infants) Q 40:67 huwa ’llaḏī ḫalaqa-kum min turābin ṯumma min nuṭfatin ṯumma min ʕalaqatin ṯumma yuḫriǧu-kum ṭiflan ‘He it is who created you from dust, then from a drop of seed, then from a clinging mass, then He brought you forth as infants’. – 2 (child, infant, baby) Q 24:59 wa-ʔiḏā balaġa ’l-ʔaṭfālu min-kum-u ’l-ḥuluma fa-l-yastaʔḏinū ‘and when your children reach puberty, they should ask leave (to enter)’
▪ Hava1899: ṭafula, u (ṭufūlaẗ, ṭafālaẗ), vb. I, ‘to be in infancy, delicate’

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬPL-3 Syr ṭeflā ‘enfants’, Ar ṭifl, Mhr Ḥrs ṭāfəl, Jib ṭäfəl, Soq ṭafel ‘enfants en bas âge’, Te ʔaṭfal (pl.) ‘enfants’.
▪ Zammit2002: Akk ṭāpalā(tu) ‘Erbin’,¹ Hbr ṭap ‘children’, Aram ṭaplā ‘children, family, household’, Syr ṭapālā ‘infant’, Ar ṭifl ‘very young child, infant’, Gz ṭāf ‘infans, parvulus’ (? < Hbr)
1. This item is unlikely to be related -- SG.

▪ See above, section CONC.

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► ṭiflaẗ, n.f., little girl: f. formation.
► ṭiflī, adj., 1 child (adj.), baby (adj.), children’s, of or pertaining to childhood or infancy; 2 infantile, childlike, childish: nsb-adj. | al-ṭibb al-~, n., pediatrics.
► ṭafal, n., 1 infancy, babyhood, early childhood; 2 childhood, childhood stage: quasi-vn. I.
► ṭafālaẗ, n.f., 1 infancy, babyhood, early childhood; 2 childhood, childhood stage; 3 initial stage, beginnings, dawn, early period: vn. I (of obsol. vb. I, ^†ṭafula ‘to be in infancy’).
► ṭufūlaẗ, n.f., 1 infancy, babyhood, early childhood; 2 childhood, childhood stage: vn. I (of obsol. vb. I, ^†ṭafula ‘to be in infancy’); 3 children: fig. use of [v1-2].
► ṭufūlī, adj., 1 child (adj.), baby (adj.), children’s, of or pertaining to childhood or infancy; 2 infantile, childlike, childish: nsb-adj., from ṭufūlaẗ.
► ṭufūliyyaẗ, n.f., 1 infancy, babyhood, early childhood; 2 childhood, childhood stage: abstr. formation in -iyyaẗ, from ṭufūlaẗ.
For other items of the root, cf. ↗ṭafl, ↗ṭufāl, ↗ṭufaylī, and, for the general picture, ↗ṬFL.

ṭufāl طُفال

1 potter’s clay, argil; 2 clay, loam – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Prob. from *‘soil, mud, dust’ (not attested as such in Sem, but cf. Syr ṭᵉfal ‘to soil’, Ar ^†ṭafila ‘to be covered with/soiled by dust’; a reflex—fig. use—may also be Akk ṭapālu ‘to scorn, treat scornfully, with disrespect’, i.e., *like dirt).

▪ Lane, Hava1899: ^†ṭafāl ~ ṭufāl ‘dry mud’, ^†ṭafīl ‘turbid water remaining in a watering-trough, in the bottom of a tank’, ^†ṭafila a (ṭafal) ‘to be covered with/soiled by dust (plant)’.

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬPL-2 Hbr ṭāpal ‘enduire de’, JP ṭᵉpal ‘frotter de’, Syr ṭᵉfal ‘salir’, Ar ṭafila ‘être endommagé par la poussière (plante)’, ṭufāl ‘argile, boue’, Soq meṭfel ‘cavité’.

▪ ‘Clay, argil, loam’ may be one of the oldest values of the root ↗ṬFL (Sem *ṬPL), secondary only to *‘soil, mud, dust’. From here, the meaning of of ‘softness, tenderness, smoothness’ (↗ṭafl) may have developed, and from the latter the word for ‘infant, baby, child’ (↗ṭifl, lit. *‘of tender age’).
▪ There may be some overlapping with ↗TFL and/or ↗ṮFL (MSA tufl, tufāl ‘spit, spittle, saliva’, tafil ‘ill-smelling, malodorous’, EgAr tifl ‘fibrous vegetable sediment, dregs’ ≙ MSA ṯufl ‘dregs, lees, sediment’).
▪ Neither ↗ṭufaylī ‘uninvited guest, parasite’ nor ^†ṭafal ‘time before sunset or sunrise’ seem to be related in any way.

–

For other items of the root, cf. ↗ṭafl, ↗ṭifl, ↗ṭufaylī, and, for the general picture, ↗ṬFL.

ṭufaylī طُفَيْليّ , pl. ‑ūn

1 uninvited guest, intruder, obtruder, sponger, hanger-on, parasite, sycophant; 2 f.pl. ṭufayliyyāt, parasites (med., biol.) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ According to ClassAr lexicographers, the word is a nsb-adj. from the n.prop. Ṭufayl, »the name of a certain man of El-Koofeh [= al-Kūfaẗ;…] who used to intrude at feasts, uninvited, […] and who was called Ṭufayl al-ʔaʕrās and Ṭufayl al-ʕarāʔis [the Ṭufayl of the Weddings]«.

▪ …

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬPL-4 Ar taṭaffala ‘être pique-assiette’, ṭufaylī ‘pique-assiette‘.

▪ ClassAr lexicography notwithstanding, should we perh. nevertheless compare the obsol. ^†ṭafal ‘time before sunset or sunrise’? ^†ṭafal and ṭufaylī share the notion of *‘intrusion’… In the ClassAr vb. II ^†ṭaffala both values even overlap: ‘1 to intrude at a feast; 2 to come on (night); to be near setting (sun)’ (Hava1899).

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► ʕilm al- ṭufayliyyāt, n., parasitology
► ṭaffala, vb. II, 1 to intrude, obtrude, impose o.s. (ʕalà upon); 2 to sponge (ʕalà on s.o., ʕalà māʔidaẗ X at s.o.’s table), live at other people’s expense: D-stem, denom. from ṭufaylī ?
► taṭaffala, vb. V, 1 = vb. II; 2 to arrive uninvited or at an inconvenient time, disturb, intrude; 3 to be obtrusive: tD-stem, denom. from ṭufaylī ?
► mutaṭaffil, adj., n., 1 parasitic(al); 2 parasite, sponger, uninvited guest: PA V.
For other items of the root, cf. ↗ṭafl, ↗ṭifl, ↗ṭufāl, and, for the general picture, ↗ṬFL.

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