Bibliotheca Polyglotta

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to be generous, to be hiġ-minded, to be noble-hearted, to honour, to do favours, to treat with hospitality, obliging, beneficent, precious; (of land) to be fertile; thoroughbred, noble; vine and grapes’

▪ According to DRS, the root KRM shows 7 values in Sem. 3 or 4 of these are relevant for Ar. The value ‘season of rain’ in the Eth languages may (acc. to Leslau) be connected to ‘be generous’, the rain season being the period of the year in which the sky ‘is noble’ and spends ‘generously’. This would reduce the number of values to six, three of which relevant for Ar. Out of these, only two have survived into MSA, the item karmaẗ ‘head of thigh bone (femur) turning in the hip bone’ (Freytag1837-IV: vitis; caput ossis femoris quo in acetabulo coxae vertitur) having become obsolete.
▪ The two surviving values – ‘vine(yard)’ and ‘nobleness, generosity’ – are hardly related to each other.
▪ While ‘vine(yard)’ can be traced back into AfrAs, the same does not seem to be possible for ‘nobleness, generosity’.

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▪ DRS 10 (2012): KRM–1 Akk kirimm‑ ‘flexion des bras; relâchement, détente’, Ar ^†karmaẗ ‘tête de l’os du fémur qui tourne dans l’os de la hanche’, MġrAr krūma ‘vertèbre; cou, nuque; maillon d’une chaîne’, Amh kʷərma, Gur Selti kirmāyo, ? Har kurumbäy ‘coude’. –2 Ug krm, Hbr kęręm ‘vignoble’, korem ‘vigneron’, Ph Amm EmpAram krm, JP karmā ‘vignoble’, Syr kᵉram ‘tailler’, Ar karm ‘cep de vigne’, EAr ‘terre plantée en vignes, en pistachiers ou en figuiers (qui n’ont pas besoin d’irrigation)’, karmaẗ ‘vigne’, MarAr kṛəm ‘figuiers’. – Outside Sem, cf. also Eg kʔm ‘vigne, jardin, avec des arbres, des fleurs, des légumes’; mEg kʔmw ‘verger, vignoble’, kʔnw ‘vignoble’, Dem kʔm ‘jardin, kʔm ʔrry ‘vigne’. –4 nPun ʔkrmʔ ‘rivaliser de générosité’, Ar karuma ‘être noble, généreux; donner beaucoup d’eau (ciel, nuages)’; MġrAr krāma ‘banquet offert par un groupe pour remercier et honorer un de ses membres ayant accompli un acte louable’; Mhr kōrem, Śḥ kurum, Ḥrs. kërem ‘être généreux envers’, Te käramät ‘aumônes’. –5 Gz kərämt, Tña krämti, Te käräm, Amh Arg kərämt, Gaf krämtä, Har kirmi, Gur kärm, ḫərəm, hənəw ‘saison des pluies’. – This value seems to have cognates in Cush, perhaps also Berb: Sa karma, Bedja kerinti, Som keran, Qabenna kärmi ‘saison pluvieuse’; Cohen1969#185 ajoute le Berb du Sous kᵘrəm ‘être froid’.¹

1. Three other values have no Ar representatives. #3. Akk kurummat ‘alimentation, ration’. #6. Amh mäskäräm = nom du premier mois (correspondant à septembre). #7. Te kärma ‘interrompre, séparer, disperser’, Tña kärräma ‘diviser un animal abattu’.

▪ Out of the 7 values listed in DRS 10 (2012), Ar is involved only in three, though a forth one may be relevant too:
▪ According to Leslau1987, Gz karama, karma (yəkrəm, yəkram) ‘spend the rainy season, spend the winter, be of the preceeding year (wine)’ is connected with Ar karuma ‘be generous > yield rain’ […]. Note that Dillmann’s statement »Ar karuma ‘pluviam profundit (nubes)’; deinde ‘beneficus, generosus fuit’« should read »‘beneficus, generosus fuit’; deinde ‘pluviam profundit (nubes)’«. Leslau thus holds that ‘yield rain’, ‘rainy season’ etc. are secondary.¹
▪ ‘Vine(yard)’ seems to have cognates in Eg. Unless this is a loan from Sem, or vice versa, we could then assume an AfrAs dimension.
▪ The value ‘season of rain’, realised as such only in Eth (but perhaps connected to, or dependent on, ‘be generous’), seems to have cognates in Cush, perhaps also Berb. So this is either an East African regional development from an AfrAs *‘be generous’, or we are dealing, against the above assumption, with a value in its own right.

