Bibliotheca Polyglotta

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘the sides of a valley or a mountain; to add s.th. to s.th. else; (of the sun) to be near the time of setting; to host, to seek s.o.’s hospitality; to fear, to be cautious’

conc

»From the basic meaning ‘to incline towards, to set (of the sun), swerve, glance off (of an arrow)’, the verbal root comes to mean ‘to turn aside (from one’s road)’ and ‘to halt, on a visit to someone’, whence for the noun the sense of ‘guest’ […]« – J. Lecerf, art. “Ḍayf”, in EI².

hist

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cogn

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▪ …

disc

Although at first sight the two values do not seem to have much in common, they are probably related. Both are treated under the main lemma ↗ḍayf ‘guest’, assuming that v2 is secondary, a semantic extension of v1: *‘the one who is taken in as a guest’ > ‘to take in (in general), add’. But it could be the other way round as well: *‘to take in, add’ > ‘person who comes as addition, is taken in (as a guest)’. In ClassAr, also the values ‘to incline, approach, draw near’ and ‘to fear’ occur. Of these, ‘to incline, turn away’ could be the original value (cf. ḍīf ‘side’), while ‘to fear’ could be explained as a limitation in meaning: *‘to turn away (from fear)’ > ‘to fear’. Should this be correct, a ḍayf ‘guest’ may originally have been either *‘s.o. who has turned away (in fear?) (and is now seeking refuge)’ or ‘s.o. who has turned away (from his path) (and is now approaching, drawing near)’. Cf. Lecerf’s suggestion in EI² quoted in the “Nutshell” section.

west

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deriv

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