▪ Jeffery1938, 84-85: »A very late word, occurring only in material from towards the very end of the Madina period, and used only in connection with legislation about lawful and unlawful meats. It is well known that these food regulations were formed under Jewish influence,
1
so that it is significant that the word in the Jewish legislation (Lev. xi) is
bᵉhēmā. The root of the word is probably a form
BHM which we find in Eth [Gz]
bəhəma ‘to be dumb’, connected with Ar
ʔabham and
ĭstabhama [↗
BHM_1 ] ] both of which refer to incoherence or ambiguity of speech. The Lexicons, however, are troubled about the word (cf.
LA, xiv, 323), and there is little doubt that it was a direct borrowing from the Jewish
bᵉhēmā.
2
«
▪ Cf. also ↗√BHM.
▪
DRS 2 (1994) reconstructs Sem *
bahīmat‑ ‘animal, cattle’ and says that this value probably depends on BHM_1 ‘(to be) unable to speak, mute’. – It is not clear, however, why
DRS groups Ar value
buhmaẗ ‘obscurité, ténèbres; bloc de pierre’ to BHM_2 ‘animal, cattle’ rather than under BHM_1 ‘(to be) unable to speak, mute’.