Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_1 ‘paternal uncle’ ↗ʕamm
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_2 ‘(to be\come) common, general, comprehensive, embracing; common people; people, nation’ ↗ʕamma
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_3 ‘turban’ ↗ʕimāmaẗ

Other values, now obsolete, include (after Lane and Hava1899):

ʕMː (ʕMM)_4 ‘large(ness), tall(ness), numerous(ness), abundance, density’ : ^†ʕamma ‘to make long, or tall; to be(come) long, or tall’, ^†ʕamʕama (ʕamʕamaẗ) ‘to have a numerous army, or military force (after paucity thereof)’, ^†ʕamam ‘[…]; numerous(ness), abundance; largeness, bigness; whole, complete, full-grown’, ^†ʕumum ‘completeness; largeness of body, youthful vigour’, ^†ʕamīm (pl. ʕumum) ‘abundant, numerous; […]; of tall stature (woman), lofty (palm-tree)’, ^†ʕamm ‘tall palm-tree, of full tallness and abundance and density’, ^†ʕummiyyaẗ ‘pride, haughtiness’, ^†ĭʕtamma (said of beast of the bovine kind) ‘to have all teeth grown’
ʕMː (ʕMM)_5 ‘(to be, become) chief, lord’: ^†muʕammam ‘[…]; made a chief; chief’
ʕMː (ʕMM)_6 ‘raft’: ^†ʕimāmaẗ, ^†ʕāmmaẗ ‘pieces of wood bound together, upon which one embarks on the sea, and upon which one crosses a river’: should properly be ʕāmaẗ < ↗ʕāma ‘to float, swim’

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1 turban; 2 encompassing, general, common; 3 to be strong, become chief; 4 the common people; 5 uncle, paternal aunt’

▪ It cannot be excluded, or even seems likely, that all three values are related. Together with others, Kogan2015 thinks that »protCSem *ʕamm- ‘people’ [cf. ʕMː (ʕMM)_2] probably represents a semantic extension of the kinship term WSem *ʕamm- ‘grandfather, ancestor’ [cf. ʕMː (ʕMM)_1] «, which in Ar specialized into ‘paternal uncle’, replacing protSem *dād- ‘paternal uncle’.¹ . The idea, put forward in BDB1906, that ‘people’ prob. originally means *‘those united, connected, related’, lets one think whether this “binding together” might be somehow related to the binding together of a ‘turban’, Ar ʕimāmaẗ. But neither this word nor a vb. *ʕmm ‘to bind together’ is attested throughout Sem, except in the fig. sense of ‘to encompass, comprise, cover’[ʕMː (ʕMM)_2], and this rarely outside Ar. Is ʕimāmaẗ an Ar spezialisation then, developed from the idea of ‘kinship’ and ‘belonging together’ (*‘uniting’ the hair, or the piece of cloth, or covering it completely, in its wholeness)? For another possibility see below.
▪ For ʕMː (ʕMM)_2, the most adequate entry to treat the corresponding semantic field in would be ^†ʕamm ‘company of men, crowd; numerous party’ rather than the (prob. denom.) verb ʕamma. The reason why the data nevertheless will be arranged under ʕamma is the fact that the more original n. has become obsolete in MSA and n.s with a similar value are derived from the vb.
▪ Given that ʕMː (ʕMM)_3 ʕimāmaẗ ‘turban’ stands rather isolated within Sem *ʕMM (see above), should one perh. put it together with WSem *ĠMM ~ ĠMY/W ‘to be dark, dim’, a root that in Ar usually has preserved initial *ġ- (cf. Ar ↗ġamma ‘to cover, veil, conceal’, ↗ġamām ‘clouds’, ʔaġammᵘ ‘covered with dense hair’), but in Can and Aram has undergone the regular sound shift *ġ > ʕ : Ug ʕmm (D pass.) ‘to be covered, veiled, darkened’, Hbr ʕāmam ‘to darken, dim’, JudAram ʕᵃmam ‘to be(come) dim, dark(ened)? Semantically, the ‘turban’ as *‘(head) cover, (kind of) veil’ would be quite plausible. But would it be justifiable also from a phonological point of view? Should initial *ġ- have been preserved in some places, but undergone an irregular shift *ġ > ʕ in ʕimāmaẗ ? Rather unlikely. ʕimāmaẗ would then have to be a loan from Hbr or Aram. But these langs have nothing that would fit, and Syr ʕᵃmamtā ‘a mitra’ is a loan from Ar…

