Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ḤKM_1 ʻto be knowledgeable, be wise; wisdom’ ↗ḥikmaẗ, ʻwise, wise person, philosopher, doctor’ ↗ḥakīm; ʻarbiter’ ↗ḥakam, ʻto decide, pronounce a sentence, judge, govern, rule’ ↗ḥakama, ʻgovernment’ ↗ḥukūmaẗ, ‘arbitrariness; despotism’ ↗taḥakkum, ‘court, tribunal’ ↗maḥkamaẗ; ‘bit (of a horse’s bridle)’ ↗ḥakamaẗ, ‘to make s.th. firm, strong, solid, fortify; to do s.th. properly, be proficient; exactitude’ ↗ʔaḥkama
▪ ḤKM_2 ʻ…’ ↗ḥkm

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘bit of a bridle; to curb, restrain; to govern, control; to judge between, sentence, express an opinion, arbitrate; wisdom, knowledge; to tighten, fortify; to recognize’

conc

▪ Etymologically, all the values listed sub ḤKM_1 seem to belong together (as is also assumed by the entry #ḤKM-1 in DRS, see below, section COGN).
▪ It is not clear, however, until which stage in the history of the Sem langs it can be traced back (Huehnergard2011: »CSem«; Kogan2015: »WSem«) and to which of the sub-values within the spectrum of ḤKM_1 one could/should ascribe etymological primacy (ʻto be wise’, ʻto govern’, ʻto contain, hold back, fence’, ʻto be strict, strong, solid, exact’?). Huehnergard2011 and Kogan2015 both seem to posit a primacy of *ʻto be wise, judge’. But it was already Jeffery1938 who pointed to the fact that, in Ar, this latter value obviously is secondary, formed under Aram influence, while the most prominent notion in Ar is that of *ʻto govern’.
▪ Kogan2015 suspects the Akk ḫakāmu ‘to know, understand’ to be a borrowing from WSem. Moreover, he remarks that Gz taḥakama ‘to hold back, contain’ is attested only once (in Pr 17:28) and all other representatives of *ḤKM in EthSem are borrowed from Ar, as are also most of the modSAr “cognates”. But there could be a link betw the Gz meaning [attested also in Ar] and ‘to be wise’: ʻrestraining one’s lips in order to look wise’…
▪ Our own hypothesis would be a development along the line *‘containment, restriction, solid fencing > to keep under control, govern > to be wise’. For more details see below, section DISC.
▪ …

hist

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cogn

▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤKM-1 Akk ḫakāmu ‘comprendre’, Ug ḥkm, Hbr ḥakam ‘être sage’, EmpAram ḥkm ‘instruire’, BiblAram ḥᵊkam, Ar ḥakuma ‘être sage, savant (surtout en médecine)’, ḥakama ‘exercer le pouvoir, prononcer une sentence juridique; retenir, contenir, empêcher de, museler; faire solidement’, Ug ḥkmt, Phoen EmpAram YaAram ḥkmh, Ar ḥikmaẗ ‘sagesse’, ḥakam ‘arbitre, vieillard’, Sab mḥkm ‘règlement d’un litige, traité de paix’, Mhr ḥəkūm, Jib ḥkum, Soq ḥkom ‘devenir/être vieux’, ḥkəm ‘juger’, Mhr ḥəkūm, Jib ḥkum ‘pointer (un fusil); condamner; gouverner’, Ḥrs ḥəkōm ‘gouverner; conquérir’, Gz taḥakama ‘retenir’, Te ḥakma ‘décider, diriger’. – Ar ʔaḥkama ‘raffermir, consolider’. [Same attestations also in Kogan2015: 82-83 #18.] -2 Tña ḥakäm exprime le bruit de la manducation des herbes, ḥakäm bälä ‘happer une gueulée d’herbes, brouter’.
▪ Unlike DRS, Orel&Stolbova1994 #1497 align Ar ḥkm (u) ʻto take’ (sic!) with Akk ekēmu ʻto take away (by force)’ (CAD). – Outside Sem the authors see cognates in 2 CCh languages (kum-anuʔ, kum-ʔʋwi ‘to obtain’), 4 Rift idioms (3x kom‑ ‘to have’, 1x *kom-os‑ ‘to grip’), and Dhl kam‑ ‘to hold’.
▪ …

