Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Some scholars assume a dependence of ‘millet’ on ‘smoke’, due to the plant’s colour, but this is doubtful.
▪ For further etymology, cf. individual entries ↗duḫn and ↗duḫān.

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▪ DRS 4 (1994)#DḪN–1 *duḫn‑ ‘millet’: Akk duḫnu, Hbr dōḥan, JP dōḥīnā, Syr duḥnā, Ar duḫn. –2 Ar daḫan ‘fumée, méchanceté, haine’, duḫnaẗ ‘couleur foncé’, daḫnān ‘sombre, couvert, nuageux’, dial. ʔadḫan ‘grisâtre, terne’, Ḥrs edḫān ‘de couleur foncé, pourpre’, ? Jib nideḫ ‘fumer’, məndoḫ, Śḥr endoḫ, Mhr nīdēḫ, mənādəḫ ‘fumée’. –3 Gz dəḫna, Te Tña däḥanä ‘être sain et sauf’, Amh danä ‘être guéri, sauvé, délivré’, Gz dəḫun ‘sain et sauf, en bonne santé’, dāḫn ‘en bonne santé, innocent, non coupable’, Te däḥan ‘bien-être, paix’, Amh danä ‘guérir’, dähna ‘en santé, en bon état’, Gz madḫən ‘sauveur, rédempteur, garant’, Tña mädḥən, mädən, Gur mädin ‘garant’. –4 Akk diḫnu diḫnu ¹ : formule magique utilisée dans les incantations.

1. CAD has diḫun diḫun.

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▪ DRS 4 (1994)#DḪN-1. According to some, the name of the plant derives from its colour, which would relate it to DḪN_2; but many do not accept this etymology. – 2. Cf. the Ar nouns, now obsolete, ^†daḫaḫ ‘couleur noir, foncé’, ^†duḫḫ, ^†daḫḫ ‘fumée’ (not in Lane!). – The forms in Jib Šḫ Mhr show metathesis.
▪ Kogan2011 reconstructs Sem *duḫn- for ‘millet’ (DḪN_1), for details see ↗duḫn.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994 and TB2007 see an AfrAs dimension for both DḪN_1 and DḪN_2; for details cf. ↗duḫn and ↗duḫān, respectively.
▪ Can there be a connection between the value ‘health, healthiness’ of DḪN in EthSem (i.e., DḪN-3 in DRS) and ‘to smoke, fumigate’ (DḪN-2)?
▪ And is possibly also the Akk magic formula diḫnu diḫnu (or diḫun diḫun, as in CAD¹ ), mentioned in DRS 4 (1994)#DḪN-4, related to DḪN-2? The formula is said to be »used in incantations« (CAD). Smoke may have had a magical function…
▪ If DḪN-1, DḪN-3 and DḪN-4 (DRS) could be proven to depend on ‘smoke’, then DḪN-2 would be the primary etymon.

1. Qualified as Standard Babylonian there.

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