Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ḪYL_1 ʻto imagine, fancy, think, believe, suppose; (D-stem) to suggest, make believe; (Gt- and Lt-stems) to feel self-important, be conceited; to behave in a pompous, arrogant manner, swagger, strut about’ ↗ḫāla; ʻghost, spectre, phantom, fantasy, chimera; vision, imagination; shadow, trace, dim reflection’ ↗ḫayāl; ʻmole, birthmark; patch, beauty spot’ ↗²ḫāl
▪ ḪYL_2 ʻgreen woodpecker’ ↗ʔaḫyal
▪ ḪYL_3 ʻhorses’ ↗ḫayl

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): (There is a degree of overlapping between this root and ḪWL:) ‘imagining, to fancy, to suppose, to guess, to presuppose, to foresee; spectre, ghost, apparition, shadow; pride, conceit, snobbery; horse riders, horses; maternal uncle and aunt; mole (on skin)’

conc

▪ [v1] : Although the semantic field built around the idea of ʻfantasy, imagination’ in Ar is rather broad and diversified and thus points to a long history and the genuineness of the root, the corresponding Ar items remain without obvious cognates in Sem. The picture changes slightly if we regard ʻfantasy, imagination’ (DRS #ḪYL-2) and ʻmole, birthmark; patch, beauty spot’ (DRS #ḪYL-4) as possibly belonging together, both sharing the basic idea of *ʻappearing, becoming visible’; moreover, in older times, birthmarks were often seen as omina, thus evoking a certain vision.¹ Should the two be akin, then the Ar lexemes would perh. get at least one relative in Akk, and ²ḫāl ʻmole, birthmark; patch, beauty spot’ could be tentatively interpreted as *ʻmark\sign appearing, becoming visible (on the face or skin of a newborn child)’, or the complex of ʻfantasy, imagination’ could be regarded as derived from ²ḫāl, a fantasy or imagination appearing like a mole or a beauty spot on the face\skin of a newborn. But this is unsecured speculation that cannot build on harder data than the mere possibility of semantic dependence. The Akk “relative” signifying ʻblack mole (on the face and body); black spot (a disease of barley)’ may also be unrelated: while von Soden (on whom the data given in DRS are built) gives it as Akk ḫālu, CAD quotes it as Akk ḫalû (from oBab on), in which case it would belong together with Ar ^†ḥalaʔ ʻpustules upon the lips (Hava1899) / boutons aux lèvres à la suite de la fièvre (BK1860)’ rather than with ²ḫāl.²
▪ [v2] : The modern use of ʔaḫyal for ʻgreen woodpecker’ may be dependent on [v1], more specifically on ²ḫāl in the sense of ʻpatch, beauty spot’, as the bird has white spots on some of its feathers (DRS #ḪYL-4). In older times, the word signified some (less specified) kind of bird that may have been called ʔaḫyal on account of its association with evil omen. Others explain it as an epithet based on taḫayyul, thus meaning *ʻthe one who feels self-important, conceited, the arrogant one’. – The word may have a cognate in a Hbr hapax. MilitarevKogan2005 (SED II #107) tentatively reconstruct protSem *ḫ˅l‑ ‘kind of bird’, adding that the reconstruction is little reliable, due to scarce attestation.
▪ [v3] : Ar ḫayl for ʻhorses’ stands isolated within Sem (Jib aḫyel ‘faire galoper’ could be an Arabism). Given that it cannot be connected to [v1] or [v2], it may belong to the complex of *ʻpower, strength’ (cf. DRS #ḪYL-5 in section COGN, below), otherwise realised in Ar by ↗√ḤW/YL (< protSem *ḥayl‑/*ḫayl‑ ‘strength’ – Kogan2015: 118 #12), rather than to √ḪYL or √ḪWL.³ According to Kogan (ibid., fn. 340), ḫayl ‘horses; riders’ has been interpreted already quite often as belonging together with ‘strength, power, might’ (cf. Marrassini 1971: 59).
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1. Cf. below, sub [v2], one explanation of the bird called ʔaḫyal with evil omina. In contrast, there is also the ClassAr expr. ^†ʔaḫāla fīhi ḫāl^an min al-ḫayr ʻto bode well of s.th.’, in which ḫāl is attested with the rather neutral sense of ʻsign, mark, indicator’ that can be additionally qualified as ʻgood’. – Instead of ^†ʔaḫāla, vb. IV, also ^†taḫawwala, vb. V, is found, giving proof of an overlapping of √ḪYL with √ḪWL. 2. For the pair Akk ḫalû and Ar ^†ḥalaʔ, Militarev&Kogan2000 (SED I #116) reconstruct protSem *ḥ/ḫalaʔ‑ ʻmole; pustule’, with the caveat of scarce attestation and unexplained relationship between ḫ and ḥ. 3. »The discrepancy between ḫ and ḥ still awaits an explanation«, remarks Kogan (ibid.), «but there is little doubt that all or most of the aforementioned forms [Ug ḥl ‘strength, vigor’, Hbr ḥayil ‘power’, Syr ḥaylā ‘vis, potentia’, Ar ḥawl ‘strength, power, might’, ḥayl id., Sab ḫyl ‘power, might’, Qat ʔḫyl ‘resources, means, aid’, Gz ḫayl ‘power, strength’] go back to a single etymological source.«

hist

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cogn

▪ DRS 10 (2012) #ḪYL-1 Akk ḫiālu, ḫālu ‘frémir, éprouver les douleurs de l’accouchement’, ḫīlū ‘douleurs de l’accouchement’, Ug ḫl ‘éprouver de telles douleurs’; ‘sautiller’, ḫl ‘angoisse, douleur’, Hbr ḥīl ‘douleur (en particulier celle de l’accouchement), crainte, tremblement d’angoisse’, ? Soq meḥailil, muhailil ‘peureux’. -2 Ar ḫāla, ḫayyala ‘s’imaginer, se figurer’, ḫayāl ‘fantôme, ombre’, ḫāl ‘outrecuidance, arrogance, présomption’, YemAr ḫayāl ‘convoiter’. -3 Ar ḫayl ‘chevaux’, ḫayyālaẗ ‘troupeau de chevaux’, Jib aḫyel ‘faire galoper (son cheval)’. -4 Akk ḫālu ‘tache noire sur la peau’, Ar ḫāl ‘signe sur le visage, grain de beauté’, ʔaḫyalᵘ ‘qui a des grains de beauté (sur le visage)’, ḫīlān ‘signe, signe sur le corps ou le visage, grain de beauté’. -5 Hbr ḥayil ‘puissance’, SyrAr ḥēl, ‘vigueur, allant’, Sab ḫyl ‘pouvoir, puissance’, Qat ‘ressources, aide’, Gz ḫayl, Tña ḥayli, Te ḥil, Amh Gur hayl ‘pouvoir, puissance’. -6 Soq ḥal, ḥēl ‘aine’. -7 Tña ḫayal ‘cerf, grande antilope’. -8 Akk ḫīl‑ ‘résine’.
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disc

▪ As is clear from [v…] and [v…], there is some overlapping between √ḪYL and ↗√ḪWL, and prob. also ↗√ḤW/YL.
▪ The value *ʻto be in labour; have labour pains’ (protSem *ḫyl – SED I #33) does not seem to have cognates in Ar, although it is quite widely attested throughout Sem (see DRS #ḪYL-1 in section COGN, above, and SED I #33).
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