1. Cf. however Huehnergard 2011 who assumes the meaning ‘paternal kinsman; kin, clan; people’ already for the ComSem n. *ʕamm .

–

▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_1 : (Kogan2015) Ug ʕm ‘kinsfolk’, Hbr ʕam ‘kinsman (on father’s side)’, Syr ʕamtā (f.) ‘paternal aunt’, Ar ʕamm ‘paternal uncle’, Sab ʕm, Min ʕm, Ḥaḍ ʕm ‘uncle’, Te ʕammät (f.) ‘paternal aunt’, Mhr ʔōm, f. ʔāmēt, Jib ʕom, f. aʕĩt ‘grandfather, f. -mother’
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_2 ‘(to be, become) common, general, comprehensive, embracing; common people; people, nation’: Ug ʕm ‘kinsfolk, people’, Hbr ʕām, ʕam, Syr ʕammā ‘people’, Min ʕm , Ar ^†ʕamm ‘crowd; numerous party; dense (palm-trees, herbs). – Cf. prob. also the prep. Ug ʕm /ʕimma/, Hbr ʕim, JudPal ʕäm, Sab ʕm, Min ʕm, Qat ʕm- n ‘together with’, ? Ar maʕa (metath.) ‘with’, ʕinda (< *ʕim-da ‘by’, ? ʕan ‘from’¹ .
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_3 ‘turban’ : Ar ʕimāmaẗ; ? items mentioned as cognates of ʕMː (ʕMM)_1 and _2; ? Ug ʕmm (D pass.) ‘to be covered, veiled, darkened’, Hbr ʕāmam ‘to darken, dim’, Ar ↗ġamma ‘to cover, veil, conceal’ (see also ↗ġamām ‘clouds’, ʔaġammᵘ ‘covered with dense hair’).
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_4-5 are akin to the preceding [ʕMː (ʕMM)_2-3], while ʕMː (ʕMM)_6 originally is ʕāmaẗ, from ↗ʕāma (√ʕWM) ‘to float, swim’.

1. Kogan 2015: »One is tempted to follow P. Jensen (apud LSyr 529), who compared protCSem *ʕimma also with Ar ʕan ‘from’, otherwise with no etymology. Given the fact that * m shifts to n in a few other non-lexical or semi-lexical morphemes in Ar (ʔin ‘if’ < *šim, nunation instead of mimation), this comparison seems to be acceptable from the formal point of view. More problematic is the semantic gap between ‘with’ and ‘from’, but note that both meanings clearly co-exist in Sab.«

▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_1-2 : While Huehnergard2011 assumes the belonging to the paternal lineage to be a characteristic already of the noun he reconstructs as ComSem *ʕamm , Kogan2015 regards it as a secondary phenomenon, reconstructing the—lineage-wise still unspecific—kinship term WSem *ʕamm- ‘grandfather, ancestor’. According to Kogan, the latter value took on the more specific meaning ‘uncle’ in some langs, but was probably also extended to mean ‘kinsfolk, clan, tribe’ and then also ‘people’ in general.
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_2 : For the prep. ‘together with’, which according to the standard view underlies Ar maʕa ‘with’, as well as in ʕinda (< *ʕim-da) ‘by’, Kogan2015 reconstructs protCSem *ʕimm(-a) ‘together with’. Ar maʕa would then be the result of metathesis, while ʕinda is traditionallybelieved to go back to *ʕim-da.¹ )
▪ Ultimately from Sem *ʕamm- is perh. also Ar ↗ʔummaẗ ‘nation, people, community’. For details, see s.v.
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_3 : How Ar ʕimāmaẗ ‘turban’ fits into this picture remains unclear so far. (See above, section DISC.) Further research needed.
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_4 ‘large(ness), tall(ness), numerous(ness), abundance, density’ : is basically the same as ʕMː (ʕMM)_2.
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_5 ‘(to be, become) chief, lord’: result./fig. use of ʕMː (ʕMM)_3; since the ʕimāmaẗ is the “crown of the Arabs”, putting on the turban signifies a kind of coronation, and the one who is crowned becomes chief. For many other instances of fig. use cf. entry ↗ʕimāmaẗ.
▪ ʕMː (ʕMM)_6 : ^†ʕimāmaẗ, ^†ʕāmmaẗ ‘raft’ is a popular re-interpretation of original ʕāmaẗ, from ↗ʕāma (√ʕWM) ‘to float, swim’.

