ʕaqrab عَقْرَب, pl. ʕaqāribᵘ
ID … • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√ʕQRB
1 scorpion; 2 sting, prick; 3 hand (of a watch or clock); 4 lock, curl; 5 العقرب Scorpio (sign of the zodiac; astron.); 6 the eighth month of the solar year (Saudi Ar.; cf. ḥamal) – WehrCowan1976.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994# 1609: From protSem *ʕaḳrab‑ ‘scorpion’ (and perh., with prefix *ʕa‑, from AfrAs *ḳurab‑ ‘insect’).
▪ Bergsträsser1928: Akk aqrabu, Hbr ʕaqrāḇ, Aram ʕeqarḇā, Gz ʕaqráb ‘scorpion’
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994# 1609: Hbr ʕaqrāb, Syr ʕeqarbō. – Outside Sem: kurba ‘ant’ in a WCh language.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#1609: protSem *ʕaḳrab‑ ‘scorpion’, protWCh *ḳur˅b‑, both from hypothetical AfrAs *ḳurab‑ ‘insect’. The basis for reconstruction in WCh is only 1 lang, the AfrAs dimension therefore doubtful. The authors explain the initial consonant in Sem as a prefix *ʕa‑.
▪ Lipiński2001 thinks (with Diakonoff) the etymon may be segmented into a root plus AfrAs »key consonant« ‑b for strong and/or dangerous animals, cf. also ↗ʔarnab, ↗dubb, ↗ḏiʔb, ↗ḏubāb, ↗kalb, ↗labb, ↗ṯaʕlab.
▪ Sem *ʕaḳrab‑, more exactly Phoen ʕqrb, may have been the source of the Germ words for ‘crab’.
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