▪ [gnrl] : With the exception of [v2] ‘turtle’ (and perh.
†[v7] ‘hot (day); desert’), all other values attached to √RQː (RQQ) seem to go back to the one basic notion of [v1] *‘thinness, softness’. ▪ [v1] : from protSem *RQQ ‘(to be/become) thin, fine, soft, tender’ – Huehnergard2011.
▪ [v2] : MilitarevKogan2005 (SED II) #190 reconstruct Sem *
raḳḳ‑ ‘turtle’
▪ [v3] : According to Jeffery1938 a borrowing from Gz
raqq ‘parchment’, thus via Gz ultimately from the same origin as [v1] (parchment seen as the *‘thin material’).
▪ [v4] : The city name
al-Raqqaẗ is from †
raqqaẗ (pl.
riqāq) ‘land regularly flooded by a river’,
1
obviously on account of its marshy surroundings; cf. also †
ruqāq ‘shallow water, low sea’. The term is akin to [v1] *‘thinness, softness’ (sc. of the flooded land).
▪ [v5] : Accord. to Ar lexicographers, one of the terms for ‘slaves’,
raqīq, is based on
riqqaẗ in the (now obsol.) sense of ‘abjectness, meanness, paltriness, contemptibleness’ (Lane iii 1867, quoting from
Tāǧ al-ʕArūs), thus based on [v1], with a development *‘thin > weak > mean, contemptible’.
▪ [v6] : In EgAr, the ‘tambourine’ is called ²
riqq, obviously due to the instrument’s covering with a thin, parchment-like membrane. ▪
†[v7] : prob. akin to [v1], but the exact nature of the relation remains obscure.
▪ …