1. The second component is believed to be from ↗yad ‘hand’, as is the case also with the prep. la-dā ‘with’, cf. Militarev&Kogan2000#291.

▪ Engl n.prop. Jeroboam, cf. (↗RBː/RBB and) ↗ʕamm, ↗ʕāmm.

–

ʕamm‑ / ʕamam‑ عَمَّ / عَمَمْـ , u (ʕumūm)

ID … • Sw – • BP 3457 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʕMː (ʕMM)

vb., I

1 to be or become general, universal, common, prevalent, comprehensive, all-embracing, to spread, prevail; 2 to comprise, include, embrace, encompass, pervade, extend, stretch, be spread, be diffused, be prevailing – WehrCowan1979.

▪ The most adequate lemma under which the semantic field that this entry deals with should be treated, would have been ^†ʕamm ‘company of men, tribe, people’ rather than the (prob. denom.) vb. ʕamma. The reason why the data nevertheless is presented s.v. ʕamma is the fact that the more original noun has become obsolete in MSA and nouns with a similar value all are derived from the vb.
▪ ^†ʕamm ‘company, tribe, people’ goes back to CSem *ʕamm- ‘people’ which generally is believed to represent a semantic extension of the kinship term WSem *ʕamm- ‘grandfather, ancestor’ (> Ar ↗ʕamm ‘paternal uncle’).
▪ The idea, put forward in BDB1906, that ‘people’ prob. originally means *‘those united, connected, related’, would lead one to ask whether this “binding together” might be somehow related to the binding together of a ‘turban’, Ar ʕimāmaẗ, from the same (or a homonymous?) root ʕMM. But neither this word nor a vb. *ʕmm ‘to bind together’ are attested in Sem, except in the fig. sense of ‘to encompass, comprise, cover’, and this rarely outside Ar. – For further discussion, see probably ↗ʕMː (ʕMM) and ↗ʕimāmaẗ.
▪ For the theory that also ↗ʔummaẗ ‘people, nation’ and ↗ʔummī (traditionally rendered as) ‘illiterate’—with initial ʔ- rather than ʕ- —are based on ^†ʕamm ‘company of men, tribe, people’, cf. below, section WEST, and entries ↗ʔummaẗ and ↗ʔummī for more details.

▪ …

▪ For the kinship term WSem *ʕamm- ‘grandfather, ancestor’ on which CSem *ʕamm- ‘people’ probably is based, cf. cognates given in entry ↗ʕamm ‘paternal uncle’.
▪ For the extended value treated in the present entry cf. (Kogan2015, Tropper 2008, et al.): Ug ʕm ‘kinsfolk, people’, Hbr ʕām, ʕam, Syr ʕammā ‘people’, Min ʕm , Ar ^†ʕamm ‘(Lane:) company of men, tribe; (Hava1899:) crowd; numerous party; dense (palm-trees, herbs)’. – Cf. prob. also the prep. Ug ʕm /ʕimma/, Hbr ʕim, JudPal ʕäm, Sab ʕm, Min ʕm, Qat ʕm-n ‘together with’, ? Ar maʕa (metath.) ‘with’, ʕinda (< *ʕim-da ‘by’, ? ʕan ‘from’).

