ID 159 • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√ǦML
▪ ǦML_1 ‘camel’ ↗ǧamal
▪ ǦML_2 (a) ‘(be) polite, do a favour; (be) beautiful, handsome, pretty’ ↗ǧamul- u (ǧamāl). – (b) ‘sum, totality, whole; group, troop, crowd; sentence, clause’ ↗ǧamal- u (ǧaml), ǧumlaẗ .
▪ ǦML_3 ‘gable (arch.)’ ↗ǧamalūn
▪ ǦML_4 ? ‘letter of alphabet’ (?): only in ḥisāb al‑ ↗ǧummal (or ǧumal) ‘use of the letters of the alphabet according to their numerical value’♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘camel, grace, beauty, elegance, to adorn, to make beautiful; to have good character, to be kindly, to ask nicely, to treat well; group of people, sentence, to add together, total, entirety; thick rope’
▪ DRS 3 (1993)#GML distinguishes eight main semantic values in Sem, out of which however only two or three (nos. #1, #2 and #5 in DRS) seem to be realised in Ar: -1 ‘camel’ (↗ǧamal). -2 a theme with many facets: [a] ‘be beautiful, developed, mature’ (↗ǧamul ); ‘to behave politely, make complete, put together’ (↗ǧāmal ); †‘full, fat (body)’; [b] ‘big, long’ (NHbr gamlōn, Aram gamlānā, not realised in Ar); [c] ‘to assemble, put together’ (↗ǧamal ), ‘totality’ (↗ǧumlaẗ), ‘cable, rope’ (†ǧamal, ǧuml); [d] ‘grease, fat, fondue’ (†ǧamīl), ‘to melt, liquify (the grease, etc.)’ (†ǧamal ). – DRS is not sure whether or not also [e] ‘nightingale’ (†ǧumlānaẗ, ǧumaylānaẗ) and [f] ‘(sort of) palm tree’ (†ǧamal) should be grouped with #2a-d. The authors also remain silent about the details of the semantic relations within theme no. #2. – Classical dictionaries tend to see †‘fat’ (#2d) and †‘fatness’ as the original meaning, “hence” ‘beauty’ (#2b), “because, when a man becomes fat and in good condition, his ǧamāl becomes apparent”; from physical beauty then also ‘beauty of character’ – Lane, sv. ǧamīl. -3 ‘anger’ (Te only). -4 ‘to cook a little flour in order to add it to the bread’ (Amh only). -5 ‘sort of boomerang (Akk), sickle (Ug), yoke (JP), hooked (Syr)’, etc. (↗ǧummal). -6 ‘to burn, roast slowly; white freckles on the skin, esp. the legs’ (Amh only). -7 ‘cow without, or with small, horns’ (Amh only). -8 ‘clitoris’ (Gur only).
▪ For Sem *gamal _1 as an extension in * l (for tamed/domesticated, hence ‘weak’ animals) ↗gamal.
▪ For Sem √GML_2 as an extension of an AfrAs biconsonantal root *GM ↗gamal-.
▪ Any relation between ǦML_1 ‘camel’ and the ‘fat, beauty, completeness, politeness’ complex of ǦML_2 ?
▪ ? Engl gamma ↗gamalūn.
▪ (Huehnergard2011:) Engl Gemara, from Aram gᵊmārā ‘completion’, from gᵊmar ‘to complete’, cf. Ar ↗ǧamula.
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