▪ ḤWR_1: After the original meaning ‘white’ had been taken in Ar by
ʔabyaḍ (probably denom. from ↗
bayḍ ‘egg’),
ʔaḥwar became restricted in use to poetry where it came to signify the black pupils or the black of the eyes in contrast to their white surroundings, hence also the eyes of a gazelle or a girl with black eyes –
DRS (#ḤWR-1). – Ǧabal2012 (I: 404) thinks that the value ‘white’ is dependent on ‘to decrease’ [< ‘to turn (into s.th. worse)’], as whiteness is what appears on the uncovering of s.th. after it had disappeared from the surface (
yataʔattà min al-inkišāf baʕd al-intiqāṣ min al-ẓāhir), an explanation that seems rather forced. – For the value ‘virgins of Paradise’ cf. also ClassAr
†ʔaḥwarī ‘white, fair’ (of the people of the towns or villages)’ and
†ḥawāriyyaẗ (var.
ḥawarwaraẗ,
ḥawrāʔᵘ) ‘white, fair woman; pl.
‑āt, women of the cities or towns’ (»so called by the Arabs of the desert because of their whiteness, or fairness, and cleanness«), or ‘women clear (white, fair) in complexion and skin’, or ‘women inhabitants of regions, districts, or tracts, of cities, towns, or villages, and of cultivated land’, or simply ‘women’ (»because of their whiteness, or fairness« – Lane). This interpretation would be an interesting overlapping of ḤWR_1 ‘(contrast between black and) white’ and the notion (ḤWR_4, in
DRS seen together with ḤWR_3) of ‘settling down’ as appearing in SAr
ḥwr ‘to settle (tr. and intr.) in (a town); resident, inhabitant (of a town)’ and Ar
ḥāraẗ ‘quarter, lane (of a town, village)’. – For other etymologies of the value ‘virgins of Paradise’, cf. entry ↗
ḥūriyyaẗ. – Huehnergard2011 reconstructs CentralSem *
ḥwr ‘to be(come) white’. Kogan2008: Ar
ʔaḥwariyy ‘white’,
ḥawwara ‘to whiten’ are to be connected to ComAram *
ḥwr ‘to be white’, unless they are Aramaisms.
▪ ḤWR_2: The value ‘(white) poplar’, not mentioned in
DRS at all, is represented by Ar
ḥawar, also (later?) pronounced
ḥawr. In ClassAr, it means a ‘plane-tree’ in Syria, and ‘white poplar’ in Egypt (the value now lexicalized in WehrCowan1979), or a ‘certain kind of wood’, all called by this name because of the whiteness of the object designated.
▪ ḤWR_3: Albright1927:224 thinks that the »original sense [of
ḥāra,
yaḥūru ] was probably ‘to turn’, whence ‘turn away, depart’ and ‘return’.« Jabal2012 (I:403) suggests ‘hollowness together with roundness’ as the primary meaning of the root as a whole. Should there be some truth to this, then there might be a relation of this notion to Hbr
ḥōr,
ḥôr [√ḥr(r)] ‘hole’ (cf. ḤWR_11 ‘Ḥawrān’, below). – For the connection between ‘to return’ and ‘to recede’, cf. the ClassAr dictionaries, quoted in Lane, saying »(vn.
ḥawr,
ḥūr) he returned from a good state to a bad; you say,
ḥāra baʕda mā kāna […], he returned from a good state after he had been in that state, or:
ḥāra baʕda mā kāra […], he became in a state of defectiveness after he had been in a state of redundance; or it is from [the vb. I]
ḥāra (vn.
ḥawr), he untwisted (his turban); and means: he became in a bad state of affairs after he had been in a good state;
ḥāra wa-bāra, he became in a defective and bad state. (vn.
ḥawr,
ḥūr,
maḥāraẗ,
maḥār) It decreased, became defective, deficient; he perished, or died; he/it became changed from one state, or condition, into another; it became converted into another thing.« –
DRS (#ḤWR-11) distinguishes the notion
†‘damage, mishap, malheur’ (
ḥūr), which reminds of ‘to perish, die’, just mentioned in the quotation from Lane’s dictionary, as a value in its own right, without cognates. – The fact that Ar
ḫāra (√ḪWR) means ‘to decline in force or vigour, grow weak, dwindle’, makes one suspect an overlapping with, influence on, or even contamination of,
ḥāra in the sense of ‘to recede’, although this seems phonologically unlikely.
▪ ḤWR_4 ‘quarter, lane’: often, as also (partly) in
DRS, seen as belonging to ḤWR_3 ‘to return’, but details of semantics remain unexplained here. Cf., e.g., also Albright who thinks (1927:224) that
ḥāraẗ belongs to »‘to return’ (
ḥāra,
yaḥūru), a meaning developed in various ways. The original sense was probably ‘to turn’, whence ‘turn away, depart’ and ‘return’.« In contrast, BAH2008 list ‘circle, to encircle’ among the values the root ḤWR can take in ClassAr, which would allow for a rather plausible explanation of a quarter as *‘encircled (district), enclosure’. But except for SudAr
ḥōr ‘uncovered circular wall’, this notion is not attested elsewhere. – Albright (ibid.) sees also Eg
ḥry ‘to depart, be distant’ and
ḥr.t ‘road’ as extra-Sem cognates pertaining to Ar
ḥāraẗ and the vb.
