Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ʕYR_1 ‘to wander, stray, roam, rove’ ↗ʕāra; ‘caravan’ ↗ʕīr; ‘scoundrel, vagabond, vagrant’ ↗¹ʕayyār
▪ ʕYR_2 ‘shame, disgrace, dishonor, ignominy’ ↗ʕār; ‘to reproach, blame, rebuke, condemn; to insult, revile’ ↗ʕayyara
▪ ʕYR_3 ‘standard measure, standard, gauge (measures, weights) ↗ʕiyār, ↗miʕyār
▪ ʕYR_4 ‘wild ass, onager’ ↗¹ʕayr
▪ ʕYR_5 ‘crane (machine)’ ↗²ʕayyār
▪ ʕYR_6 ‘false, artificial (teeth, hair)’ (EgAr) ↗ʕīraẗ (arranged s.r. ↗ʕWR)

Other values, now obsolete, include (Hava1899):

▪ ^†ʕYR_7 ‘to be overspread with green moss (water): ^†ʕayyara
▪ ^†ʕYR_8 ‘to set (a horse) free; to fatten (a horse); to pluck out (the hair of the tail): ^†ʔaʕāra
▪ ^†ʕYR_9 ‘prominence\ridge in the middle of the iron head or blade of an arrow or of a spear, sword, knife, etc.; prominent line, like a little wall, in the middle of a leaf; its middle rib, the spine, i.e., the prominent part, in the middle of the scapula\shoulderblade; prominent\projecting bone in the middle of the hand; [...] any prominent\protuberant bone in the body; line on a map; edge\ridge of a rock, naturally prominent; anything prominent\protuberant in an even thing, or in the middle of an even thing [or surface]; pupil of the eye; king, chief; wooden peg; drum’: ^†²ʕayr (Lane v 1874, Hava1899)
▪ ^†ʕYR_ ‘...’: ^†...

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘donkey, zebra; chief; pupil of the eye; to run away, vagabond; caravan, to measure; infamy, to exchange insults; to borrow and loan’

conc

▪ [gnrl] : In MSA, the root ʕYR displays 3 main values: [v1] ‘to wander, roam around’, [v2] ‘shame, disgrace’, and [v3] ‘standard measure, standard’. The position of [v4] ‘wild ass, onager’ is unclear (forming a unit with [v1]?). Historically, also a fifth value, ^†[v9] ‘prominent\protuberant part of s.th.’, should prob. be taken into consideration as a basic value. Given the lack of Sem or extra-Sem cognates (except for [v2] and [v4]), the relation, or non-relation, among these 4-5 values is hard to determine. Should one, for instance, assume a development where ‘wandering around’ is based on ‘wild ass’ and later came to be identified with ‘shame, disgrace’? Or where ‘standard measure’ is dependent on ‘to wander’, as the index on the scales *‘goes to and fro’, in this way showing the im-/balance? Or where the pointer is regarded as the ‘prominent part’ of the scales? – The remaining values are either dependent on one of these 4-5 or better grouped with another root (↗ʕWR, ↗ʕRW, ↗ʕRY).
▪ [v1] : To ʕāra ‘to wander, stray, roam, rove’ and ʕīr ‘caravan’, the relation among which is evident, belongs not only ¹ʕayyār ‘scoundrel, vagabond, vagrant’, but perh. also [v4] ¹ʕayr ‘donkey’, as *‘estray, scatterling’ (so BDB1906). Or is [v1] ‘wandering, etc.’ denom. from [v4]̀ ‘donkey’ (as *‘roaming around, straying like a wild ass’)? Given the lack of Sem cognates for the value ‘wandering, etc.’, such a dependence is prob. worth considering. – Perh. also ^†[v7] ^†ʕayyara ‘to be overspread with green moss (water)’ has to be seen as D-stem coined from ‘wandering, etc.’ with ints. meaning, likening the rampant spread of moss over water to an aimless *‘wandering, roaming, going astray’. – Any relation betw. [v1] ‘wandering, roaming around’ and [v2] ‘shame, disgrace, etc.’ and/or [v3] ‘standard measure’?
