ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√ḤFL
▪ ḤFL_1 ʻto flow copiously, be affluent; to assemble, congregate; gathering, crowd’ ↗¹ḥafala; ‘party; show, performance (theater, cinema), concert, festive event, celebration’ ↗ḥaflaẗ.
▪ ḤFL_2 ʻto pay attention, give one’s mind to, apply o.s. to, concern o.s. with’ ↗³ḥafala; ‘eager, assiduous, diligent’ ↗ḥafīl; ‘to adorn, decorate’ ↗ḥaffala
▪ ḤFL_3 ʻomnibus’ ↗ḥāfilaẗOther values, now obsolete, include:▪ †ḤFL_4 ʻto leave (cattle) unmilked’ ↗†taḥaffala
: also ‘to collect in the udder (milk)’
▪ [v1] : No obvious cognates in Sem. – Given the lack of cognates, it is difficult to decide whether ʻassembly, crowd’ is based on ʻto flow copiously, be affluent’ or whether the latter is dependent on the former. The arrangement of the material in root entry √ḤFL in Lane ii (1865) suggests that the collection of water (in a valley, in clouds in the sky, tears in the eye) or milk (in the udder, see †[v4]) is the original idea. – Ehret1995#754 thinks the vb. ¹ḥafala ʻto assemble’ is denom. from ḥafl ʻcrowd, large assembly’ which he assumes to be an extension in »noun suffix« *‑l, from a bi-consonantal pre-protSem root *ḤP ‘to take hold of’, from AfrAs *‑ḥap‑ ‘to take hold of’. – Other extensions from the same pre-protSem root: ↗ḤFŠ, ↗ḤFṬ, ↗ḤFN.
▪ [v2] : For DRS, the semantics of [v2] obviously seem too far from [v1] as to assume an etymological relation. Cf., however, Lane ii (1865) where [v2] is explained as the result of semantic expansion from [v1]: ḥafala ’l-qawm ʻthe people collected themselves, aiding one another[!]’, ḥafalū lahū ʻthey combined for him, treating him with honour[!]’. Moreover, there are items in √ḤFL for which it would be difficult to decide to which of the two values they should be assigned – [v1] or [v2]? – e.g., ḥaffala ‘to adorn, decorate’: is this an original *ʻto make affluent’ (from ↗¹ḥafala) or *ʻto apply extra zeal to’ (from ↗³ḥafala ʻto pay attention, attend, give one’s mind to s.th.’, or ↗ḥafīl ‘eager, assiduous, diligent’)? (DRS favours the latter view).
▪ [v3] : a neologism, coined on a PA f. pattern from [v1] ↗¹ḥafala, thus originally meaning *ʻthe busy one (sc. means of transport), or the frequently going one, or (car) for the crowd, or (car) taking a larger crowd’.
▪ †[v4] : As mentioned sub [v1], above, the collection of water or milk may be the most original meaning; in this case, [v1] ʻto assemble, gather, agglomerate’ would be a generalization/abstraction from the concrete context (water, milk, tears, …).
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▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤPL-1 Ar ḥafala ʻaffluer, couler à flots, (se) réunir’, ḥafl ʻnombreux; foule’, ḥaflaẗ ʻtroupe’ -2 ḥafala ʻs’appliquer avec zèle’, ḥaffala ʻorner, embellir’, ḥafl ʻsoin’, Mhr ḥəfūl ʻpréserver’, Ḥrs ḥəfōl ʻprendre garde à soi’, Jib ḥfɔl ʻprêter attention’, Jib ḥɔ́fəl ʻattention’. ?-3 Mhr ḥəfəlīt, Jib ḥfíźə́t ʻfigue (sauvage) mûre’, ḥéfəl ʻmûrir (figue sauvage)’.
▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ [v1] : Cohen1969 #111 suggests to compare Eg ḥfn ʻvery large number, (ErmanGrapow1921:) 100 000’.
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▪ [v1] : Ehret1995#754 thinks ḤFL_1 is an extension in *‑l, from pre-protSem *ḤP ‘to take hold of’. Other extensions from the same pre-protSem root: ↗ḤFŠ, ↗ḤFṬ, ↗ḤFN.
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