▪ While Huehnergard2011 assumes the belonging to the paternal lineage to be a characteristic already of the noun he reconstructs as ComSem *ʕamm , Kogan2015 regards it as a secondary phenomenon, reconstructing the—lineage-wise still unspecific—kinship term WSem *ʕamm- ‘grandfather, ancestor’ from which the meaning ‘kinsfolk, clan, tribe’ and then also ‘people’ in general probably are semantic extensions.
▪ How Ar ʕimāmaẗ ‘turban’ fits into this picture remains unclear so far, see ↗ʕMː (ʕMM) and ↗ʕimāmaẗ. Further research needed.
▪ From CSem *ʕamm ‘kinsfolk, clan, tribe; people’ are perh. also Ar ↗ʔummaẗ ‘nation, people, community’ and, hence, the adj. ↗ʔummī, traditionally rendered as ‘illiterate’, but perh. properly meaning ‘of the (Arab) people’. See briefly below, section WEST, and s.v. for more details.

▪ Tu amme ‘common, general; the public, common people’: 1574 Hoca Saʕdeddīn Ef., Tāǧü’t-Tevārīḫ : ʕāmme-i bilād-i ʕOs̱māniyeyi nehbü iḥrāḳ itmeğe ittifāḳleri oldı. < Ar ʕāmmaẗ ‘the common people’ < Ar ʕamma ‘to encompass, be common, general’ – Nişanyan01Apr2015. – Cf. also amiyane ‘vulgarly (adv.); vulgar’ (< Ar ʕāmmī + Pers adv.suff. -āne), avam ‘the common people; rabble, mob; the commons’ (< Ar ʕawāmm), imece ‘work done for the community by the whole village; by the united efforts of the community’.
▪ Tu katliam (ḳatl-i âm) ‘massacre’: 1535 Fużūlī, Leylà ve Mecnūn : ḳatl-i ʕāmm içün verir cellāda tīġ-i āb-dār. < Ar qatl ʕāmm ‘mass murder, massacre’ (qatl ‘killing’ + ʕāmm ‘general, all-encompassing’) – Nişanyan15May2015.
▪ Tu umum ‘general, public’ : 1574 Hoca Saʕdeddīn Ef., Tāǧü’t-Tevārīḫ. – umumhane ‘brothel’ : 1930 Cumhuriyet (daily newspaper). < Ar ʕumūm ‘the public, people, everybody) – Nişanyan11Dec2015. – Cf. also alelumum ‘generally, in general, commonly (adv.)’ (< Ar ʕalà ’l-ʕumūm), umumi ‘general; universal; common; public’ (< Ar ʕumūmī), müddeiumumi ‘public prosecutor’ (< Ar muddaʕī ʕumūmī), umumiyet ‘universality; generality’ (< Ar ʕumūmiyyaẗ).
▪ ? Engl umma, from Ar ↗ʔummaẗ ‘nation, people, community’, from Aram ʔumməṯā, from Akk ummatu ‘troop’, probably from earlier *ʕammatum, f. of *ʕamm ‘paternal kinsman’ – Huehnergard2011.

