Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ṬFL_1 ‘infant, baby, child’ ↗ṭifl
▪ ṬFL_2 ‘tender, soft’ ↗ṭafl
▪ ṬFL_3 ‘clay, argil, loam’ ↗ṭufāl
▪ ṬFL_4 ‘uninvited guest, intruder, sponger, hanger-on, parasite’ ↗ṭufaylī

Other values, now obsolete, include:

ṬFL_5 ‘time before sunset’: ^†ṭafal ; cf. also vb. I ^†ṭafala u (ṭufūl), IV ^†ʔaṭfala ‘to be about to rise or set (sun)’ (Hava1899)

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1 infant, baby, child, the young of animals in general; 2 to be of a tender age, be tender, soft; 3 to be with child; 4 (of the sun) to be about to rise or set’

conc

▪ Out of the four main values listed in DRS for √ṬPL in Sem, three are represented in Ar where all of them have survived into MSA.
▪ As for relations inside the root, DRS mentions only that the Akk ṭapālu ‘to scorn, treat scornfully, with disrespect’ (DRS #ṬPL-1) may have to be seen together with DRS #ṬPL-2 (≙ ṬFL_3) where the basic notion seems to be that of ‘dirt, soil, mud, dust’. All other values are kept apart in DRS although they are (with the exception of ṬFL_4 ≙ DRS ṬPL#4?) perhaps related etymologically as well. The basic meaning of the root could be that of ‘softness, tenderness, smoothness’ (ṬFL_2 ) which is a quality of both ‘clay, argil, loam’ (ṬFL_3) and ‘infant, baby, child’ (ṬFL_1). However, it is also possible, and perh. even more likely (given the wider Sem evidence), that ‘soil, mud, dust’ is the basic value, whence (fig. use) the Akk ‘to treat scornfully’ (*like dirt), but also (more specifically) ‘clay, argil, loam’ (Ar ṬFL_3). From the latter may have developed the idea of ‘softness, tenderness, smoothness’ and, hence, also ‘infant, baby, child’.

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cogn

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬPL-1 Akk ṭapālu ‘insulter, mépriser, traiter sans respect, insulter’. ? -2 Hbr ṭāpal ‘enduire de’, JP ṭᵉpal ‘frotter de’, Syr ṭᵉfal ‘salir’, Ar ṭafila ‘être endommagé par la poussière (plante)’, ṭufāl ‘argile, boue’, Soq meṭfel ‘cavité’. -3 Syr ṭeflā ‘enfants’, Ar ṭifl, Mhr Ḥrs ṭāfəl, Jib ṭäfəl, Soq ṭafel ‘enfants en bas âge’, Te ʔaṭfal (pl.) ‘enfants’. -4 Ar taṭaffala ‘être pique-assiette’, ṭufaylī ‘pique-assiette‘.

disc

▪ ṬFL_1 ṭifl ‘infant, baby, child’ : lit., *‘the tiny, soft, tender one’.
▪ ṬFL_2 ṭafl ‘tender, soft’ : represents perh. either the primary value from which most others are derived, or is in itself the result of a transfer of meaning from ṬFL_3 ṭufāl ‘clay, argil, loam’ (* > ‘the soft thing’ > ‘soft’).
▪ ṬFL_3 ṭufāl ‘clay, argil, loam’: cf. also ^†ṭafāl ~ ṭufāl ‘dry mud’, vb. I ^†ṭafila a (ṭafal) ‘to be(come) soiled by dust (herbage, plant)’, ^†ṭafīl ‘turbid water remaining in a watering-trough, in the bottom of a tank’ (Lane, Hava1899). – The value can is perh. a specialisation from a more general *‘soil, mud, dust’ (see above). There may be some overlapping with ↗TFL and/or ↗ṮFL (MSA tufl, tufāl ‘spit, spittle, saliva’, tafil ‘ill-smelling, malodorous’, EgAr tifl ‘fibrous vegetable sediment, dregs’ ≙ MSA ṯufl ‘dregs, lees, sediment’).
▪ ṬFL_4 ṭufaylī ‘uninvited guest, parasite’: accord. to ClassAr lexicographers an eponymous nisba formation from the n.prop. Ṭufayl, a person who used to show up invited at weddings. – Should we, however, also compare ṬFL_5 ?
▪ ṬFL_5 ^†ṭafal ‘time before sunset or sunrise’: any relation to ṬFL_2 ‘tender, soft’ (*‘period of the soft light’?) or to ṬFL_4 (sharing the notion of *‘intrusion’)? In the ClassAr vb. II ^†ṭaffala both values overlap: ‘1 to intrude at a feast; 2 to come on (night); to be near setting (sun)’ (Hava1899).

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