ID 738 • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√KḤL
▪ KḤL_1 ‘(to be/make) dark, black; to blind; (to apply) antimony (to the eyelids); †tar, pitch; horse of noblest breed; alcohol, spirit, essence; medial arm vein’ ↗kaḥ˅l‑ (kaḥl, kaḥal), kuḥl .
▪ KḤL_2 †‘to be infertile’ : ↗† kaḥl .
▪ KḤL_3 ‘black’ (sometimes ‘green; blue’) ↗ʔakḥalᵘ .
▪ KḤL_4 ‘a variety of blueweed (Echium cericeum V.; bot.) [Natterkopf]’ ↗kaḥlāʔ (EgAr).
▪ KḤL_5 ‘pointing, filling or grouting [Verfugung] of the joints [Fugen] (of a wall; masonry)’ ↗kuḥlaẗ (EgAr).
▪ KḤL_6 ‘anklebone’ ↗kāḥil .
▪ The distinction made here between KḤL_1 and KḤL_3 follows DRS‑ 10 (2012), s.v. kḥl, who separates the values ‘antimony; to apply antimony’ and ‘black; (sometimes also) green, blue’) as kḥl-1 and kḥl-2, respectively. Etymologically, however, the two may be related, or even essentially one item, given the fact that in earlier times kuḥl‑ was not necessarily a black substance but “a general term for any eye cosmetic” and, when denoting a mineral, referred to a lead ore or a mixture of several minerals, e.g., “galena, pyrolusite, brown ochre or malachite” (Wiedemann/Allan), rather than antimony sulphide, ↗kuḥl. – DRS does not mention the values ‘infertile’, ‘anklebone’, ‘blueweed’, and ‘pointing, filling or grouting the joints’. Semantic relation between KḤL_1 and these remains unclear.
▪ KḤL_2 is probably figurative use of KḤL_1 or KḤL_3, an infertile year being a ‘black/dark’ year.
▪ KḤL_4 may be related to the ‘dark colour’ of KḤL_1 or, more probably even, the ‘green‑, blueness’ of KḤL_3, the plant having its name from its colour (cf. also the morphological aspect: kaḥlāʔ is the f. of ʔakḥal).
▪ KḤL_5 and KḤL_6 may have the same etymon, *‘to connect (two or more parts), bridge (the gap between them)’. Any relation to KḤL_1 and/or KḤL_3?
▪ Engl kohl, alcohol ↗kuḥl.
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