1. Is also Eth karm ‘spring (of water)’ related?

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karm كَرْم, pl. kurūm

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

√KRM

n.coll.

vine, grapes, grapevines; vineyard; garden, orchard – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Kogan2011: from protCSem *karm‑ ‘vineyard’ < protSem *k˅rm‑ ‘hill, mound’.
▪ …From CSem *karm‑ ‘vineyard’, akin to (or from?) PSem *k˅rm‑ ‘hill, mound’. There may also be an AfrAs dimension (but parallels in Eg may be borrowings). A connection to KRM_2 ‘be noble, generous’ is not likely.

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▪ DRS 10 (2012): KRM –2 Ug krm, Hbr kęręm ‘vignoble’, korem ‘vigneron’, Ph Amm EmpAram krm, JP karmā ‘vignoble’, Syr kᵉram ‘tailler’, Ar karm ‘cep de vigne’, EAr ‘terre plantée en vignes, en pistachiers ou en figuiers (qui n’ont pas besoin d’irrigation)’, karmaẗ ‘vigne’, MarAr kṛəm ‘figuiers’. – Outside Sem, cf. also Eg kʔm ‘vigne, jardin, avec des arbres, des fleurs, des légumes’; mEg kʔmw ‘verger, vignoble’, kʔnw ‘vignoble’, Dem kʔm ‘jardin, kʔm ʔrry ‘vigne’.
▪ BDB1906 (s.v. käräm): perhaps connected also to Akk karānu ‘vine’, but dubious. The connection seems, however, more natural, obviously, to Leslau1987, who gives not only Hbr käräm ‘vineyard’, but also Akk karānu, Ug krm, Syr karmā ‘wine, grapevine, grapes’.²
▪ Kogan2011 thinks that also Akk karmu ‘mound, heap’ and Mhr kərmáym ‘mountain’ are related.

2. Acc. to Leslau, Gz kərm ‘vine, grapeyard’ is a loan from the Ar karm.

▪ BDB1906 (s.v. käräm) mentions that Gesenius compares this item also to Ar karuma ‘be noble, generous, fertile’ ↗karam, but BDB is eager to add that this seems »precarious«.
▪ Kogan2011 reconstructs CSem *karm‑ ‘vineyard’ and assumes a connection to PSem * k˅rm‑ ‘hill, mound’ (reconstructed from the Akk and Mhr evidence).
▪ Unless the Eg parallels are borrowed from Sem, or vice versa, we could then assume an AfrAs dimension.

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► bint al-karm, n., wine: fig. use.

► karmaẗ, n.f., grapevines, vine:.
► karrām, pl. ‑ūn, n., winegrower, vinedresser: n.prof.

For the semantic complex ‘be noble, generous’ see ↗karam.

karam كَرَم

√KRM

noble nature; high-mindedness, noble-mindedness, noble-heartedness, generosity, magnanimity; kindness, friendliness, amicability; liberality, munificence –WehrCowan1979.

▪ Grammatically, the word is a vn. I of the vb. karuma, which however probably is denominative (from karam or karīm).
▪ On account of the Eth evidence where the main value of KRM is ‘rain season’, but also because of the meaning ‘(to give) plenty of water’ that the vb. karuma can take in ClassAr, there is a theory that derives the notion of ‘generosity’ from the "generosity" of a sky/clouds giving plenty of rain. But it may also be the other way round, ‘generosity’ being the primary meaning from which ‘(to give) plenty of water/rain’ is a metaphorical extension.
▪ A key concept of Arab culture and civilisation that comprises a number of virtues such as “generosity, forgiveness, patience, reliability, caring for the neighbours, protection of honour, prevention of injustice, courage/braveness”.¹ Related concepts: ↗saḫāʔ, ↗ǧūd; counter-concepts: ↗buḫl, ↗luʔm.

1. Approximative translation of what Nanah1987:24 lists as “Freigebigkeit, Verzeihung, Geduld, Verläßlichkeit, die Sorge um die Nachbarn, Schutz der Ehre, Verhindern von Ungerechtigkeit und Tapferkeit”.

ʕAmr b. Q. 5,9 ʕalà karamin wa-ʕalà naǧdatin, Huḏ. 108,6 ḏawū karamin wa-ṣidqin ¹

1. WKAS.

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#KRM –4 nPun ʔkrmʔ ‘rivaliser de générosité’, Ar karuma ‘être noble, généreux; donner beaucoup d’eau (ciel, nuages)’; MġrAr krāma ‘banquet offert par un groupe pour remercier et honorer un de ses membres ayant accompli un acte louable’; Mhr kōrem, Śḥ kurum, Ḥrs. kërem ‘être généreux envers’, Te käramät ‘aumônes’. –5 Gz kərämt, Tña krämti, Te käräm, Amh Arg kərämt, Gaf krämtä, Har kirmi, Gur kärm, ḫərəm, hənəw ‘saison des pluies’. – This value seems to have cognates in Cush, perhaps also Berb: Sa karma, Bedja kerinti, Som keran, Qabenna kärmi ‘saison pluvieuse’; Cohen1969#185 ajoute le Berb du Sous kᵘrəm ‘être froid’.