► ʕammat il-balwà bi-hī, expr., it has become a general necessity

► ʕammama, vb. II, 1 to generalize; 2 to spread universally, universalize, popularize, democratize; 3 to make universally accessible, open to the public at large; 4 to introduce universally: D-stem, caus. – 5 ↗ʕimāmaẗ.
► ʕamīm, adj., 1 general, universal, common, prevalent; 2 all-comprehensive: quasi-PP I, ints.
► ^BP#1204ʕumūm, n., 1 generality, universality, prevalence; 2 whole, total, totality, aggregate; 3 al-~, n., the (general) public, the public at large: originally a pl. of ^†ʕamm ‘company of men, tribe, people’? | ~an, adv., in general, generally; ~an… ḫuṣūṣan, adv., in general… in particular; ʕalà ’l-~, adv., in general, generally; fī ~ al-quṭr, adv., throughout the country; maǧlis al-~, n., the House of Commons, the Lower House; ʕumūm frequently replaces ʕumūmī in compound terms of administrative language, e.g.: ǧāmiʕaẗ ~ al-ʕummāl, n.f., general federation of labour; ʔidāraẗ ~ al-ǧamārik, n.f., General Administration of Customs and Tariffs (Eg.); dīwān ~ al-maṣlaḥaẗ, n., administration headquarters, chief administration office; dīwān ~ al-māliyyaẗ, n., General Administration of Finances (Eg.); mufattiš ~ al-nīl al-ǧanūbī, n., Inspector General for the Southern Nile (Eg.).
► ^BP#3120ʕumūmī, adj., 1 public; 2 universal; 3 general; 4 common; 5 state, civil, public: nsb-adj. from ʕumūm. | ǧamʕiyyaẗ ~iyyaẗ, n.f., plenary session; general assembly; dār al-kutub al-~iyyaẗ, n.f., public library; ʔašġāl / ʔaʕmāl ~iyyaẗ, n.pl., public works; al-ṣundūq al-~, n., public treasure; wakīl ~, n., general agent, distributor (com.); al-ǧuzʔiyyāt wa’l-~iyyāt, n.f.pl., the particular and the general aspects, the minor and the major issues.
► ʕumūmiyyaẗ, n.f., public character, openness to the general public: abstr. in -iyyaẗ, from ʕumūm.
► ^BP#3727taʕmīm, n., 1 generalization, universalization, general propagation or diffusion, popularization, democratization; 2 vulgarization: vn. II.
► taʕmīmī, adj.: ʔamr ~, n., general order, governmental edict to all agencies and departments: nsb-adj., from taʕmīm, vn. II.
► ^BP#88ʕāmm, adj., 1 public; 2 universal, prevalent; 3 general; 4 common: quasi-PA I. | al-ʔamn al-~, n., public security; mudīr ~, n., director general, general manager; al-raʔy al-~, n., public opinion; al-ṣāliḥ al-~, n., or al-maṣlaḥaẗ al-~aẗ, n.f., public welfare, the common-weal; al-ḫāṣṣ wa’l-~, n., high and low, all men, all, everybody; ʕilm al-luġaẗ al-~, n., general linguistics. – For ʕāmm as the counter-concept of ↗ḫāṣṣ, cf. art. “al-ʕĀmm wa-l-khāṣṣ” (Joseph E. Lowry), in EI³.
► ^BP#2414ʕāmmaẗ, n.f., 1 general public, people at large; 2 al-~, n.f., the common people, the broad mass of the people; 3 ~an, adv., in general; generally; commonly, altogether, in the aggregate, collectively: nominalized f. of ʕāmm, quasi-PA I of ʕamma. | ḫāṣṣaẗan…~an, adv., in particular… in general; ~ al-nās = al-~; al-ḫāṣṣaẗ wa’l-~, n.f./pl., high and low, all men, all, everybody.
► al-ʕawāmm, n.pl., 1 the common people, the populace; 2 the laity (Chr.): pl. of ʕāmmaẗ, f. of ʕāmm, quasi-PA I.
► ʕāmmī, 1 adj., common, vulgar, plebeian, ordinary, popular: nsb-adj., from ʕāmmaẗ, nominalized f. of ʕāmm, quasi-PA I of ʕamma; 2 n., ordinary person, man in the street: nominalized adj. –; 3 al-ʕāmmiyyaẗ, n.f., popular language, colloquial language: short for al‑ ↗luġaẗ al-~ ‘the language of the ʕāmmaẗ ’.

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕamm, ↗ʕimāmaẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕMː (ʕMM).

