conc▪ From ↗ḥaǧara ʻto surround, gird, enclose, hence also: to hinder, bar, and to protect, defend’. The value ʻlap’ is either a kind of *ʻenclosure’ (e.g., children sitting on the mother’s lap) or a generalisation of the meaning of †ʻanterior pudendum of a man and of a woman’, now obsoleted but attested in ClassAr (Lane ii 1865), in which case one would have to assume a development from *ʻforbidden, prohibited, unlawful, inviolable’, i.e., s.th. one is denied access to.
▪ For other derivations from ↗ḥaǧara, see , e.g., ↗²ḥiǧr ʻmare (kept for breeding)’ or ↗ḥuǧraẗ ʻcompartment, chamber, room, †enclosure for camels’, as well as perh. even ↗ḥaǧar ʻstone’.
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