Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Etymologically perh. an overlapping/confusion between the obsol. Ar n. ^†ṭiwal(l) ‘long rope, tether’, belonging to the theme of ‘length’ (↗ṭūl), and a borrowing (via Tu and/or Pers) from Grk stábla, < Lat stabulum, stabula ‘stable’ (cf. also ↗isṭabl ‘stable, barn’). In the course of time, the foreign origin may have been forgotten and the word thought to be akin to ^†ṭiwal(l), as *‘place sheltering the horses that are tied together with a long rope, or: where animals are tied with a tether’, or directly derived from √ṬWL, as *‘the long one’.

▪ …

▪ If the word is related to the idea of ‘length’, then one will have to compare the cognates given in entry ↗ṭāla.

▪ For Tu tavla ‘stable (esp. for the Sultan’s horses)’, Nişanyan_04Dec2013 gives: from Pers ṭawlaʰ ‘stable for horses; set of horses, of six or eight, exactly matched; long rope, tether’, from Grk stávla ‘stable for horses’, from Lat stabulum, stabula ‘place to stay, stop, stable’, from Lat stāre, stāt- ‘to stand, stay, stop’. – Yet, although the semantics of Ar ṭuwālaẗ and Tu tavla seem to be congruent, and although the latter’s etymon, Pers ṭawlaʰ, combines the values ‘stable for horses’ (Ar ṭuwālaẗ) and ‘long rope, tether’ (Ar ^†ṭiwal(l)), a derivation of Ar ṭuwālaẗ from Pers ṭawlaʰ or Tu tavla remains is problematic for phonological reasons: how should one explain the long -ā- ? Phonologically problematic also the derivation from the Grk/Lat words: why should initial st- have been reduced to t- in Pers, and the latter written with طـ ṭ- ?

▪ According to Nişanyan_04Dec2013, we have to conform Engl stable (n., eC13) ‘building or enclosure where horses or cows are kept, building for domestic animals’, which, according to EtymOnline , is from oFr stable, estable ‘stable, stall’ (modFr étable), from Lat stabulum ‘stall, fold, aviary, beehive, lowly cottage, brothel [etc.]’, lit. *‘standing place’, from IE *ste-dhlo-, suffixed form of root *stā- ‘to stand’.¹

1. In Kluge2002 (s.v. Ge Stall), the IE form is given as *stə-tlo- and characterized as an “instrumental” formation. Unlike Engl stable, Ge Stall does not go back to Lat stabulum, but to Germ *stalla- ‘stand, standing place’, which, however, has also been connected by some to IE *stə-tlo-; others have disputed this on phonological grounds. Other suggestions for Ge Stall : »Der Anschluß an Grk stéll-ō ‘ich setze instand’ wäre lautlich einwandfrei, befriedigt aber semantisch nicht. Lat locus, oLat *stlocus würde ebenfalls für eine Wurzelform *stel- sprechen.«

For other values of the root, cf. ↗ṭāla, ↗ṭawl, ↗ṭūl, ↗ṭuwwal, ↗ṭāʔilaẗ, ↗ṭāwilaẗ, and (for the general picture) ↗ṬWL.

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