metaID 275 • Sw – • BP 2456 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√ḪYL
engl1 horses; 2 horsepower, H.P. – WehrCowan1979.
conc▪ The term ḫayl for ‘horses’ is an Ar idiosyncrasy. But, as Kogan2011 (#5.1.3.2) states, there is also »no deeply rooted common term for ‘horse’« in Sem. (For other terms, cf. ↗ḥiṣān, ↗faras, EgAr ↗sīsī.) ḫayl may belong to the complex of *ʻpower, strength, might’ (↗√ḤW/YL, with ḫ in ḫ from *ḥ); thus, it may originally be *ʻthe powerful one’.
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cogn▪ DRS 10 (2012) #ḪYL-1-2 […]. -3 Ar ḫayl ‘chevaux’, ḫayyālaẗ ‘troupeau de chevaux’, Jib aḫyel ‘faire galoper (son cheval)’. -4 […]. -5 Hbr ḥayil ‘puissance’, SyrAr ḥēl, ‘vigueur, allant’, Sab ḫyl ‘pouvoir, puissance’, Qat ‘ressources, aide’, Gz ḫayl, Tña ḥayli, Te ḥil, Amh Gur hayl ‘pouvoir, puissance’. -6-8 […].
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disc▪ The Ar term
ḫayl for ʻhorses’ stands isolated within Sem (Jib
aḫyel ‘faire galoper’ could be an Arabism). Given that it cannot be connected to other items of ↗√ḪYL or ↗√ḪWL, it may be true what earlier research often suggested,
1
, namely that it belongs to the complex of *ʻpower, strength, might’ (cf.
DRS #ḪYL-5 in section COGN, above), otherwise realised in Ar by ↗√ḤW/YL (< protSem *
ḥayl‑/*
ḫayl‑ ‘strength’ – Kogan2015: 118 #12), rather than to √ḪYL or √ḪWL.
2
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1. Kogan2015: 118 #12, fn. 340, referring to Marrassini 1971: 59 2. Accord. to Kogan (ibid.), »[t]he discrepancy between ḫ and ḥ still awaits an explanation, but there is little doubt that all or most of the aforementioned forms [Ug ḥl ‘strength, vigor’, Hbr ḥayil ‘power’, Syr ḥaylā ‘vis, potentia’, Ar ḥawl ‘strength, power, might’, ḥayl id., Sab ḫyl ‘power, might’, Qat ʔḫyl ‘resources, means, aid’, Gz ḫayl ‘power, strength’] go back to a single etymological source.«
deriv► sabāq al-ḫayl, n., horse racing, horse race► ḫayyala, vb. II, to gallop (on horseback): D-stem, denom.
► ḫayyāl, pl. -aẗ, ‑ūn, n., horseman, rider: ints. formation / n.prof.
► ḫayyālaẗ, n.f., cavalry (Ir.; Eg. 1939) | sariyyaẗ ḫayyālaẗ, n.f., cavalry squadron (Eg. 1939)For other values of the root, cf. ↗ḫāla and ↗ʔaḫyal as well as, for the whole picture, root entries ↗√ḪYL and √ḪWL.
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