▪ BRQ_1: It is the value ‘lightning’ (Ar
barq, from Sem *
bar(a)ḳ- ‘lightning’ – Kogan2011) on which most of the values BRQ_2 through
†BRQ_14 seem to be based (but not sup>†BRQ_9 ‘ram, sheep, lamb’, nor perhaps
†BRQ_12, the name of a certain plant). In the present dictionary, we also assume the vb.
baraqa ‘to shine, glitter, flash;
†to threaten (with evil), frighten’ to be denominative from ‘lightning, thunderbold’.
▪ BRQ_2:
barqiyyaẗ ‘telegram, wire, cable’ is a neologism (C19) coined from
barq ‘lightning’.
▪ BRQ_3:
burāq, the name of the fantastic creature on which the prophet Mohammed made his ascension to the seven heavens, is usually explained as being given to the animal on account of its exceptional fleetness (‘like a lightning’). There are, however, also other theories; in any case, the idea of the
burāq is probably of pre-Isl origin. – Is
burāq the basis of
†barraqa ‘to undertake a long journey’ (BRQ_7) ?
▪ BRQ_4
al- ↗
Barqaẗ ‘Cyrenaica (region of E Libya)’: of obscure etymology. It may be from a Phoen or Lib name, or been so called after its
†burqaẗ ‘hard ground, hard soil’ (BRQ_11) ?, or its ‘spotted’ appearance, cf.
†ʔabraqᵘ, f.
barqāʔᵘ ‘blotty, spotted, stained (goat, eye), piebald (black and white)’ (BRQ_14).
▪ BRQ_5: The value
†‘to attire o.s.’ that the vb. I
baraqa can take in ClassAr when women are the subject, seems to be fig. use of the basic value ‘to shine, glitter, flash’, attiring o.s. meaning ‘to exhibit o.’s beauty intentionally, beautify o.s.’ (Lane) and thus look brilliant ‘as a lightning’.
▪ BRQ_6: The meaning of the intr. vb. I
†bariqa ‘to be astounded, dazzled’ is explained in ClassAr dictionaries as ‘to fear, be astonished, amazed, stupefied
at seing the gleam of lightning, etc.’ (Lane), thus denom. from
barq ‘lightning’ (BRQ_1), cf. Q 75:7
fa-ʔiḏā bariqa ’l-baṣaru ‘when sight is dazzled’. Hence also
†barūq ‘cowardly man’. – Another meaning, now obsolete, of the same vb. is ‘to melt, become decomposed’ (fat, butter). This, too, can be explained as meaning, literally, ‘to (begin to) shine, flash’ (in the pan etc. when melting).
▪ BRQ_7
†barraqa ‘to undertake a long journey’: denom. from
burāq (BRQ_3)?
▪ BRQ_8
†burq ‘African lizard’: Accord. to Lane, this is apparently a pl. of
barūq, properly a ‘she-camel raising her tail, and feigning herself pregnant, not being so’, applied to the lizards in analogy, from the raising of the tail that is a habit of those animals (and letting the vulva flash as ‘bright as a lightening’). Another etymology explains it as the pl. of
ʔabraqᵘ ‘having two colours; twisted with a black strand and a white strand, having blackness and whiteness together’ (on account of the colour of the lizards’ skin), see BRQ_14 below.
▪ BRQ_9:
†baraq ‘ram, sheep, (Lane) lamb’ was recognized as a foreign word already by al-Ǧawālīqī. The etymon seems to be Pers
barah,
barreh ‘lamb’.
▪ BRQ_10:
†barqaẗ ‘lumbago’ is attested already in Wahrmund1887 and marked as a LevAr expression both in Hava1899 and Landberg1920 (»Syrie ‘douleur au dos’«). It is probably fig. use of BRQ_1 ‘lightning’, qualifying lumbago as a pain that comes as suddenly and strongly as a lightning.
▪ BRQ_11: The value ‘hard ground, hard soil’ is attested for the n.f.
†burqaẗ (pl.
buraq) as well as for the elative-like n.
†ʔabraqᵘ (pl.
ʔabāriqᵘ) and its pl.f.,
†barqāwāt (Wahrmund1887: ‘steiniger, sandiger Boden mit Lehm’). Landberg1920 and others interpret
†ʔabraqᵘ ‘hard ground, soil’ as the same
ʔabraqᵘ that also means ‘spotted, piebald’ and seems to be a phonetic var. of ↗
ʔablaq (see BRQ_14, below). If this is true, the ‘hard ground, hard soil’ would have its name on account of its surface that lets it look spotted or piebald. – The name
al- ↗
Barqaẗ for the ‘Cyrenaica (region of E Libya)’ (BRQ_4) may belong here. – Lokotsch1927 holds that Ar
†burqaẗ (via Portug and other langs) is the etymon of Engl
baroque, see section WESTLANG below.
▪ BRQ_12: The n.
†barūq (thus in Hava1899 and
DRS), or
†barwaq,
†barwiq (Kazimirski, Lane), meaning ‘asphodill’ according to the first three sources, but ‘a certain kind of plant which camels do not feed upon except in cases of necessity; small, feeble tree, which, when the sky becomes clouded, grows green’ according to Lane (for whom only
barwāq is ‘asphodel’, i.e. ‘a certain plant also called
ḫunṯà ’ the eating of whose »fresh, juicy stalk, boiled with olive-oil and vinegar, counteracts jaundice; and the smearing with its root, or lower part, removes the two kinds of ↗
bahaq ’«) seems to have relatives in Akk, Hbr and JP and thus perhaps be of Sem origin. – Related in any way to BRQ_1?
▪ BRQ_13:
†barrūqaẗ,
burrūqaẗ ‘wart, verruca’ is mentioned by Dozy and said to stem from Span
berruga ‘id.’. The latter is akin to Engl
wart, oEngl
weart, from protGerm
*warton- (cognates: oNo
varta, oFris
warte, Du
wrat, oHGe
warza, Ge
warze ‘wart’), from the IE root
*wer- (1) ‘high, raised spot on the body, or other bodily infirmity’ (cf. Lat
verruca ‘swelling, wart’, and also Engl
vary,
varied,
varying, etc.) –
EtymOnline.
▪ BRQ_14: The elat. adj.
†ʔabraqᵘ (f.
barqāʔᵘ, pl.
ʔabāriqᵘ) ‘blotty, spotted, stained (goat, eye)’ is said by Wahrmund and others to be a var. of ↗
ʔablaqᵘ (f.
balqāʔᵘ, pl.
bulq) ‘brindle, dappled, piebald (white and black)’. Given that there is nothing that would prove this assumption, one should not exclude beforehand the possibility of a relation to BRQ_1 ‘lightning’ (contrast between brightness and darkness); note that the pl.s of
†ʔabraq and
ʔablaq show differing patterns (
ʔabāriq, not *
burq, as would be the logical correspondence of pl.
bulq). – For the pl.f.
barqāwāt ‘stony, sandy soil with clay’, cf. above, BRQ_11.