▪ Fraenkel1886 mentions that Ar
ǧayyār and
ǧīr traditionally are derived from
†ǧāra ‘aufkochen, aufwallen’ (to come to the boil, boil briskly), »where prob. also GRR ‘to excite’ belongs«. Furthermore, he mentions Pers
gil ‘clay, mud’ as another possibility but is eager to add that he would not want to decide whether or not the word might be related to it.
▪ Klein1987 (s.v. Hbr
gîr) is convinced that »[a]ll these words [those he gives as cognates] are ultimately borrowed from Akk
kīru ‘chalkstone’,
1
which itself is a loan word from Sum
gir (of same meaning)«.
2
. In contrast, Zimmern1914 formulated more cautiously: Given that Akk
kīru ‘oven’ (cf. Ar ↗Ar
kūr,
kīr) was particularly used as the shipper’s kiln, it might not be impossible (»wäre es nicht unmöglich«) that it was at the origin of Syr JudAram
qīrā ‘asphalt, bitumen’ (whence Ar ↗
qīr, ↗
qār ‘tar, pitch’), and »then probably [!] also« Aram
gīr,
gīrā ‘lime’ (which »probably« [!] gave lHbr
gîr, Ar
ǧayyār,
ǧīr, SAr
gyr ‘lime’, as well as Gz
gayyara ‘to limewash’).