▪ KḤL_1 ‘(to be/make) dark, black; to blind; (to apply) antimony (to the eyelids); †tar, pitch; horse of noblest breed; alcohol, spirit, essence; medial arm vein’ ↗kaḥ˅l‑ (kaḥl, kaḥal), kuḥl . ▪ KḤL_2 †‘to be infertile’ : ↗†kaḥl . ▪ KḤL_3 ‘black’ (sometimes ‘green; blue’) ↗ʔakḥalᵘ . ▪ KḤL_4 ‘a variety of blueweed (Echium cericeum V.; bot.) [Natterkopf]’ ↗kaḥlāʔ (EgAr). ▪ KḤL_5 ‘pointing, filling or grouting [Verfugung] of the joints [Fugen] (of a wall; masonry)’ ↗kuḥlaẗ (EgAr). ▪ KḤL_6 ‘anklebone’ ↗kāḥil .
–
–
▪ … ▪ …
▪ The distinction made here between KḤL_1 and KḤL_3 follows DRS‑ 10 (2012), s.v. kḥl, who separates the values ‘antimony; to apply antimony’ and ‘black; (sometimes also) green, blue’) as kḥl-1 and kḥl-2, respectively. Etymologically, however, the two may be related, or even essentially one item, given the fact that in earlier times kuḥl‑ was not necessarily a black substance but “a general term for any eye cosmetic” and, when denoting a mineral, referred to a lead ore or a mixture of several minerals, e.g., “galena, pyrolusite, brown ochre or malachite” (Wiedemann/Allan), rather than antimony sulphide, ↗kuḥl. – DRS does not mention the values ‘infertile’, ‘anklebone’, ‘blueweed’, and ‘pointing, filling or grouting the joints’. Semantic relation between KḤL_1 and these remains unclear. ▪ KḤL_2 is probably figurative use of KḤL_1 or KḤL_3, an infertile year being a ‘black/dark’ year. ▪ KḤL_4 may be related to the ‘dark colour’ of KḤL_1 or, more probably even, the ‘green‑, blueness’ of KḤL_3, the plant having its name from its colour (cf. also the morphological aspect: kaḥlāʔ is the f. of ʔakḥal). ▪ KḤL_5 and KḤL_6 may have the same etymon, *‘to connect (two or more parts), bridge (the gap between them)’. Any relation to KḤL_1 and/or KḤL_3?
▪ Engl kohl, alcohol ↗kuḥl.
–
kaḥ˅l‑ كحل , kaḥal‑ كَحَلَ : u , a (kaḥl); †kaḥil‑ كَحِلَ : a (kaḥal)
kaḥal- u, a (kaḥl): to rub, paint or smear with kohl (the edges of the eyelids) – WehrCowan1979.; †to put out, blind (an eye with a heated nail etc.), blind “en faisant passer entre ses paupières, après l’avoir fait rougir au feu, le poinçon d’argent […] que l’on emploie ordinnairement pour appliquer sur les yeux la galène ou sulfure de plomb, kuḥl, destinée à leur donner plus d’éclat et de brillant”1 – Dozy; †to be infertile (year); †to bring misery, harm the people (an infertile year) – Freytag. †kaḥil- a (kaḥal): to have (by nature) black eyelids (or eyes) (that do not need to be coloured with kohl) – Lane. For other meanings ↗ʔakḥalᵘ .
Usually held to be denominative from ↗kuḥl. But while kaḥal‑ indeed is most likely to be dependent on kuḥl, the intransitive vb. kaḥil‑ is perhaps better to be connected to ↗ʔakḥalᵘ than to ↗kuḥl, a distinction inspired by the separation of kuḥl and ʔakḥalᵘ in DRS.
Most dictionaries and relevant studies regard the verb(s) kaḥ˅l‑ as denominatives from ↗kuḥl. It is true that the modern transitive kaḥal-‑ seems to be very close to an intransitive kaḥil‑, now obsolete. Yet, while the former quite probably is such a denominative, the latter, though showing a great deal of semantic overlapping, may ultimately go back to a different etymon, ↗ʔakḥalᵘ. (often not ‘black’, but ‘blue’ or ‘green’). The semantic connection between the ‘blackness/darkness’ of kuḥl and the old values of kaḥal‑, noted by Dozy and Freytag, of †‘infertility’ and, hence, ‘misery, calamity’, is not explained in the dictionaries, but it seems unproblematic to assume figurative use of the language.
