Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ NǦM_1a ‘to appear, come in sight, rise (star), begin, commence, set in’ ↗naǧama
▪ NǦM_1b ‘origin, source; to originate, spring, result (from)’ ↗naǧama
▪ NǦM_1c ‘star (also metaph.: celebrity), the Pleiads, constellation, asterism; asterisk’ ↗¹naǧm, ↗naǧmaẗ
▪ NǦM_1d ‘to observe the stars, predict the future, practice astrology; astrologer; (EgAr) jinx’ ↗¹naǧǧama
▪ NǦM_1e ‘to pay in instalments; to accomplish (step by step)’ ↗²naǧm
▪ NǦM_1f ‘to cease, be over (cold, rain); to dissolve, disappear, evaporate (cloud)’ ↗²naǧm
▪ NǦM_1g ‘mine, pit’ ↗¹manǧam
▪ NǦM_1h ‘ankle, ankle-bone’ ↗manǧim
▪ ^†NǦM_1i ‘iron-beam of a balance | cette partie de la balance sur laquelle se trouve l’indicateur des poids’ ↗^†minǧam
▪ NǦM_1j ‘well traced road; way out | chemin bien tracé et large’: ^†²manǧam.
▪ NǦM_1k (AlgAr) ‘to have the power, be able to do s.th.; ressources | pouvoir, être en état de faire qc’ ↗naǧām
▪ NǦM_1l/2 ‘plants with no stalk; herbs, herbage, quack\couch grass, quitch’ ↗³naǧm, ↗naǧīl.

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘star (particularly Pleiades or the Seven Sisters), instalments, fixed terms, astrology, to tell the future, (of a star) to rise, to appear; plants with no stalk, to sprout; to show up’

conc

▪ √NǦM looks like an exclusively Ar root.
▪ Despite the semantic diversity within the root, all values (except perh. the last in the above list, [v1l/2]) seem to derive from one basic value, prob. [v1a] ‘to appear, come in sight’.
▪ The root may be a specification in ‑M from a bi-consonantal root nucleus *NǦ‑ ‘breaking through [and welling\pouring out, i.e., eruption] of s.th. thick, but not hard\solid\strong, from within s.th.’

hist

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cogn

▪ Zammit2002: Ø (no cognates in any Sem language)
▪ Nişanyan (s.v. nücum) lists Aram nagəm ‘to appear’ as a parallel, but as already PayneSmith1901 (s.v. Syr NGM) knew, this is an Arabism.

disc

General remarks
▪ The root does not seem to have cognates in any other Sem language (no cognates listed in Zammit2002) nor outside Sem.
▪ Nişanyan (s.v. nücum) lists Aram nagəm ‘to appear’ as a parallel, but as already PayneSmith1901 (s.v. Syr NGM) knew, this is an Arabism.
▪ BadawiHinds1986 identify (for EgAr) two NGM roots, marked ¹NGM (comprising EgAr nagam, nagmaẗ, nigmaẗ) and ²NGM (mangam only). Cf., however, the discussion of [v1g] ¹manǧam, below.
▪ Gabal2012: According to the author, Ar √NǦM is composed of the bi-cons. root nucleus *NǦ‑ ‘breaking through [and welling\pouring out, i.e., eruption] of s.th. thick, but not hard\solid\strong, from within s.th.’ (nafāḏ kaṯīf ġayr šadīd min bāṭin al-šayʔ) (see ↗*NǦ‑_2) and a modifying R₃ *‑M, adding the notion of *‘closing\rewelding a gaping opening over what is inside’ (ĭltiʔām ẓāhir al-ǧurm ʕalà mā fī ǧawfih), together producing the basic meaning of *‘partial breaking through of s.th. soft\fine through a closed\covered\rewelded surface’ (nafāḏ ǧuzʔī ʔay daqīq min saṭḥ multaʔim). Other roots/items containing the same nucleus (Qur’anic only) are: ^†naǧǧa ‘to seep, ooze’, ↗naǧā (naǧw) ‘to save o.s., be rescued, escape’, ↗naǧd ‘highland, upland, tableland, plateau; the Nejd’, and ↗naǧas ‘impurity, dirt, filth, defilement’.
▪ Most values seem to be dependent on either [v1a] ‘to appear, come in sight’ or [v1c] ‘star’. It is hard to decide which of the two is the primary one, whether the vb. is denominal or the n. is deverbal; the latter seems slightly more likely (see details below, s.v. [v1a]). – For the link between these and [v1g] ‘mine, pit’ as well as [v1l/2] ‘plants with no stalk; herbs, herbage, quack\couch grass, quitch’, see s.v. below. – Values [v1i] ‘iron-beam of a balance’ and [v1j] ‘well traced road, way out’ remain of obscure semantics.