ḥāra as well as Gz
ḥōra ‘to go, travel’. – Another etymology is suggested in
DRS#Ḥ
Y R-1, where it is reported that earlier research connected (what possibly is) an Aram cognate, ultimately to √ḤḌR ‘to settle’. See ↗
ḥāraẗ.
▪ ḤWR_5 ‘apostle’: in ClassAr dictionaries sometimes seen as akin to ḤWR_1 ‘white’ (apostles being the those working as ‘bleechers, white-washers’, or regarded as those with a ‘white’, i.e. pure, character, the virtuous ones, free from vices), sometimes as derived from ḤWR_9 ‘to discuss’ (‘those who discuss, debate’), and hence, or directly, from ḤWR_3 ‘to return’ (apostles as ‘those who return to you with a reply, answer your questions, comment on them’); BAH2008 posit also ‘(to en)circle’ as one of the values of ḤWR and therefore also can give ‘entourage’ (apostles = Jesus’s, later also others’, entourage). But cf.
DRS: »En guèze [Gz],
ḥawāryā est le mot ordinaire désignant le ‘messager’, l’‘envoyé’. Il apparaît déjà dans les inscriptions d’Axoum 2/11 et a désigné plus tard les ‘apôtres’ du Christ. Il est en relation avec le verbe [Gz]
ḥora ‘aller’. Le verbe correspondant en arabe, [Ar]
ḥāra, ne signifie pas ‘aller’ mais ‘revenir’. Nöldeke […] souligne cette différence, qui conduit à rattacher l’arabe
ḥawāriyyūna ‘apôtres’ comme le faisait Ludolf […] à l’éthiopien. Une forme Sab
hwry (avec
h !) ‘? annoncer, proclamer’ […] semble devoir être rattachée à WRY« (
DRS#ḤWR-3). – For further discussion and details, see ↗
ḥawāriyy.
▪ ḤWR_6 ‘axis, crucial point’: In ClassAr,
miḥwar means
1. a ‘pin of wood (or iron) on which the sheave of a pulley turns, iron [pin] that unites the bent piece of iron which is on each side of the sheave of a pulley, and in which it [the
miḥwar ] is inserted, and the sheave itself’; as such, lexicographers derive it either from ‘to turn’ (ḤWR_3) or think »it is so called because, by its revolving, it is polished so that it becomes white« (Lane), in this way relating it to ‘white’ (ḤWR_1);
2. ‘wooden implement of the baker or maker of bread with which he expands the dough […] and makes it round, to put it into the hot ashes in which it is baked’; ClassAr lexicographers again argue that this tool is »so called because of its turning round upon the dough, as being likened to the
miḥwar of the sheave of a pulley, and because of its roundness«, seeing it as an extended use of ‘axis’. However,
DRS#ḤWR-8 puts together
miḥwar ‘axis’ (ḤWR_6), EgAr
ḥawwar ‘to change, modify’ (ḤWR_7), and
ḥawwara ‘to roll out (dough)’ ḤWR_8, as interrelated. (Note that
DRS regards ḤWR_7 as an item particular to EgAr, which is not the case in ClassAr dictionaries.) – Semantic relations are not really clear, but it seems rather unlikely a) that ‘axis’ and ‘baker’s instrument for rolling out the dough’ should have different origins, and b) that
miḥwar should not be connected to ‘to (re)turn’.
▪ ḤWR_7 ‘to change, modify’: In
DRS (#ḤWR-8) this notion is seen as specific of EgAr and forming one item together with ‘to roll out (dough)’ (ḤWR_8) and ‘axis, crucial point’ (ḤWR_6). For discussion, see preceding paragraph.
▪ ḤWR_8 ‘to roll out (dough)’: In
DRS (#ḤWR-8) this notion is seen as forming one item together with ‘to change, modify’ (ḤWR_7) and ‘axis, crucial point’ (ḤWR_6). For discussion, see ḤWR_6.
▪ ḤWR_9 ‘to discuss’: seen as an item in its own right in
DRS, but many ClassAr lexicographers consider it to be connected to ḤWR_3 ‘to return’, cf. Lane:
ḥāwara ‑hū ‘he returned him answer for answer; held a dialogue, colloquy, conference, disputation, or debate, with him; or bandied words with him’.
▪ ḤWR_10 ‘cretaceous rock, chalk’: cf. ḤWR_14?
ḥawr †‘bottom (of a well etc.)’, hence,
†baʕīd al‑ḥawr ‘intelligent; deep in penetration’ (Lane). Or so called after its whiteness and therefore rather akin to ḤWR_1 (like also
ḥaw(a)r, the ‘white poplar’, ḤWR_2)?