–
►kaḥḥala II, vb. to rub, paint or smear with kohl (the edges of the eyelids): ↗kuḥl. – †to prevent from seeing, blind s.o. : as a consequence of the application of kuḥl, or of the “poinçon d’argent” mentioned by Dozy (see above), or figurative use, i.e. *make (the world appear) black (for one’s eyes)?. ►takaḥḥala, vb. V, to color the edges of one’s eyelids with kohl, smear one’s eyelids with a salve of antimony, etc.; to have eyelids that are coloured with kohl : ↗kuḥl; to be refreshed, enlivened: ↗ʔakḥalᵘ; †to be covered with freshly blossoming plants: ↗ʔakḥalᵘ, ↗kaḥlāʔᵘ. ►iktaḥala, vb. VIII: = V. ► (unless itself the etymon) kuḥl , n. antimony; kohl : ↗s.v. ►kaḥal, n. black coloring (of the edges) of the eyelids : vn. of kaḥil‑. ►kaḥil, adj., pl. kaḥlā, kaḥāʔilᵘ darkened with kohl, dyed black (eyelids) : deverbative, or from ↗kuḥl‑ ?. ►kuḥl, n. antimony, kohl : probably the etymon of kaḥal‑, perhaps also of kaḥil‑. ►kuḥlī, adj. dark blue, navy blue: nsb-adj. from ↗kuḥl‑. ►ʔakḥalᵘ, adj., f. kaḥlāʔᵘ, pl. kuḥl, black (eye); al-ʔakḥal n. medial arm vein: ↗s.v.. ►kaḥīl, adj., pl. kaḥāʔilᵘ, †kaḥlā, black, dyed black, darkened with kohl (eyelid): ints. adj.; n. horse of noblest breed: so called because of its blackness, or the blackness of its eyes?. ►kuḥūl, n. alcohol, spirit: ↗s.v.. ►kuḥūlī, adj. alcoholic, spirituous: nsb-adj. from ↗kuḥūl. ►†kuḥayl, n. tar, pitch (Wahrmund: Erdpech) (in the dialect of Ḥiǧāz: lane): *the dark black thing (?). ►kuḥaylī and kuḥaylān, adj.,n., pl. kuḥāl, kaḥāʔilᵘ horse of noblest breed: nominalized nsb-adj. and ints. formation, from ↗†kuḥayl, i.e., < *the tarry one, or *the horse with the dark black eyes (?). ►kiḥāl, n. antimony powder, eye powder:. ►kaḥḥāl, n. eye doctor, oculist (old designation): n.prof. from ↗kuḥl‑. ►mikḥal and mikḥāl n. kohl stick, pencil for darkening the eyelids: n.instr. from ↗kuḥl‑. ►mukḥulaẗ, n.f., pl. makāḥilᵘ kohl container, kohl jar: ↗kuḥl; solar quadrant: ↗s.v.; (syr.) rifle, gun: ↗s.v.. ►takḥīl II, vn. treatment of the eyes with kohl: ↗kuḥl.
OBSinfertile year, year of draught, barrenness, dearth; hard year; calamity, misery. Lane, Wahrmund. – For ‘sky’ ↗ʔakḥalᵘ .
Distinct from ↗kaḥ˅l‑, ↗kuḥl, and ↗ʔakḥalᵘ, or going back to the same etymon? If the latter, kaḥl would be figurative use, an infertile year being a ‘black’ or ‘dark’ year.
▪ …..
▪ … ▪ …
▪ … ▪ …
–
►†kaḥala, a, vb. I, to be infertile (year) and cause damage to the people: denominative?
antimony; kohl, a preparation of pulverized antimony used for darkening (the edges of) the eyelids; any preparation for coloring the eyelids – WehrCowan1979.