▪ [v2] : Ar ʕār ‘shame, disgrace, dishonor, ignominy’ and ʕayyara ‘to reproach, blame, rebuke, condemn; to insult, revile’ have obvious cognates in Hbr, SAr, Śḥr, Gz, Te, Tña, perh. also Akk, so that one may assume a deeper (W?)Sem dimension. – Any relation betw. [v1] ‘wandering, roaming around’ and [v2] ‘shame, disgrace, etc.’? A ¹ʕayyār ‘scoundrel, vagabond, vagrant’ used to be regarded as base and ignoble...
▪ [v3] ʕiyār, miʕyār ‘standard measure, standard, gauge (measures, weights)’: etymology obscure (but cf. below, section DISC); perh. related to [v1] ‘wander, etc.’ (the index of scales *‘going to and fro’) or ^†[v9] *‘prominent\protuberant part of s.th.’ (as the scales show the excess of weight etc.)?
▪ [v4] Kogan2015 124#2 (cf. (SED II #50): from WSem *ʕayr ‘donkey’.¹ – On account of extra-Sem evidence StarlingTB further reconstructs AfrAs *ʕay/wr- ‘donkey (and horse?)’ and posits kinship also with IndEur terms. The authors further see a relation to Sem *ḥ˅wār- ‘young (of camel, donkey)’ < AfrAs *ḥ(i/uw)ar(r)- ‘(young of) donkey, camel’.
▪ [v5] ²ʕayyār ‘crane (machine)’: prob. related to [v3] ʕiyār ‘gauge (measures, weights)’, orig. *‘crane of a pair of scales’. Or specialised use of ints. (FaʕʕāL) var. of ClassAr ^†ʕāʔir ‘going to and fro, and round about’ (pointer on scales)? Or from [v4], a crane being a weight-carrying *‘donkey’? Or fig. use of ¹ʕayyār ‘scoundrel’, as tools sometimes are likened to persons or professions? (cf. Engl jack for a ‘car lifter’, or dialAr ḥarāmī ‘thieve’ for an electric ‘plug, adapter’?
▪ [v6] : EgAr ʕīraẗ (invar.) ‘false, artificial (teeth, hair)’ (also attested in Hava1899 as ^†ʕiyāraẗ al-šaʕr ‘wig, false hair’) is treated in EtymArab s.r. ↗√ʕWR (as akin to ↗ʔaʕāra ‘to lend, borrow’), but arranged s.r. ↗√ʕYR by BadawiHinds1986, suggesting that the item is akin to [v2] ↗ʕār ‘dishonour, disgrace’, ʕayyar (II) ‘to taunt (s.o.) by mentioning his/her faults or failures’, etc.
▪ ^†[v7] : ^†ʕayyara ‘to be overspread with green moss (water)’ is prob. fig. use of [v1] (see above).
▪ ^†[v8] : ^†ʔaʕāra ‘to set (a horse) free; to fatten (a horse); to pluck out (the hair of the tail)’: three rather different values treated in one here for the sake of convenience; none of them seems to be related to the common ↗ʔaʕāra ‘to lend, borrow’ (√ʕWR).
▪ ^†[v9] : The basic value of ^†²ʕayr seems to be ‘anything prominent\protuberant\projecting’. If this assumption is valid, ^†²ʕayr (which evidently must be distinguished from ¹ʕayr ‘donkey’) could be at the basis of [v3] ʕiyār, miʕyār ‘standard measure, standard, gauge (measures, weights)’ and [v5] ²ʕayyār ‘crane (machine)’ (see above), as s.th. that shows the tipping of the scales, see above.
▪ ...

