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Etymological Dictionary of Arabic
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kanīf كَنِيف , pl. kunuf 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√KNF 
n. 
water closet, toilet; public lavatory – WehrCowan1979. 
DRS lists the word as a value distinct from ‘wing; to shelter, protect’ and ‘to surround, encircle’. But why shouldn’t the ‘toilet’ just be the *‘fenced, protected place’? The quasi-PP form fits very well in such an etymology, and the original values are attested in ClassAr. 
▪ ‘toilet’ (KNF_3) is originally *‘the sheltered place’, a specialised meaning of a quasi-PP from vb. I. In ClassAr, the original meaning is still attested: Ullmann WKAS gives ‘surrounding, covering, protecting (of a shield)’ and ‘enclosure, pen, fold, paddock, barricade (of shrubbery)’, before he mentions ‘lavatory, closet, latrine, privy’.
▪ The value ‘graveyard’ that the f. kanīfaẗ takes in ChadAr is clearly a specialisation of *‘enclosure, fenced, protected place’. 
▪ DRS 10 (2012)#KNP-3 mentions only a MġrAr form knīf ‘lieux d’aisance, latrines’ and, with an interrogation mark, ChadAr kanīfa ‘cimetière’.
▪ But kanīf is both ClassAr and MSA and belongs most probably to the complex treated under ↗kanaf ‘wing’. For related items see therefore there. 
▪ The MġrAr and ChadAr items listed in DRS as well as the MSA value can easily be derived from the value ‘to surround, fence, protect’ so that the item should rather be grouped with ↗kanaf ‘wing’ from which ‘to surround, fence, protect’ etc. are derived. 
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KHRB كهرب 
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Jun2021
√KHRB 
“root” 
▪ KHRB_1 ‘amber’ ↗kahrabā
▪ KHRB_2 ‘electricity’ ↗kahrabāʔ
 
▪ The two values are essentially one, [v2] being a modern use of [v1].

▪ [v1] : From Pers kāh-robā ‘amber’, lit. *‘stealing straw, robber of straw’ (Pers kāh ‘straw’ + rubā, prs-stem of rubādan ‘to rob, steal, take away’ – Lokotsch1927), so called »because amber, when it is rubbed, attracts light objects, such as feathers or little blades of straw« (al-Bīrūnī, q. in J. Schönfeld, “Amber”, EI³).
▪ [v2] : In the same way as Engl electricity goes back to the Grk word for ‘amber’, ḗlektron, the modPers and Ar words are based on the old Pers words for the same material, due to its electromagnetic features. According to Braune1933, 1 the first Ar attestation in this sense is from the 1830s, coined by R.R. al-Ṭahṭāwī.
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▪ [v1] WKAS
▪ [v2] 1834 (electricity) al-Ṭahṭāwī, Taḫlīṣ al-ʔibrīz (Braune 19331 )
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▪ Rolland2014: »Du persan kāh-robā ‘ambre’, littéralement ‘voleur de paille’, du pehlevi kah-rupāti, id. – L’élément kah est apparenté du sanskrit kāša ‘paille’, et l’élément rupāti à l’avestique rupā ‘voler’, IE *reup‑ ‘saisir, arracher’« [cf. Engl to rob, Ge raub-en].
▪ Cf. also ↗kahramān ‘amber’.
▪ …
 
▪ [v1] : Lokotsch1927 #1004: Pers kahrubā ‘amber’ gave not only Ar kahrabā, but also (with dissimilation) vulgTu kehribar, kihlibar, which into several Eur langs: Bulg kehlibar, Serb hilibar, Rum chihlibar, chihlimbar, chihrimbar; > mLat (C13) carabe > Span It carabe, Fr carabé ‘amber’, Ge Karabe (1492; now obsol.), Dan rav. – Cf. also the term’s literal translation into Grk as pterugofóros, Fr tire-paille, Ge Strohzieher.
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