▪ The word is either a common Sem n. (Huehnergard2011: *kux̣l‑, *gux̣l‑ ‘powder of antimony’) or a WSem term (from which Akk guḫl‑ then would be a loan). Semantic relation with the colour adj. ↗ʔakḥal ‘black’ (sometimes also ‘green; blue’) is likely, but still rather unclear. ▪ The unclarity may stem from the usual identification of kuḥl with black, or dark, colour, which however is not necessarily the case, as Wiedemann/Allen1980 show in their entry in EI2. kuḥl, they say, is “synonymous in the Arabic and Persian geographical sources with ↗iṯmid and surma”, a mineral mined at the time mainly in Iran. Quite significantly, none of the geographical sites where antimony is mined today is identical with the places where the primary sources of kuḥl were located in the past. There is reason to believe, therefore, that kuḥl originally is not necessarily antimon, but something else, most probably some lead ore, or a mixture of several minerals. “In this connection it should be noted,” Wiedemann/Allen continue, “that while it had generally been assumed that eye-paint in ancient Egypt had an antimony base, A. Lucas (Ancient Egyptian materials and industries, revised by J. R. Harris, 1962, 195-9) showed by analysis that it in fact consisted of galena, pyrolusite, brown ochre or malachite, and only in one instance, of antimony sulphide.” Cf. also Dozy who, on the authority of a French source of 1849,1
defines kuḥl as: “la galène ou sulfure de plomb. […] C’est à tort que plusieurs auteurs ont traduit le mot […] par antimoine”. kuḥl “also had a specifically medical function as an eye unguent, particulars of which are to be found in Ibn al-Bayṭār and other such writers. From this function comes the idea of al-kaḥḥāl, ophthalmist” – Wiedemann/Allen1980. kuḥl is also the Arabic source of our alcohol. “From a fine powder used to stain the eyelids, it came by extension to mean any fine impalpable powder produced by trituration or sublimation, and hence was applied to fluids of the idea of sublimation—an essence, quintessence or ‘spirit’ obtained by distillation or rectification.” ▪ See also ↗kuḥūl.
C6 ʕAntara b. Šaddād 47,14: lā kuḥla ʔillā min ġubāri ’l-katāʔibi ’▪ …’ (Polosin 413).
DRS 10 (2012), s.v. kḥl‑1, groups the n. Hbr koḥel, kuḥlā, JP kōḥᵃlā, Ar kuḥl ‘fard pour les yeux’, Akk guḫl‑ ‘pâte d’antimoine’ and Mhr kēḥel, Ḥars eḥel, Soq keḥel ‘kḥol, antimoine’, together with the vb. Hbr kāḥal ‘se farder les yeux’, Te käḥala, Tña kʷäḥalä, Amh kʷalä ‘enduire ses paupières avec de l’antimoine’, but sees this value distinct from kḥl‑2, represented only by Ar ↗ʔakḥal ‘black’, sometimes also ‘green; blueʷ’ (and the f. ↗kaḥlāʔ, a ‘blueweed’).
▪ While Huehnergard2011 holds that the word goes back to a Sem n. *kux̣l‑, also *gux̣l‑ ‘(powder of) antimony’, DRS 10 (2012) seems to regard it as a WSem term (from which the Akk form probably is a loan). ▪ In contrast, Halloran1
holds that Akk guḫlu is a loan from the Sum expression for ‘Evil Eye’ which is composed of igi ‘eye’ and ḫul ‘bad, evil; hated; hostile, malicious’, so that one could think of the Akk term as the result of a loan with transfer of meaning from ‘Evil Eye’ to the powder/substance that was used to protect against it. Should this be correct, the WSem words would be dependent on the Akk term. Difficult to proove.
▪ Engl kohl ‘powder used to darken eyelids,’ 1799, from Ar kuḥl (EtymOnline). ▪kuḥl is also the ultimate source of our alcohol. “From a fine powder used to stain the eyelids, it came by extension to mean any fine impalpable powder produced by trituration or sublimation, and hence was applied to fluids of the idea of sublimation—an essence, quintessence or ‘spirit’ obtained by distillation or rectification.”
