Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ 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.

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