ʕamm عَمّ , pl. ʕumūm , ʔaʕmām

ID 612 • Sw – • BP 770 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʕMː (ʕMM)

father’s brother, paternal uncle – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Kogan2011: from protWSem *ʕamm‑ ‘relatives, clan, people’, which in Ar specialized into ‘paternal uncle’. – ProtWSem *dād‑ ‘paternal uncle’ (preserved in Hbr, Syr, modSAr, Gz) has left no trace in Ar.
▪ ? Or: A semantic extension from this WSem *ʕamm- ‘kinsman, grandfather, ancestor’ is usually believed to be CSem *ʕamm- ‘people’, cf. Ar ↗ʕamma, ↗ʕāmm, ↗ʕāmmaẗ.
▪ Is perhaps also ↗ʕimāmaẗ ‘turban’ related? Further research needed.

▪ eC7 ʕamm (paternal uncle) Q 33:50 wa-banāti ʕammi-ka ‘and the daughters of your paternal uncle’. – ʕammaẗ (paternal aunt) Q 4:23 ḥurrimat ʕalay-kum ʔummahātu-kum wa-banātu-kum wa-ʔaḫawātu-kum wa-ʕammātu-kum ‘forbidden to you [as wives] are your mothers, daughters, sisters, paternal aunts▪ …’

▪ See above, section CONC.

▪ Not from Ar ʕamm but from related terms in Sem are several Biblical names: Engl Jeroboam, from Hbr yārobʕām ‘the (divine) kinsman increased’ (yārob ‘he increased’; √RBB); Rehoboam, from Hbr rəḥabʕām ‘the (divine) kinsman has increased’ (rəḥab ‘he has increased’; see √RḤB); both from Hbr ʕām ‘people, clan’ (earlier also ‘kinsman’). – Ammonite, from Hbr ʕammônî ‘Ammonite’, from ʕammôn ‘Ammon’, perh. from Can *ʕamm ‘paternal kinsman, kin’. – Hammurabi, from Akk ḫammurāpi, from Amor *ʕammu-rāpiʔ ‘the (divine) kinsman (is) a healer’, from *ʕammu ‘kinsman’ (*rāpiʔ ‘healer’; √RPʔ > Ar RFʔ). – ? Cf. also: Engl umma, from Ar ↗ʔummaẗ ‘nation, people, community’, from Aram ʔumməṯā, from Akk ummatu ‘troop’, prob. from earlier *ʕammatum, f. of *ʕamm ‘paternal kinsman’ – Huehnergard2011.

► ibn al-ʕamm, n., 1 cousin on the father’s side; 2 periphrastically for husband
► bint/ĭbnaẗ al-ʕamm, n.f., 1 female cousin on the father’s side; 2 periphrastically for wife
► yā ʕamm-ī, exclam., uncle! old boy! (friendly address for older men of simple status)
► al-ʕamm Murād, “uncle” Murad, good old Murad

► ʕammaẗ, pl. -āt, n.f., paternal aunt: f. of ʕamm.
► ʕumūmaẗ, n.f., 1 uncleship, unclehood: abstr. formation; 2 pl. of ʕamm.

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕamma, ↗ʕimāmaẗ, ↗ʕāmmiyyaẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕMː (ʕMM).

ʕumūmī عُمُوميّ

√ʕMː (ʕMM)

adj.

1 public; 2 state, civil, public; 3a universal; b general; c common – WehrCowan1976

▪ nsb-formation, based on ʕumūm …

ʕimāmaẗ عِمامة

√ʕMː (ʕMM)

n.f.

