▪ Youssef2003 suggested that the word is borrowed from Copt
lapt,
latp ‘salt turnip, pickled turnip’. However, cognates can be found already in Akk from oBab onwards. Zimmern1914: 57, and after him also Ullmann,
WKAS, think that Ar
lift is from Akk or Aram. nHbr has
ləpātît for a similar plant, but Klein1987 does not relate this to ‘turnip’ but rather explains it as derived from
lpt ‘to twist’.
▪ Could there be a relation between ‘turnip’ and ‘to twist, turn’ (↗
lafata)? This would be an interesting parallel to Engl
turnip that is thought by some to be composed of
turn (»from its shape, as though turned on a lathe«, etymonline.com) and mEngl
nepe ‘turnip’.
▪ The evidence of ClassAr dictionaries does not make things clearer. Some lexicographers seem to associate the word with Egypt (a fact that would support Youssef’s suggestion of a Copt provenience), for others it is simply sounds foreign, or “Nabataen”.
1
▪ Other meanings that the word could take in ClassAr are now obsolete and, with all likelihood, do not belong to ‘turnip’ but rather to ‘to turn aside’ (↗
lafata). The value
†‘half (of a thing, syn.
šaqq), side (
ṣiġw,
ǧānib)’ seems to be derived from this notion, and the
†‘cow, bull (syn.
baqaraẗ)’ is probably literally the cattle *‘having crooked/twisted horn’. Still obscure remains the use of
lift for
†‘vulva of a lioness’ (because of its form?).