►kaḥala, u, a (kaḥl), vb. I, to rub, paint or smear with kohl (the edges of the eyelids), and kaḥila, a (kaḥal), vb. I, to have eye(lid)s that are coloured with kohl: probably denominative. – For other meanings ↗kaḥl, ↗ʔakḥalᵘ. ►kaḥḥala, vb. II = I : denominative ►takaḥḥala, vb. V, to color the edges of one’s eyelids with kohl, smear one’s eyelids with a salve of antimony, etc.; have eye(lid)s that are coloured with antimony: reflexive of II; to be refreshed, enlivened: from kuḥl (*‘feel/look fresher, as a result of the application of antimony), or from †kaḥl (a green plant) (↗ʔakḥalᵘ) (?) ►iktaḥala vb. VIII = V. ►kaḥil, adj., pl. kaḥlā, kaḥāʔilᵘ darkened with kohl, dyed black (eyelids): from kuḥl, or deverbative, from ↗kaḥVl‑ ? ►†kuḥayl, n. tar, pitch (Wahrmund: Erdpech): *the little dark black thing (?), according to WKAS diminuitive (“ursprünglich humorist. Demin. zu kuḥlun, s. Fünf Moʿall. II 36 oben”). ►kuḥlī, adj. dark blue, navy blue: nsb-adj. ►kuḥaylī and kuḥaylān, adj.,n., pl. kuḥāl, kaḥāʔilᵘ horse of noblest breed: nominalized nsb-adj. and ints. formation, from ↗†kuḥayl, i.e., < *the tarry one, or *the horse with the dark black eyes (?) ►kaḥḥāl, n. eye doctor, oculist [old designation]: denominative n.prof. ►mikḥal and mikḥāl, n. kohl stick, pencil for darkening the eyelids: n.instr. ►mukḥulaẗ, n.f., pl. makāḥilᵘ kohl container, kohl jar: n.instr.; solar quadrant: ↗s.v.; (syr.) rifle, gun: ↗s.v. ►takḥīl II, vn. treatment of the eyes with kohl’: denominative.
(EgAr) pointing, filling or grouting of the joints (of a wall; masonry). WehrCowan1979.
Any connection with ↗kāḥil ‘anklebone’?
▪ …..
▪ … ▪ …
Any connection with ↗kāḥil ? One could imagine the values ‘filling the joints (of a wall)’ and ‘anklebone’ being semantically related via the idea of connecting two separate items (bricks and bones, respectively) by some kind of “bridge”.
–
►†kaḥḥala, vb. II, to point, fill or grout the joints (of a wall; masonry) (Wahrmund): denominative.
The word seems to be re-imported into Arabic during lC19 / eC20 from some European language, probably English, after it had been loaned from Ar (al‑) ↗kuḥl into mLat and Span in Andalusia.
No entry in Freytag, Lane, Dozy, Wahrmund, Kazimirski. Cf. also the fact that Bocthor, in his Dictionnaire français–arabe (vol. 1, 1828), still suggests the descriptive rūḥ al-ʕaraq, obviously coined after Fr esprit de vin pur, which is given as the second meaning of alcohol while the first is still ‘poudre très-fin’ (rendered as kuḥl). lC19? First attestation in Ar still needed.
…
▪ The word does not seem to be attested in Ar dictionaries before C20 and is therefore with all probability either a direct loan from a European language (Engl Fr alcohol ?) or an Ar creation, inspired by the European word, but made in awareness of the latter’s ultimately Ar etymology. The European words all go back to Ar (al‑) ↗kuḥl ‘(powdered ore of) antimony’ which was loaned into mLat and Span in Andalusia. While the original meaning is still preserved in mLat, the definition has already broadened in Span alcohol to ‘any fine powder produced by sublimation, powdered cosmetic’, and it is with this value that the word first appears in Engl in the 1540s (eC16 as alcofol). It broadened again in the 1670s “to ‘any sublimated substance, the pure spirit of anything’, including liquids.” The “modern sense of ‘intoxicating ingredient in strong liquor’ is first recorded 1753, short for alcohol of wine, which was extended to ‘the intoxicating element in fermented liquors.’ In organic chemistry, the word was extended 1850 to the class of compounds of the same type as this” – etymonline. When Ar kuḥl was replaced with kuḥūl is difficult to tell. In any case, Wiedemann/Allan think that “the more complicated process needed for the production of alcohol was probably introduced into the Islamic world from Europe, where it was first discovered in the 12th century.” ▪ According to Osman2002, the extension of meaning from ‘fine powder’ to ‘spirit of wine’ took place already “bei den arabischen Alchimisten in Spanien”, and the word is first attested in German with this meaning in 1616. From Wiedemann/Allan1980 we would have to infer that the extension had taken place already before lC10 in Andalusia, since “[s]ublimation and the distillation of drugs was known to K̲h̲alaf b. ʕAbbās al-Zahrawī (Abulcasis)”. Kluge2002, however, maintains that German Alkohol, when loaned from Span alcohol, still meant ‘fine powder’, and that it was Paracelsus (eC16) with whom it is first attested, initially as ‘s.th. fine, subtle’, then ‘essence’, as in alcohol vini ‘spirit of wine’, from where it spread and became part of international terminology.