turban – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Etymology uncertain. Related to the idea of ‘connecting, binding together, encompassing’ expressed in the root ↗ʕMM and otherwise represented in ↗ʕamm ‘paternal uncle’ (< WSem *‘kinsman, grandfather, ancestor’), CSem *ʕamm ‘kinsfolk, member of the clan/family, i.e., those united, connected, related’) and (denom. vb. I) ↗ʕamma ‘to be(come) general, universal, common, prevalent, comprehensive, all-embracing, to spread; to comprise, include, embrace, encompass, pervade, extend, stretch, be spread, be diffused, be prevailing’? – See below, section DISC, for further discussion.
▪ »The ʕimāmaẗ or turban has been worn by the Arabs since pre-Islamic times. […] The ʕimāmaẗ of Dj̲āhilī and early Islamic times was probably not the composite headgear of the mediaeval and modern periods consisting of one or two caps (↗ṭaqiyyaẗ or ↗ʕaraqiyyaẗ and/or ↗qalansuwaẗ, kulāh, or ↗ṭarbūš) and a winding cloth, but merely any strip of fabric wound around the head. G. Jacob has suggested that the later turban is a synthesis of Arab and Persian styles (Altarabisches Beduinenleben, Berlin 1897: 237). In the early ʔummaẗ, the ʕimāmaẗ certainly did not have any of the significance it was later to have as a “badge of Islam” (sīmā al-Islām) and a “divider between unbelief and belief” (ḥāǧizaẗ bayn al-kufr wa’l-ʔīmān). Nor was it yet—in the words of a proverb still heard in Morocco, at least—the “crowns of the Arabs” (tīǧān al-ʕarab). The many ḥadīth s which provide detailed descriptions of the Prophet’s ʕimāmaẗ are clearly anachronistic. For later generations, Muḥammad was “the wearer of the turban” (ṣāḥib al-ʕimāmaẗ), and like many of the accoutrements associated with a hero of epic proportions, his turban had a name—al-siḥāb or “the cloud”. According to a Shīʕī tradition, he willed it to ʕAlī. This ḥadīth may have been circulated in order to counteract any prestige accruing to the Umayyad and ʕAbbāsid caliphs by their possession of the Prophet’s ↗burdaẗ. One of the few reliable facts we know about the ʕimāmaẗ in early Islamic times is that it is one of the garments specifically forbidden to a person in a state of ↗ʔiḥrām. The ʕimāmaẗ must have consisted of a very long strip of fabric as in later periods, since there are reports of its being used for bandaging (e.g. Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, lxiv, 16, 2)« – art. “Libās – I.” (Y.K. Stillmann), in EI².

▪ In ClassAr, fig. use abounds: note particularly ʕammama ‘to attire s.o. with a ʕimāmaẗ ’, hence also ‘to make s.o. a chief, or lord’. – Cf. also ĭʕtammat il-ʔākāmᵘ bi’l-nabāt ‘the hills became crowned with plants, or herbage’; taʕammamat bi-hā ruʔūsᵘ ’l-ǧibāl ‘the heads of the mountains became crowned with its light [referring to the sun, when its light has fallen upon the heads of the mountains and become to them like the turban]’; ĭʕtamma ’l-labanᵘ ‘the milk frothed [as though its froth were likened to a turban]’; ĭʕtamma ’l-nabatᵘ ‘the plant, or herbage, became of its full height, and blossomed, became luxuriant, or abundant and dense’ (like ĭġtamma)]; ĭʕtamma ’l-šābbᵘ ‘the youth, or youg man, became tall’.

▪ No direct cognates identifiable so far.
▪ If akin to ‘to encompass, comprise, cover, be common, general, etc.’, cf. ↗ʕamma.
▪ If related to ‘to veil, cover, conceal, be dark, dim’, cf. ↗ġamma.

