disc▪ Wellhausen1897 notes that Ar tarǧīm (vn. of D-stem raǧǧama) has the same meaning as ḍarb bi’l-ḥaṣy, i.e. ‘[the art of prophesy from] throwing pebbles’. From this, the sense of ‘to assume, conjecture’ could be derived: ‘to throw stones > to interpret the results, try to give them a meaning > to assume’. »Vielleicht hängt damit auch [Hbr] trgm zusammen: ‘enträtseln’, dann ‘dolmetschen’« (207, fn. 4), i.e., tarǧama, too, may be dependent on the heathen practice: ‘to throw stones > to interpret the results, solve the riddle > to explain, interpret’; cf. raǧǧama, D-stem of ↗raǧama (with Wellhausen1897:111-2 on ĭrtiǧām, ruǧmaẗ, raǧm).
▪ BDB1906: (on Akk targumānu ‘interpreter’, Hbr tirgēm, Aram Syr targem, Ar tarǧama ‘to interpret, translate’): perh. from √RGM, cf. Ar raǧama ‘to conjecture, opine’.
▪ Zimmern1914: Ar tarǧamān ~ tarǧumān ~ turǧumān < Aram targᵊmānā ~ turgᵊmānā < Akk targumānu ~ turgumānu ‘interpreter’.
▪ Huehnergard2011#RGM: Ar tarǧumān ‘translator’ < Aram targᵊmānā < Akk targumannu ‘interpreter’, either from Akk ragāmu ‘to speak, call, contest’ or from an earlier Sem t-stem vb., *t-rgm ‘to speak to one another, translate’.
▪ Smelik2013:141: “Although most scholars still hold that [Akk] targumannu(m) is related to the root [Akk] ragāmu ‘to call out’, this connection—and the supposedly inherited meaning of ‘speaking out aloud’ of the root TRGM—is almost certainly wrong. The noun-formation of targumannu(m) is neither Akk nor Sem, but points to a Luwian loanword in Akk. Via Aram, targumannu(m) was adopted in Hbr and Ar, and later in many IE langs.”