Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ A rather complex root in ClassAr, RML today shows only three major values. Of these, ‘(to be/become) a widow(er)’ is said to be dependent on ‘sand’ by indigenous lexicographers, but this seems to be wrong.
▪ The root is only scarcely represented in Sem (only ‘sand’ in modSAr), and not at all in AfrAs. It seems to be an Ar innovation.

hist

–

cogn

▪ …
▪ …

disc

▪ Classical dictionaries make RML_2 depend on RML_1: the notion of be(com)ing a widow(er) seems to be a secondary value, developed from an earlier ^† ‘to be(come) poor, needy’, thought to be a metaphorical extension from ‘sand’ (< *‘to look like s.o. who is creeping in the sand’, because s/he is near starvation). But Kogan2011 gives another etymology, see ↗ʔarmalaẗ.
▪ In contrast, RML_3 ‘ramal’, the term for one of the metres of classical poetry, is said to derive from ^†ramala, u (ramalān, ramal, marmal), vb. I, now extinct, with the meaning of (inter al.) ‘to go in a kind of trotting pace, between a walk and a run; to go quickly’ or from RML_4, see below and s.v. ↗ramal).

Other notions attached to √RML and found in ClassAr include:
▪ RML_4 ^†‘to weave (thinly, a mat of palm-leaves, or the like)’: ^†ramala u (raml), vb. I, ? hence also: ‘to ornament with jewels, precious stones, gems, etc.’
▪ RML_5 ^† ‘to have little rain’: ^†ramila a (ramal), vb. I, in ramilat al-sanaẗ : perhaps fig. use of ‘to run short (of provision), become poor’, but it may also be denom. from ramal, pl. ʔarmāl, n., ‘weak rain, little rain’. Connected to RML_1 ‘sand’ ?
▪ RML_6 ^† ‘to lengthen, make long, wide (rope, cord)’: one of the many values of ʔarmala (vb. IV); cf. also ^†ramal ‘redundance, excess (in a thing)’.
▪ RML_7 ^†ramal ‘(black/white) lines, or streakes, upon the legs of the wild cow’; ^†rumlaẗ, pl. rumal, ʔarmāl ‘diversity of colours upon the legs of the wild bull; black line, or streak (upon the back and thighs of a gazelle)’; ʔarmalᵘ ‘(= ʔablaqᵘ) black and white’. – Connected to RML_1 ‘sand’ ?
▪ RML_8 ^†ʔurmūlaẗ ‘stump of (the plant, tree, called) ʕarfaǧ, stock, stem’.

▪ Also from RML_1 ‘sand’ or, more precisely, the denom./caus. vb.s II rammala ‘to put sand into s.th. (food)’ (and hence contaminate) and IV ʔarmala ‘to become sandy; cleave to the sand’ are such specialised meanings as (II) ‘to smear (with blood)’ (probably < ‘sprinkle blood on s.th. like sand’), ‘to adulterate, corrupt, render unsound (speech)’ (<… like contaminating food by put sand into it) and (IV) ‘to be smeared with blood (arrow, the claws of a lion, etc.)’. – The value ‘geomancy’ derives from the fact that a kind of divination was practised by means of figures or lines in the sand.

west

–

deriv

–

Permanent link

http://www2.hf.uio.no/common/apps/permlink/permlink.php?app=polyglotta&context=record&uid=d8b38846-06ff-11ee-937a-005056a97067

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages

Choose display