Individual values (as found, in addition to WehrCowan1979, in Kazimirski1860, Dozy1881, Steingass1884, Hava1899, BadawiHinds1986):
▪ NǦM_1a : naǧama ‘to appear, come in sight, rise (star), begin, commence, set in’, hence also the further meanings in ClassAr, such as ^†‘to break forth, grow (teeth, horns, plants); come forward, come out | surgir (a heretic, an innovator); to ooze (water)’. – It is hard to decide whether this value represents the primary meaning (so that [v1c] would be deverbal, a ‘star’ as *‘the appearing one, rising in the sky’), or whether it is denominal from [v1c] (so that ‘to appear’ would originally be *‘to do the same as a star, i.e., rise, come in sight’). BAH2008, by letting [v1c] feature first in their list, seem to favour the idea that the vb. [v1a] is denominal. The fact, however, that all other Sem languages use other words for ‘star’ (all akin to Ar ↗kawkab) rather points to secondary nature of naǧm.
▪ NǦM_1b : naǧama ‘to originate, spring, result (from)’; cf. also ^†naǧm ‘certain\true origin | origine certaine et authentique, non contestée’; ^†laysa li-hāḏā ’l-ḥadīṯ naǧm, expr., ‘this information is groundless, i.e., il n’y a rien de vrai, de sérieux dans ceci’. – The value depends on [v1a], indicating the *‘place where s.th. appears from, where s.th. originates from’.
▪ NǦM_1c : ¹naǧm ‘star (also metaph.: celebrity), the Pleiads, constellation, asterism; asterisk’; cf. also ^†‘star of nativity, nativity’; yanẓuru fī ’l-nuǧūm, expr., ‘he ponders over what he has to do’; ʕilm al-nuǧūm ‘(lit., science of the stars =) astronomy, astrology’ (see [v1d]); metaphorical use in LevAr ^†naǧmaẗ ‘blaze (i.e., a *star) on a beast’. – As mentioned above, s.v. [v1a], in the light of the absence of Sem cognates of naǧm, this value is likely not the primary value in the root; rather is the ‘star’ dependent on [v1a], originally being *‘the appearing\rising one’.
▪ NǦM_1d : ¹naǧǧama ‘to observe the stars, predict the future, practice astrology’; tanǧīm, ʕilm al-nuǧūm ‘astrology’; naǧǧām, munaǧǧim, mutanaǧǧim ‘astrologer’; (EgAr) nagm ‘jinx’. – Cf. also ^†naǧm ‘horoscope, prediction’. – The value is clearly depending on [v1c] ‘star’, and so is also the special meaning of naǧǧama, ^†‘to expose a little mud to the air [i.e., to the stars] overnight to be able to judge the next flooding of the Nile (use practiced in Egypt)’. – According to HDAL_200620, the earliest attestation of munaǧǧim is from ca. 660 CE (ʕAlī b. ʔAbī Ṭālib), and of naǧm as ‘astrology’ from ca. 732 CE (saying reported by Wahb b. Munabbih).
▪ NǦM_1e : naǧǧama ‘to accomplish s.th. step by step; to pay in instalments’, ²naǧm ‘instalment’. – Cf. also ^†naǧm ‘appointed time, term; pay, wages’; ^†ǧaʕaltu mālī ʕalayhi nuǧūman, expr., ‘I allowed him to pay his debt by instalments’. – Like [v1d], also [v1e] is dependent on [v1c] ‘star’, developed from ^†‘to fix s.th. according to the course of stars, hence, at appointed terms’, hence ‘pay (a debt, wages, etc.) by instalments’ and ‘to accomplish gradually, step by step’, then also ‘to accomplish’ (in general; but this could also be a caus. formation from [v1a], lit. meaning *‘to make appear’), hence probably also [v1k] ‘to be able, have the ability to do s.th.’ (from *‘to be capable of accomplishing s.th. step by step’). – According to HDAL_200620, the value ‘to accomplish s.th. gradually, step by step, at appointed terms’ is attested as early as ca. 609 CE in a verse by the pre-Islamic poet Zuhayr b. ʔAbī Sulmà. From lC7, we have a statement by Ibn ʕAbbās as attestation of the use of nuǧūm as ‘instalments, successive parts’, and another by Saʕd b. ʔAbī Waqqāṣ for munaǧǧam (PP II) in the same sense. The early attestations can certainly be explained from the fact that, as al-Bustānī has it, »the Arabs used to measure time (tuwaqqit) according to the rising of the stars because they did not know how to calculate but remembered the times of the year by natural phenomena [ʔanwāʔ, lit., tempests]. They also called the time at which it [i.e., a tempest etc.] was due [or to be expected], metaphorically, a ‘star’ because its happening was not to be known but by [the observation of] the stars. Then they extended this meaning [even farther], calling also a due payment a ‘star’ because it was due […] at the time when [its] star rose« (1869: 2136).
▪ ^†NǦM_1f : ʔanǧama, vb. IV, and ĭntaǧama, vb. VIII, ‘to cease, be over (rain, cold), clear away (weather) | cesser tout à coup; to dissolve, disappear, evaporate (cloud); se rasséréner, se remettre tout à coup au beau’, cf. ʔanǧamat-i ’l-samāʔ, or absol. ʔanǧamat. – The value is probably dependent on [v1a] ‘to appear, come in sight’, as the sky *‘reappears, comes in sight’ again when the clouds dissolve; alternatively, one may think of a development based on the idea of gradual change and accomplishment expressed in [v1e].
▪ NǦM_1g : ¹manǧam ‘mine, pit’. – The value is a n.loc., apparently derived from either [v1a] (*‘place where s.th. [sc. the metal ore] appears’) or [v1b] (*‘source’ of the metal ore) or [v1c] (*‘place where the metal ore flashes up like stars’).
▪ NǦM_1h : manǧim ‘ankle, ankle-bone’. – Obviously a maFʕiL formation from [v1a], signifying the bone that protrudes (*‘appears, shows) on the sides of a foot.
▪ ^†NǦM_1i : ^†minǧam ‘iron-beam of a balance | cette partie de la balance sur laquelle se trouve l’indicateur des poids’. – Relation to other values not clear. The word is a n.instr., coined along the miC₁C₂aC₃ pattern, and should therefore signify a tool serving to carry out an action designated by the vb. naǧama.
▪ ^†NǦM_1j : ^†²manǧam ‘well traced road; way out | chemin bien tracé et large’. – Relation to other values not clear. The word is a n.loc., so it should indicate the place where an action signified by the vb. naǧama is carried out, or takes place. According to Kazimirski1860 who gives the first meaning of manǧam as ‘source, origine, lieu où la chose naît, où elle apparaît (p.ex. origine de l’erreur, du mal, etc.)’, the original meaning is dependent on [v1a] ‘to appear’ or [v1b] ‘source, origin, to originate’. Is the ‘well traced road’ the *‘road that appears (as a way out)’? The fact that manǧam also can signify a ‘mine, pit’ does not bring any light in this.
▪ ^†NǦM_1k : AlgAr naǧǧam ‘to have the power, be able to do s.th.’, AlgAr naǧām ‘ressources’ (Dozy1881); cf. also DaṯAr naǧǧam ‘to be able to bear (e.g., the cold)’ (Zetterstéen1942). – This value seems to be a further development of [v1e] ‘to accomplish’ or [v1a] ‘to appear’, with emphasis on the ability to accomplish or make appear s.th.
▪ NǦM_1l/2 : ³naǧm ‘plants with no stalk; graminaceous plant, herbs, herbage, quack\couch grass, quitch’; in ClassAr also ^†naǧmaẗ, ^†naǧamaẗ ‘dactylis repens, species of dog-grass’. In ClassAr lexicography, the word is derived from [v1a] ‘to appear’ as the plant simply “appears”, without stalk. This etymology may be true, but there is also conspicuous overlapping with ↗naǧīl. In any case, the value is attested already in pre-Islamic poetry (c. 600 CE), then perh. also in the Qur’an (in one interpretation of Q 55:6).

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