▪ ḤWR_11 ‘Hauran’ (mountainous plateau in SW Syria and N Jordan): The item is not mentioned in
DRS. According to BDB1906, the meaning of the name is unknown; conjectures are: »*‘black land’ (as basaltic region), supported by YemAr
ḥawr ‘black’,
1
, and tokens of immigration from Yemen into Ḥaurān
2
; ‘land of caves’ […] and ‘hollow’ […], but this is prob. from Hbr
ḥōr,
ḥôr [√ḥr(r)] ‘hole’, cf. Ar
ḫawr ‘hollow’.«
▪ ḤWR_12 ‘oysters’: The word
maḥāraẗ does not only mean ‘oyster’ (originally probably ‘mother-of-pearl shell; oyster-shell’) but until today is also a vn. of
ḥāra ‘to (re)turn’. In ClassAr it is also a n.loc. and as such means ‘place that returns [like a circle], in which a return is made [to the point of commencement]’ (Lane), and is therefore also used to signify the ‘concha of the ear’. While these values thus seem to be akin to ḤWR_3 ‘to (re)turn’, the explanation, given by some other lexicographers, of
maḥāraẗ as ‘the external, deep, and wide, cavity, around the ear-hole’ lets also think of a possible relation to ḤWR_14
†‘bottom (of a well etc.)’ (which in turn has perhaps to be seen together with the value ‘black’ as appearing in modSAr, cf.
DRS#ḤWR-2), or with the ‘contrast between black and white’ as expressed by ḤWR_1. So, if ḤWR_12 in the meaning ‘oysters’ is not (as
DRS seems to assume by listing it as a separate item) independent of other values of ḤWR, it may be either the *‘thing with the marked black-white contrast’ or the *‘thing that looks like a spiral’. – The value
†‘side, region, quarter, tract, etc.’ has probably to be seen together with
ḥāraẗ ‘quarter, lane’, see ḤWR_4, above. – Lane mentions also the meaning »‘thing resembling [the kind of vehicle called]
hawdaǧ ’ (pronounced vulgarly
maḥārraẗ), pl.
āt,
maḥāʔirᵘ, often applied in the present day to the ‘dorsers, panniers, oblong chests which are borne, one on either side, by a camel, and, with a small tent over them, compose a
hawdaǧ ’, ‘[ornamented
hawdaǧ called the]
maḥmil [vulgarly pronounced
maḥmal ] of the pilgrims [which is borne by a camel, but without a rider, and is regarded as the royal banner of the caravan; such as is described and figured in
Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians ]’«. This value is difficult to relate to any of the other ḤWR values and remains obscure.
▪ ḤWR_13 ‘bark-tanned sheepskin, basil’:
†ḥūr (EgAr, accord. to
DRS), var.
†ḥawar (fuṣḥà): Lane reports that what »in the present day [is] pronounced
ḥawr « and applied to ‘sheep-skin leather’, originally meant ‘red skins, with which [baskets of the kind called]
silāl are covered; (pl.
ḥūrān,
ḥawarān) a hide dyed red; red skins […]; skins tanned without
qaraẓ, thin white skins of which [receptacles of the kind called]
ʔasfāṭ are made; prepared sheep-skins’.
▪ ḤWR_14: Should
ḥawr †‘bottom (of a well etc.)’ be seen together with the value ‘black’ as appearing in modSAr (cf.
DRS#ḤWR-2)?
DRS is convinced that the latter cannot be connected to ḤWR_1 ‘white’ (or ‘sharp contrast between white and black’?) and that it is »not impossible« that it depends on a root base ḤR that has become homonymous with ḤWR. Also: »rapport avec ḤRR, ḤMR, ḤBR?« – From
ḥawr †‘bottom (of a well etc.)’ ClassAr dictionaries derive ḤWR_15
†‘intelligent; deep in penetration’ (Lane).
▪ ḤWR_15: In ClassAr dictionaries derived either from ḤWR_14, cf. entry
ḥawr in Lane:
†‘bottom (of a well etc.)’, »hence« (!)
†baʕīd al‑ḥawr ‘intelligent; deep in penetration’, or from ḤWR_1 ‘contrast between white and black’, cf.
ʔaḥwar †‘(pure, clear) intellect’ »like an eye so termed, of pure white and black«.
▪ ḤWR_16:
ḥawar †‘third star (the one next the body) of the three in the tail of Ursa Major [i.e. Alioth?]’ (Lane).
▪ ḤWR_17:
†ḥuwār ‘young camel when just born,
or until weaned;
i.e. from the time of its birth until big and weaned’ (Lane). Cognates in Sem, but unclear semantics and etymology.
▪ ḤWR_18:
†ḥuwwārà ‘fine flour’: grouped with ḤWR_1 ‘white’ in all sources.
▪ ḤWR_19:
†al-ʔaḥwar ‘Jupiter’: probably so called after its ‘whiteness’ or the sharp contrast between its whiteness and the surrounding black sky (ḤWR_1).
EtymArab
ʔ