▪ According to Leslau1987, Gz karama, karma (yəkrəm, yəkram) ‘spend the rainy season, spend the winter, be of the preceeding year (wine)’ is akin to Ar karuma ‘be generous > yield rain’. Note that Dillmann’s statement »Ar karuma ‘pluviam profundit (nubes)’; deinde ‘beneficus, generosus fuit’« should read »‘beneficus, generosus fuit’; deinde ‘pluviam profundit (nubes)’«. Leslau thus holds that ‘yield rain’, ‘rainy season’ etc. are figurative use and, thus, secondary.
▪ The value ‘season of rain’, realised as such only in Eth (but perhaps connected to, or dependent on, ‘be generous’), seems to have cognates in Cush, perhaps also Berb. So this is either an East African regional development from an AfrAs value *‘be generous’, or we are dealing, against the above assumption of metaphorical use, with a value in its own right.
▪ Nanah1987: 24, fn.28, claims that the root KRM is attested in other Sem langs but signifies ‘to keep away, keep off’, etc. there. The corresponding notion in Akk is krb (with R3 = b from < *m, as often) ‘to pay respect, venerate’. karābu ‘to pronounce formulas of blessing, praise, adoration, homage, greeting’ (CAD).

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► k. al-ʔaḫlāq, n., noble-mindedness, noble character

► karuma, u (karam, karamaẗ, karāmaẗ), vb. I, to be noble, high-minded, noblehearted, magnanimous, generous, liberal, munificent; to be precious: probably denominative (either from karam or karīm).
► karrama, vb. II, to call noble and high-minded; to honor, revere, venerate, treat with deference; to exalt, bestow honour upon:.
► kārama, vb. III, to vie in generosity; to meet reverentially, with deference, politely:.
► ^BP#3917ʔakrama, vb. IV, to call noble and high-minded; to honour; to treat reverentially, with deference, politely, hospitably, bestow honours upon; to prove o.s. to be high-minded and generous; to honour, present (s.o. with):.
► takarrama, vb. V, to feign generosity; to show one’s generous side; to be noble; to be friendly, kind, kindly; to be so kind, have the kindness (bi‑ to do s.th.); to present, graciously bestow:.

► kurmatan laka, kurmānan laka, adv., for your sake, as a favour to you, in your favour: mafʕūl min ʔaǧlih of obsolete vn.s kurmaẗ and kurmān.
► C ^BP#1822karāmaẗ, n.f., dignity, honour; generosity ↗s.v.
► ^BP#556karīm, pl. kuramāʔᵘ, kirām, adj., noble; generous; precious: adj. formation.
► karīmaẗ, pl. karāʔimᵘ, n., precious thing, object of value, valuable; vital part (of the body; esp. eye); daughter: f. of nominalized adj. karīm.
► ʔakramᵘ, pl. ʔakārimᵘ, adj., nobler, more distinguished; more precious, more valuable; most honorable; very high-minded, very noblehearted, most generous: elat.
► makram and makramaẗ, pl. makārimᵘ, n., noble trait, excellent quality | makārim al-ʔaḫlāq noble characteristics, noble traits of character.
► makrumaẗ, pl. makārimᵘ, n., noble deed:.
► ^BP#2670takrīm and takrimaẗ, n.f., honoring, respecting, tribute, honour (bestowed on s.o.): vn. II.
► ʔikrām, n., honour, respect, deference, tribute; hospitable reception, hospitality; kindness; honorarium: vn. IV.
► ʔikrāmiyyaẗ, pl. ‑āt, n., honorarium; bonus: nsb-adj from ʔikrām.
► ^BP#3125 mukarram, adj., honoured, revered, venerated; venerable: PP II; Makkaẗ al-mukarramaẗ Holy Mecca.

For derivatives of the etymon ‘vine, grapes, vineyard’ see ↗karm.

karāmaẗ كَرامَة

√KRM

n.f.

1 nobility; high-mindedness, noble-heartedness; generosity, magnanimity; liberality, munificence. – 2 honor, dignity; respect, esteem, standing, prestige. – 3 mark of honor, token of esteem, favor. – 4 (pl. ‑āt) miracle that God works through a saint or allows to happen to him (Islamic popular belief) – WehrCowan1979.

For etymology see ↗KRM_2 and ↗karam.

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