▪ [gnrl] : The values attached to root √KRː (KRR) display a rather varied mixture of related and unrelated items. We can prob. identify three major complexes: (
a) an onomatopoetic (?) one, imitating the *‘sound of rattling in the throat’, etc. (see value [v1]); unless simply a phon. var. of similar items with initial
ǧ- instead of
k- (see complex (c)), this complex may have been influenced (with regard to the recurrence/repetition implied in the rattling etc.) by a second complex, one expressing the basic idea of (
b) *‘repetition, reiteration, returning, circularity’ (see [v2] > [v3],[v4], ?[v6], ?[v13]); a third complex has to do with (
c) a *‘cord’, or ‘rope’, and/or ‘knitting’ (see [v7], ?>[v6], ?[v8],[v11]). The other values seem to be either loanwords ([v5], [v10]) or variants of words with initial
ǧ- (so perh. also (a)) or of items that generally are ascribed to √KRW, √KRW/Y, or √KRY (see, e.g., [v9], ?[v13]), or are of obscure etymology (if reliably attested at all) (see [v12]).
▪ [v1] : The sound of a ‘rattle in the throat’ is not only expressed by ¹
karra but also by the reduplicated stem ↗²
karkara (also ‘to rumble’, said of the stomach, and ‘to murmur’, said of running water); as onomatopoetic imitations of a certain type of sounds, ¹
karra and ²
karkara are also close to ↗
ǧarǧara ‘to gargle, rumble, clatter’ and ↗
ġarġara ‘to gargle, gurgle, simmer, bubble’. With such meanings, the root is attested in Ar and EthSem (see
DRS #KRR-9) and classified by Leslau among roots expressing « la voix ».
1
▪ [v2] : If
DRS (#KRR-1) is right, this value, too, has cognates only in EthSem where the Ar meaning ‘revenir sur ses pas, revenir à la charge’ (cf. also Tham
kr ‘ramener, revenir’) is paralleled by the notions of ‘rouler (vers le bas)’ (Te
kärara), ‘être rond’ (Tña
kärärä), and ‘échafauder, mettre l’un sur l’autre’ (Amh
kʷärrärä).
DRS thinks that ²
karra etc. « est une forme qui appartient aux usages oraux » and that it prob. is a var. of items usually grouped under ↗KRW or ↗KWR. This might be true especially for Ar
kurraẗ ‘ball’ (Te
korit ‘balle’, Amh
kʷärät ‘caillou’) which usually appears as ↗
kuraẗ ‘id.’ and is grouped s.r. ↗KRW.
▪ [v3] ‘to clarify, purify, refine’: As a D-stem,
karrara has as its basic meaning the caus. ‘to make come back, repeat, reiterate’, from [v2] ²
karra ‘to come back, return’, thus particularly describing processes of clarifying through repeated filtering etc. In MSA, the item is mainly used in connection with oil (or water, sugar, etc.) refinery.
▪ [v4] : The value ‘hundred thousand’ (found only in WehrCowan, thus prob. peculiar to MSA as a rather recent development) seems to be based on the notion of *‘repetition’, thus dependent on [v2]. Nevertheless it is strange to observe that
karraẗ, which usually only means ‘one time, once’ also can take value [v4]. One may imagine a development via adverbial use in
karraẗᵃⁿ ‘one time, once’: *‘… > repeatedly > often > very frequently > [exaggerating] many many times > a hundred thousand times > a hundred thousand’.
▪ [v5] : loanword; the var.
kalār leads to the etymon, modGrk
kellári ‘pantry, storeroom; cellar’ (so also BadawiHinds1986).
▪ [v6] : WehrCowan1976 lists an EgAr word spelt
kurrāriyyaẗ (with
rrār ) meaning ‘spool, bobbin, reel’, which fits very nicely the meaning the vb. I
karr (
u, vn.
karr,
kararān) has in EgAr, namely ‘to unravel, unwind’ (BadawiHinds1986).
2
These values look as if they could be related either to [v2] ‘to return, come back, repeat’ (implying a circular movement)
3
or, perh. even more likely, to
†[v7] ‘rope, cable, cord’ (where it could be a nsb-formation based on the pl.
kirār, with
ki- >
ka and an original meaning of *‘thing belonging to the ropes/cables/cords’). In contrast, BadawiHinds1986 also registered an EgAr
kurā̆riyyaẗ (with
rā̆r ) meaning ‘ball (of string, wool etc.)’. The latter meaning combines that of ‘roundness’ with that of ‘spooling, winding, etc.’
▪
†[v7] : If ClassAr
†²
karr (pl.
kurūr, ?
ʔakrār,
kirār) ‘rope, cable (for ascending the palm-tree) | rope used as a ladder’ and
†³
karr (pl.