1. StarlingTB Sem#1977 reconstruct protSem *ʕayr- ‘(male) donkey’ (cf. also *y˅ʕr- ‘kid, calf, goat’), but there is no ESem dimension –Akk Mr ḫāru ~ ḫaʔaru ~ ayaru ‘ass foal’ is borrowed from WSem, cf. e.g. Dolgopolsky2012. For the WSem word, the latter author reconstructs *ʕayr-/ʕīr‑ ‘male wild ass, ass foal’.

hist

–

cogn

▪ [v1] BDB1906: (Hbr ʕyr), Ar ʕāra ‘to go away, go hither and thither, »whence« ¹ʕayr ‘(wild) ass’, Hbr ʕayir ‘male ass’.
▪ [v2] Leslau2006 (CDG): Akk âru [?]¹ , Hbr ʕyr ‘to revile’ (Po ʕōrēr), SAr ʕyr ‘disgrace, shame’, Śḥr ʕer ‘disgrace’, Ar ʕayyara ‘to revile’, Gz ʕayyara ‘to rebuke, reproach, (T) despise, mock, make fun of’, Te ʕayyära ‘to insult’, Tña ʕayyärä ‘to joke, jest’
▪ [v3] ʕiyār, miʕyār ‘standard measure, standard, gauge (measures, weights)’: no obvious cognates, but cf. perh. [v1] or ^†[v9] (see above, section CONC); see also below, section DISC.
▪ [v4] StarlingTB Sem #1977, Kogan2015 124#2, Borg2021 #480: Ug ʕr (Tropper2008: /ʕêru/) ‘donkey’, Hbr ʕayir postBiblHbr ‘foal, young full-grown ass’,² ʕīr³ ‘male donkey’, postBiblHbr ‘foal of a donkey’, JudAram *ʕayir (only in pl. ʕayrīn) ‘foal’, Sam ʕyr ’young ass’, Mhr ḥayr, Jib (Kathīri) aḥyɛ́r ‘male donkey’, ḥīrīt ‘female donkey’, Ḥrs ḥayr ’donkey’, ḥayrēt ’she-donkey’, Saf ʕr, Taym ʕyr, Ar ¹ʕayr ‘domestic and wild ass’, ʕayraẗ ‘ânesse et femelle de l’onagre’, ʕuyayr, ʕiyayr ‘ânon, poulain d’âne ou d’onagre’. – According to Kogan, Te ʕayro ‘young camel three years old; (fig.) young man’ (given in SED, StarLingTB, etc.) is too isolated to be taken as a reliable cognate.⁴ – Outside Sem, Borg2021 compares Eg (OK) ʕꜢ, Dem ʕꜢ, Copt ⲉⲓⲱ ‘ass’. – In addition, StarLingTB lists (WChad) Pero áurà ‘donkey’, (Omot) Kafa (Kaficho) awarō, EMao (Diddesa) wɔɔre ‘horse’, as well as (IndEur) Arm oroǯ ‘agnus, -a’, erinǯ ‘vitula, juvenca, bos’, Grk éripho-s (m./f.) ‘junger Bock, junge Ziege’, Slav *ā́rъka, *ā́rę̄, *ā́rьcь ‘goat’, Balt *ē̂r-a- (c.), (Ital) Lat ariēs ‘Widder, Schafbock; Seewidder’, Umbr erietu ‘arietem’, (Celt) oIr heirp ‘dama, capra’, mIr earb, fearb ‘Damtier’; (Kartvel) Georg irem- ‘deer’, SDrav *IraLai ‘deer’.
▪ [v5] ²ʕayyār ‘crane (machine)’: no obvious cognates, see above, section CONC, [v1] and [v3]-[v4].
▪ [v6] : EgAr ʕīraẗ (invar.) ‘false, artificial (teeth, hair)’: see ↗s.v. (arranged sub ↗√ʕWR); cf. also above, section CONC.
▪ ^†[v7] : see prob. [v1].
▪ ^†[v8] : ?
▪ ^†[v9] : ^†²ʕayr *‘anything prominent\protuberant\projecting’: no obvious cognates.

1. Posited by Leslau, following Kinnier Wilson 1962 (JSS 7: 181); but semantics are problematic – CAD gives: ‘to go, advance (against a person), turn against a person, confront, oppose, attack’. 2. The meaning ‘young ass, foal’, typical of the postBibl language, is most probably attested already in Gn 32.16 (ʔătōnōt wa-ʕyārīm ‘donkey mares and foals’, following a number of similar word-pairs). 3. Hapax in Gn 49.11. 4. Leslau (1990:165) assumes a borrowing from Ar ʕayrān ‘swift camel’, which may be reasonable in spite of the formal difference. – Cf. also BalqāʔAr ʕāyir, NajdAr ʕayraẗ ‘thoroughbred camel’, given by Borg2021.

disc

▪ [v3] ʕiyār, miʕyār ‘standard measure, standard, gauge (measures, weights): Lindberg1897: 87 compares Gz ʕarräyä with Ar ʕāyara ‘to make even’ (Leslau2006 CDG, s.v. ʕarraya).
▪ [v4]: StarlingTB Sem#1977 reconstructs: protSem *ʕayr- ‘(male) donkey’¹ – Cf. also Sem *y˅ʕr- ‘kid, calf, goat’).)], Eg *ʕ˅r- ‘ass’, WChad *(H)awr- ‘donkey’ (otherwise <*ḥ(i/uw)ar(r)- ‘(young of) donkey, camel’), Omot *(H)awar- ‘horse’, all from a hypothetical AfrAs *ʕay/wr- ‘donkey (and horse?)’. – Outside AfrAr, the authors reconstruct protIndEur *ar-/e- ‘lamb, kid’ < IndEur *ē̆r- (?) < Eurasiatic: *ʔir˅ ‘ungulate’, < Borean (approx.) *H˅R˅ ‘ungulateʼ. – Based on the same evidence, Dolgopolsky2012 reconstructs WSem *ʕayr-/*ʕīr- ‘male wild ass, ass foal’, Kart *°ir- ‘deer’, Drav *ir- ‘deer, stag’, NaIE *er(i)-bʰ- (with the suffix *-bʰ(o)- of animal names), all from a hypothetical Nostr *ʕiR˹i˺ ‘(male, young) big ungulate’.
▪ ...

1. The earliest evidence for this root is h̊āru (h̊aʔaru, ayaru) ‘donkey foal’ in oBab Mari, clearly borrowed from WSem. Otherwise related to Sem *ḥ˅wār- ‘young (of camel, donkey)’. — Extra-Sem cognates would include Berb *Hawr- ‘a year-old camel’ (ḥ/har- ‘camel’, SaAf *ḥ˅r- ‘female donkey’, LECush HECush *ḥ/harr- ‘donkey’, Warazi (Dullay) *ḥarri ‘ass’, Omot *ḥ/harr- ‘donkey’, all from AfrAs *ḥ(i/uw)ar(r)- ‘(young of) donkey, camel’.

west

–

deriv

–

Permanent link

http://www2.hf.uio.no/common/apps/permlink/permlink.php?app=polyglotta&context=record&uid=d9a8c1ff-06ff-11ee-937a-005056a97067

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages

Choose display