▪ The idea, put forward in BDB1906, that Hbr ʕam, ʕām ‘people’ prob. originally meant *‘those united, connected, related’, lets one think whether this “binding together” might be somehow related to the binding together of a ‘turban’, Ar ʕimāmaẗ. But neither this word nor a vb. *ʕmm ‘to bind together’ is attested throughout Sem, except in the fig. sense of ‘to encompass, comprise, cover’, and this rarely outside Ar. Is ʕimāmaẗ an Ar spezialisation then, developed from the idea of ‘kinship’ and ‘belonging together’ (*‘uniting’ the hair, or the piece of cloth)? For another possibility see below.
▪ Given that Ar ʕimāmaẗ ‘turban’ stands rather isolated within Sem *ʕMM, should one perh. put it together with WSem *ĠMM ~ ĠMY/W ‘to be dark, dim’, a root that in Ar usually has preserved initial *ġ- (cf. Ar ↗ġamma ‘to cover, veil, conceal’, ↗ġamām ‘clouds’, ʔaġammᵘ ‘covered with dense hair’), but in Can and Aram has undergone the regular sound shift *ġ > ʕ : Ug ʕmm (D pass.) ‘to be covered, veiled, darkened’, Hbr ʕāmam ‘to darken, dim’, JudAram ʕᵃmam ‘to be(come) dim, dark(ened)? Semantically, the ‘turban’ as *‘(head) cover, (kind of) veil’ would be quite plausible. But would it be justifiable also from a phonological point of view? Should initial *ġ- have been preserved in some places, but undergone an irregular shift *ġ- > ʕ- in ʕimāmaẗ ? Rather unlikely. ʕimāmaẗ would then have to be a loan from Hbr or Aram. But these langs have nothing that would fit. Syr ʕᵃmamtā ‘a mitre’ (PayneSmith) is said to be a loan from Ar…

–

► ʕammama, vb. II, 1 ↗ʕamma; 2 to attire with a turban: D-stem, denom., applicative.
► taʕammama, vb. V, to put on or wear a turban: tD-stem, denom., refl. of caus., applic.
► ĭʕtamma, vb. VIII, = V: Gt-stem, denom., applic.
► ʕimmaẗ, n.f., turban: originally the way to wear a turban
. ► muʕammam, adj., wearing a turban, turbaned: PP II.

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕamm, ↗ʕamma, ↗ʕāmmiyyaẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕMː (ʕMM).

ʕāmmaẗ عامَّة

√ʕMː (ʕMM)

n.f.

1 general public, people at large; 2 al-~, n.f., the common people, the broad mass of the people; 3 ~an, adv., in general; generally; commonly, altogether, in the aggregate, collectively – WehrCowan1979.

Nominalized f. of ʕāmm, quasi-PA I of ↗ʕamma.

▪ …

▪ ↗ʕamma.

–

► ʕāmmaẗ al-nās = al-ʕāmmaẗ
► al-ḫāṣṣaẗ wa’l-ʕāmmaẗ, high and low, all men, all, everybody.

► ^BP#3727taʕmīm, n., 1 ↗ʕamma; 2 vulgarization: vn. II.
► al-ʕawāmm, n.pl., 1 the common people, the populace; 2 the laity (Chr.): pl. of ʕāmmaẗ, f. of ʕāmm, quasi-PA I.
► ʕāmmī, 1 adj., common, vulgar, plebeian, ordinary, popular: nsb-adj., from ʕāmmaẗ, nominalized f. of ʕāmm, quasi-PA I of ʕamma; 2 n., ordinary person, man in the street: nominalized adj. –; 3 al-ʕāmmiyyaẗ, n.f., popular language, colloquial language: short for al‑ ↗luġaẗ al-~ ‘the language of the ʕāmmaẗ ’.

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕamm, ↗ʕimāmaẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕMː (ʕMM).

al-ʕāmmiyyaẗ عامّيّة

√ʕMː (ʕMM)

n.f. (for al-luġaẗ al-ʕāmmiyyaẗ)

popular language, colloquial language – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Short for al-luġaẗ al-ʕāmmiyyaẗ, from ↗luġaẗ ‘language’ and ʕāmmiyyaẗ, f. of ʕāmmī, nsb-formation from n.f. ↗ʕāmmaẗ ‘the common people, broad mass of the people’, nominalized f. of adj. ʕāmm ‘public, general, common, universal’, from CSem *ʕamm- ‘people, nation’, probably a semantic extension of WSem *ʕamm- ‘kinsman, grandfather, ancestor’ (cf. Ar ↗ʕamm ‘paternal uncle’).

▪ …

↗ʕamma.

–

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕamm, ↗ʕamma, ↗ʕimāmaẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕMː (ʕMM).

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