ʔakrār) ‘cord, thong which holds together the two extremities of the camel’s saddle | cable’ has cognates in Sem at all, then (according to
DRS #KRR-10) perh. only in Amh
kärrärä ‘to become hard, stiff; be tense, tight, taut’ and/or Amh Arg
kərar ‘lyre with 5-6 strings’. As these are far from obvious and rather doubtful,
†²
karr may in fact be a development peculiar to Ar. Within Ar, however, it seems to be related to [v6] which, with EgAr
kurrāriyyaẗ ‘spool, bobbin, reel’ and the corresponding vb., EgAr
karr ‘to unravel, unwind’, has items that seem semantically close to ‘rope, cable’. – As ropes or cables are produced by twisting several strings into one, there might also be a distant connection to items showing reduplication of a 2-rad. root nucleus, such as
†⁴
karkara ‘to collect, pile up, heap up, blow into a ball (wind the clouds)’,
†⁵
karkara ‘to squash, grind’, etc. (see ↗
†KRKR_4), a notion that is also found in Amh
kʷärrärä ‘to scaffold, put one over the other’ (see below, section COGN,
DRS #KRR-1). Cf. also the next two items,
†[v8] ‘carpet, mat’ and
†[v9] ‘cistern, subterranean reservoir’.
▪
†[v8] : If the attestation of
†⁴
karr as ‘carpet, mat’ in Hava1899 is reliable, the value may be related, like
†[v7] and
†[v9], to the basic idea of *‘collecting, piling up, heaping up, amassing’. But this is highly speculative. No cognates listed in
DRS.
▪
†[v9] :
†¹
kurr is reliably attested in several dictionaries as ‘cistern, subterranean reservoir | well | terrain un peu encaissé, creux dans le sable où l’eau demeure stagnante; puits; vivier’, but does not seem to have direct cognates in Sem. The initial description quoted in BK1860 – ‘terrain un peu encaissé, creux … où l’eau demeure stagnante’ – could hint to a connection either with ↗
karā/à ‘to dig’ (√KRW/Y) or with the basic idea of *‘collecting, amassing’ encountered also in values
†[v7] ‘rope, cable, cord’ and
†[v8] ‘carpet, mat’, perh. also in [v6] ‘spool, bobbin, reel’.
▪
†[v10] : According to Fraenkel1886: 207, the Ar word for a ‘dry measure equal to 60
qafīz or 6 ass-loads’ (
DRS: « en usage en Iraq ») is from Aram
kōrā, Hbr
kōr ‘(a measure, usually dry)’, which, according to Zimmern1914, goes back to Akk
kurru ‘ein Getreidemaß’
4
(»wohl < Sum
gur«).
5
According to some scholars, the Hbr/Aram word was borrowed also into Grk as
kóros ‘name of a measure of capacity for grain, flour, etc. (Beekes2016) | Maß von 6 attischen Medimnen (Gmoll1965)’; see also BDB1906.
6
–
DRS distinguishes this value (given as #KRR-7) from another one with the value ‘ass foal (Ar, YemAr), 6-year-old horse (MġrAr)’ (given as #KRR-8), assuming that
†²ᵃ
kurr is from Aram
kōrā ~ Hbr
kōr while
†²ᵇ
kurr ‘ass foal’ might be (as with Dozy thinks) from Pers
ḫar ‘ass’.
▪
†[v11] :
†³
kurr is registered in
WKAS also as the word for ‘a kind of stuff, coarse linen’. The reference is with all probability reliable, though the value is not among those listed in
DRS. Etymology obscure. The value that comes closest to
†³
kurr in
DRS would be #KRR-11, with Akk
karr indicating a ‘vêtement de deuil | ragged or dirty piece of apparel worn as a sign of mourning (
CAD)’.
▪
†[v12] : The value ‘(burnt) camel’s dung into which coats of mail are put for protection against rust’ for the n.f.
†kurraẗ is given in
WKAS and thus prob. reliably attested. But its etymology remains obscure.
▪
†[v13] ‘cowrie used as an amulet’:
†kirār (Hava1899) ~
†karār (BK1860). – Ullmann (
WKAS I 1970) lists the item as
karāri and analyses it as a »concretized imperative ‘Bringback, one who brings back’, designation of a pearl, shell used as a love-charm in the spell
yā karāri kurrī hi ʔin ʔadbara fa-ruddī hi«, quoted in BK1860 in a slightly extended version, as
yā karāri kurrī-hi wa-yā hamraẗu ’hmirī-hi ʔin ʔaqbala fa-surrī-hi wa-ʔin ʔadbara fa-ḍurrī-hi ‘Ô boule! ramène-le; ô boule! amène-le; s’il vient, réjouis-le, et s’il se détourne, fais-lui du mal’. Ullmann’s reading suggests a derivation from [v2] ²
karra ‘to (make) return, come back, etc.’, while de Biberstein Kazimirski (with his ‘ô boule!’) seems to see a connection rather with ↗
kuraẗ ‘ball’.
▪ …
EtymArab
ʔ
