disc▪ According to Fück1950: 128-33, all values of the Ar root go back to one basic meaning, namely 0 ‘to incline, lean towards’ [= LḤN_4], indicating any deviation from/modification of the normal (position, situation). Directly from here Fück derives 1 the adj. laḥin *‘flexible, mobile, agile’ = ‘clever, intelligent, perspicacious’ and the n. †laḥan ‘cleverness, comprehension, perspicacity’ [= LḤN_3] and an extension into the field of speaking, with 2 *‘abnormal way of speaking’, forming a new extended base from which derive other values like 2a ‘eloquence’, or 2b ‘melody’ [= LḤN_2], or 2c ‘talking in riddles full of hidden meanings\veiled hints\allusions\insinuations’ [= LḤN_5], or 2d ‘delusive expression’, and, finally, 2e downright ‘grammatical mistake, blunder’ [= LḤN_1]. According to Ayoub, the positive connotations are earlier than the negative ones (art. “Laḥn” in EALL).
▪ Is Fück correct? WKAS does not have Fück’s ‘to incline, lean towards’ as a basic value. It seems that the latter rather is secondary, based on ‘deviation, modulation, modification’; it is right that laḥana can mean ‘to incline’, but only in the particular sense of ‘to incline to s.o., lean towards s.o., show affection to s.o. ’, i.e., to a person, cf. the lexicographers’ explanation of laḥana li- (which is similar to ʔilà) as ‘to talk to s.o. in a way that only he understands (it remains unintellegible to others)’ (laḥana la-hū ʔiḏā qāla la-hū qawlan yafhamu-hū ʕan-hu wa-yaḫfī ʕalà ġayri-hī) (≈ LḤN_5); so, the ‘inclination’ or ‘affection’ is a way of talking ‘abnormally’, or the result thereof.
▪ [LḤN_2] For the idea that laḥn ‘melody’ may be from Grk liχanós ‘forefinger (etc.)’, cf. ↗laḥn.