disc

▪ Jeffery1938, 111 (s.v. ḥikmaẗ): »The root √ḤKM is of wide use in Sem, but the sense of ‘wisdom’ appears to be a NSem development,¹ while the SSem use of the word is more in connection with the sense of ‘govern’. […] Thus [Ar] ḥikmaẗ and ḥakīm seem undoubtedly to have been formed under Aram influence.² […] It is possible that the word came into use from SArabia, for we find ḥkm in a Qat inscription […] which Nielsen³ )] takes to be an epithet of the moon-god.«
▪ Kogan2015, 82-83 (#ḤKM ḥakam-): »The status of this isogloss as a protWSem feature is undermined by several circumstances which, in view of the cultural significance of the root, deserve to be mentioned in full: (1) The autochthonous vs. borrowed status of Akk ḫakāmu ‘to know, to understand’ has been hotly debated by several generations of Assyriologists and Semitists (v. Kogan 2011:111 for a select bibliography). Personally, we tend to favor the borrowing hypothesis (especially if several waves of WSem influence are assumed), but no complete certainty in this respect is possible. – (2) The Gz verb is attested only once in Pr 17:28. The semantic link between ‘se cohibere, continere’ (LLA 112) and ʻto be wise’ is far from trivial, but fits well the sapiential context of ʻrestraining one’s lips in order to look wise’. All other representatives of *ḤKM in EthSem are borrowed from Ar (Leslau 1990:341). – (3) Most of the meanings associated with this root in modSAr are almost certainly due to Ar influence. This is, however, much less evident as far as the meaning ʻto be old’ is concerned: while also attested in Ar (ḥakam ‘a man advanced in age to the utmost degree,’ Lane 617), it seems to be too marginal there to be considered a reliable source of borrowing. – (4) As reasonably argued by A. Jeffery (1938:111), the genuinely Ar meanings of ḥkm are “more in connection with the sense of govern” whereas the meaning ʻto be wise’ is likely due to Hbr and Aram influence.«
▪ For our own hypothesis (*ʻto contain, restrict, etc.’ as original value – see above, section CONC), cf. Lane ii 1865 where the entry on ḥakama (vn. ḥukm) starts with the value ‘to prevent\restrain\withhold s.o. from acting in an evil\corrupt manner; to pull (a horse) by the bridle and bit to stop it; to curb, restrain it’, suggesting that this is the primary meaning; cf. also BAH2008 where the overview over the semantic spectrum in ClassAr starts with ‘bit of a bridle; to curb, restrain; …’. Cf. also some older values given, among others, by Hava1899: ^†ḥakama ‘to practice fencing; to overtake s.o. (rain, mishap)’, ^†ʔaḥkama ‘to check (a horse) with a curb-bit; to put a ring to a horse’s bridle’, ^†ḥakam ‘fencing’, ^†ḥakamaẗ ‘martingale; bridle’, ^†ĭstiḥkamāt, mustaḥkamāt (pl.), ‘fortifications’. – With this hypothesis in mind, the suggestion made by Orel&Stolbova1994 (Ar ḥakam‑ ‘to take’ < Sem *ḥ˅kum‑ ‘to take’, with prefix *ḥ˅‑ from AfrAs *kum‑ ‘to take, get’) is not completely unconceivable.⁴ Kogan2015: 84 (fn. 240), too, finds that »[t]he meaning ʻto restrain, withhold’ [found in Gz, but] also rather prominently attested in Ar, opens an interesting possibility of comparsion between protWSem *ḥkm and Akk ekēmu ʻto take away’, otherwise with no WSem etymology.«⁵
▪ Nevertheless, Orel&Stolbova’s analysis of protSem *ḥkm as being the result of the addition of a prefix *ḥ˅‑ to the hypothetical AfrAs *kum‑ ‘to take, get’ sounds highly speculative.
▪ …

1. But see Zimmern, Akkad. Fremdw, 29. 2. For Jeffery’s footnotes and more details, cf. entry ↗ḥikmaẗ. 3. ZDMG, lxvi, 592. 4. For the other AfrAs branches the authors reconstruct: protCCh *kum‑ ‘to obtain’, protRift *kom‑ ‘to have; to grip’, and (with unexpected vocalism) Dhl kam‑ ‘to hold’. 5. Cf. however vonSoden1965 who thinks Akk ekēmu is from »ʔ_4?km«, not *ḥkm.

west

▪ Engl hakim ↗ḥakama, ↗ḥakīm.

deriv

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