▪ [v1] : According to Landberg1923, the basic value of ClassAr
raqama is ‘to mark’, hence also
raqm ‘marking, mark, chiffre’. When Kogan2015: 121 #24 reconstructs protSem *
rḳm ‘to embroider’ he seems to give the evidence of the non-Ar cognates (Hbr, Pun, Aram Syr, Gz) prominence over the more general Ar ‘marking’. But we should prob. not exclude the possibility that Ar may have preserved the more original meaning, so that one could assume a protSem *‘to mark, brand’ from which several more specific notions (‘to variegate, embroider’, ‘to stripe’, ‘to put dots on s.th., provide a text with points’, ‘to mark with a price label’, etc.) then would derive.
▪ [v2] : The meaning ‘numeral, number’ of Ar
raqm seems to be a specialisation from the more general [v1] ‘to mark’: *‘… > to put a mark (on a garment, or piece cloth) specifying its price, put a price-mark on s.th. > price-mark > number’. One may also think of derivation from ‘to inscribe’ (see [v3]).
▪ [v3] : Like [v2], also [v3] ‘inscription tablet; letter, message’ may be derived, as a specialisation, from the more general [v1] ‘marking’, along a hypothetical line of development *‘(to mark, make distinct ↔ to embroider) > to variegate, weave in colour > to paint figures on a tissue, or parchment > to make incisions, write on a clay/lead tablet > inscription tablet > message, letter’. However, the word
al-raqīm is first attested not earlier than in the Qur’ān and may be a borrowing or a misreading there. – The meaning ‘to write’ of the vb. I
raqama may be secondary, based on the interpretation of
al-raqīm as ‘writing, inscription’.
▪
†[v4] : According to
DHDA, the value ‘calamity, misfortune’ is first attested (as
†raqam) in a verse by the pre-Isl poet al-ʔAʕšà in which he describes the intensity with which his poetry affects the audience. If akin to [v1], a ‘calamity, misfortune’ brought about by sharp verses may originally have been a *‘decisive mark’ left on the public. Or is a ‘calamity, misfortune’ a ‘predetermined destiny’, *‘inscribed’ in the heavenly document where all events ever to happen in the world are listed? In this case, the closest value would be [v3] ‘inscription’. One may, however, also think of ‘calamity, misfortune’ as s.th. as poisonous as the
†[v8]
ʔarqamᵘ type of snake. An argument in favour of an association with [v3] ‘inscription’ is the expression
dāhiyaẗᵘⁿ raqīmᵘⁿ where
raqīm is not an adj., but a noun, coming as apposition qualifying the type of
dāhiyaẗ as ‘…of the type of / equal to (that of) a
raqīm’, i.e., as a predetermined destiny.
raqīm can, however, also be used as an adj., as the f. form
†²
raqīmaẗ ‘intelligent (woman)’ shows. Is the meaning ‘intelligent’ from ‘calamity’ or from ‘snake’, intelligence in a woman seen as ‘misfortune’, or as ‘poison’?
▪
†[v5] : Morphologically, the term
†raqmaẗ for ‘meadow; side of a valley; reservoir’ (Hava1899) is the f. of
raqm and can therefore be suspected to depend on the latter and thus, ultimately, on [v1]. But how exactly? The more detailed and complex definition found in Lane iii 1867
1
does not help to clarify the term’s origin. Could the ‘side of a valley’ have been regarded as an *‘embroidery’? Or did the ‘place where water collects’ look like *‘speckles’ or *‘stripes’?
▪
†[v6] : The ‘plant of the class
pentandria’ (Hava1899) called
†raqamaẗ seems to have gotten this name because the five stamens in each flower may have looked like dots or speckles; if this is correct, the term is a development from [v1] *‘to mark, make look distinct’.
▪
†[v7] : The
FaʕūL pattern of the adj.
†raqūm implies the strong presence of a certain quality associated with √RQM in the woman who is described as
raqūm, but it remains unclear to which of the other values attached to √RQM the meaning ‘remaining, staying, dwelling, abiding, remaining fixed’ should be connected.
▪
†[v8] : The type of snake labelled with the el. adj.
†ʔarqamᵘ is prob. so called after its dotted or two-coloured skin’, cf. the value ‘speckled snake’ given in BAH2008 as one of the values attached to the root in ClassAr (
DHDA has ‘male black-white-coloured snake’). – Cf. also
†[v4].
▪
†[v9] :
†al-Raqam , as in
†yawm al-Raqam ‘the Battle of al-Raqam’, is said by ClassAr lexicographers to mean a ‘water’ (or possibly a mountain?) close to Mecca, in the lands of the Ġaṭafān tribe. The origin of the name is obscure.