Etymology not clear: derived from ↗kuḥl, or a distinct item? Probably the latter. – The ‘medial arm vein’ seems to have got its name after its dark colour.
DRS 10 (2012) separates this value (as kḥl-2) as distinct from ‘(to apply) antimony (to one’s eyelids’ (as kḥl-1) (↗kaḥ˅l‑, kuḥl), obviously on account of the fact that ʔakḥal often also is ‘green; blue’. Cf. also †kaḥil‑ vb. I (and also IV, V, VIII, XI) ‘mit eben grünenden Pflanzen bedeckt sein’, the f. ↗kaḥlāʔᵘ which denotes a (mostly) blue plant (a variety of the borage or forget-me-not family, Boraginaceae), as well as †kuḥaylāʔᵘ ‘Ochsenzunge’ and †kaḥl pl. ʔakāḥilᵘ ‘ein Grüngewürz’ (Wahrmund). Interesting also the old value †‘sky’ (ibid.). – Procházka2006 seems to take the relation ʔakḥal < kuḥl ‘antimony’ for granted (as did already Fischer1965: 60, fn. 4: “von kuḥl ‘schwarze Augenschminke’ abgeleitet”), and Wahrmund defines ʔakḥal in the first place as ‘wer die Augenlider mit kuḥl schwarz gefärbt […] hat’; but this may only be a secondary phenomenon, a result of semantic interference and/or overlapping. Wahrmund also has the more general meaning ‘schwarzäugig; schwarz’ which is not necessarily connected to kuḥl, and †‘chrysoprase’, which is a greenish mineral. The ‘medial arm vein’ seems to be called al-ʔakḥal on account of its colour (thus Fischer1965: 284).†
–
►†kaḥila, a (kaḥal), vb. I (and also forms IV, V, VIII, XI), to be covered with fresh green plants: denominative, or itself the etymon of ʔakḥal‑ ? ►†ʔakḥala, vb. IV = †kaḥilaa (kaḥal) above. ►†takaḥḥala vb. V = †kaḥilaa (kaḥal) above. ►†iktaḥala vb. VIII = †kaḥilaa (kaḥal) above. ►†ikḥālla vb. XI = †kaḥilaa (kaḥal) above. ►kaḥlāʔᵘ f. a variety of blueweed: *the (dark) blue one (plant) (?) ↗s.v. ►†kuḥayl, n. tar, pitch (Wahrmund: Erdpech): *the dark black thing (?); dimin. from ʔakḥal, ↗kaḥVla, or ↗kuḥl ? ►kuḥaylī and kuḥaylān, adj.,n. horse of noblest breed: nominalized nsb-adj. and ints. formation, from ↗†kuḥayl, i.e., < *the tarry one, or *(the horse) with the dark black eyes (?)
(EgAr) a variety of blueweed (Echium cericeum V.; bot.) [Natternkopf] – WehrCowan1979. [Wahrmund1887: Ochsenzunge]
Feminine of ʔakḥalᵘ, the plant being called after its colour. (The borage or forget-me-not family, Boraginaceae, tends to have bluish flowers.)
▪ …
▪ … ▪ …
The form is obviously a feminine form of the colour adj. ↗ʔakḥalᵘ, the plant being called after its (blue) colour. – Cf. also †kaḥaylāʔᵘ ‘Ochsenzunge’ and †kaḥl pl. ʔakāḥilᵘ ‘ein Grüngewürz’ (Wahrmund).
▪ See DISC.
►takaḥḥala, vb. V, †to be covered with freshly blossoming plants (Wahrmund1887): rather from ↗ʔakḥalᵘ than from kaḥlāʔᵘ.
Complete text
ʔ