▪ The root √HLB displays a large variety of values the relations betw. which is difficult to establish.
DRS distinguishes eight main values in Sem, five of which are represented in Ar. Some of them contain in themselves are broad spectrum of meanings whose interrelatedness is not obvious. They are kept separate therefore here in EtymArab.
▪ HLB_1 (≙
DRS #HLB-1)
hulb ʻhair, bristles; (to be) hairy, shaggy’: displays most of the obvious derivatives, both in MSA and ClassAr. – Of unknown etymology.
DRS regards also [v7] ʻto scold, revile, lampoon, satirize’ and [v8] ʻseverity (of fortune, of winter)’ as belonging to this complex (see below).
▪ HLB_2 (≙
DRS #HLB-4)
hilb ʻanchor, grapnel, grappling iron, boat hook’: for
DRS ,
hilb is an EgAr var., while the actual item is
halb. Etymology obscure; fig. use of [v1]? (Lane viii 1893 reports that
hulb ʻpigs’ bristles’ were used to sew skins etc.). – Any relation to ↗
ḥalbaẗ (pl.
ḥalāʔibᵘ), which, accord. to Hava1899, also can mean
†ʻanchor’ (though the regular meaning is ʻarena, race track’, in itself without obvious relation to ʻanchor’)?
▪ HLB_3 (cf.
DRS #HLB-3)
hulābaẗ ʻlochia (
med., vaginal discharge after giving birth, postpartum bleeding)’: etymology unclear;
DRS puts the item together with
†[v5] ʻto drench, moisten, wetten (by lasting rain or dew)’. Should we add
†[v6] (≙
DRS #HLB-2) ʻto continue running, run uninterruptedly’?
▪ HLB_4 (≙
DRS #HLB-5)
mahallabiyyaẗ, var.
muhallabiyyaẗ, ʻa dessert resembling blancmange’: vowel in first syllable not secured,
DRS has
mahallabiyyaẗ. – Prob. a re-import from Tu which had borrowed the word from Ar (with loss of emphatic
ḥ). Traditionally, the name of the dish is derived from ↗
ḥalab ʻmilk’, but derivation from ↗
maḥlab ʻmahaleb, St Lucie cherry’ or
†ḥalbānaẗ ʻgalbanum; storax’ (↗
ḥalab, ↗ḤLB) is more likely.
▪ HLB_5 (≙
DRS #HLB-3)
†halaba (
u,
hulb) ʻto drench, moisten, wetten (by lasting rain or dew)’; cf. also
†hallāb ʻcold wind with rain’;
DRS sees also [v3]
hulābaẗ ʻlochia’ as belonging here; perh. one has to add also
†[v6] (≙
DRS #HLB-2) ʻto continue running, run uninterruptedly’. – Etymology obscure. On account of alleged extra-Sem cognates, Orel&Stolbova1994 #1196 posit a protSem *
h˅lib‑ ‘to soak, be wet’, from AfrAs *
hulüb‑ ‘to soak’.
▪ HLB_6 (≙
DRS #HLB-2)
†halaba (
u,
hulb) and
†ʔahlaba ʻto continue running, run uninterruptedly’: etymology obscure.
DRS lists it as a distinct value, but it may have to be seen together with [v3]
hulābaẗ ʻlochia’ and
†[v5] ʻto drench, moisten, wetten (by lasting rain or dew)’.
▪ HLB_7 (cf.
DRS #HLB-1)
†halaba (
i,
halb) and
†hallaba ʻto scold, revile, lampoon, satirize’:
DRS juxtaposes this value to [v1] ʻhair, (pig’s, horse’s) bristles’ as well as
†[v8] ʻseverity, intensity (of fortune, of winter)’. An explanation for their grouping may be fig. use of ʻhair, bristles’: ClassAr
†halaba and
†hallaba normally mean ʻto pluck (the hair); to clip (a horse’s tail)’, but when combined with
bi-lisānih ʻwith one’s tongue, i.e., with words’, the meaning changes to ʻto satirise, revile, carp severely’, prob. because of the “hair-raising” or “stinging” effect of satire (and likewise of the cold or winter or the blow of destiny). From the point of semantic vicinity, also
†[v5] ʻto drench, moisten, wetten (by lasting rain or dew)’ could seem to be a source of fig. use (ʻlampooning’ interpreted as a *ʻwettening’ of the object of satire by pouring down on him/her a *ʻrain/shower’ of biting comments). – Etymology obscure. Cf., however, Ehret1995#775, who sees Ar
halaba ʻto scold, revile’ as an extension in »extendative« *
‑b from a bi-consonantal »pre-protSem« root *
hl ‘to shout’, from AfrAs *
‑hāl‑/*
‑hīl‑ ‘to cry, call out’ (↗√HLː (HLL)). (Other extensions from the same pre-protSem root would be ↗√HLHL ʻto repeat a voice, or raise and lower it alternatively; bewail the dead’, ↗√HLǦ ʻto tell incredible things’, and ↗√HLS ʻto laugh, jest, crack jokes’.
▪ HLB_8 (cf.
DRS #HLB-1)
†hulubbaẗ,
hulbaẗ (
al-šitāʔ) ʻseverity, intensity (of fortune, of winter)’:
DRS groups this value together with [v1] ʻhair, (pig’s) bristles’ and [v7] ʻto scold, revile, lampoon, satirize’, probably because of the “hair-raising” or “stinging” effect of both satire and the winter’s cold or a blow of destiny; cf. the expr.
†hālib al-šaʕr, lit., ʻhair-plucking’, as an attribute describing a ʻvehemently cold day’.
1
– Further etymology obscure.
▪ HLB_9
†ĭhtalaba ʻto unsheath (a sword)’: not registered in
DRS, perh. fig. use of
†halaba (
i,
halb) ʻto pull out the long hairs of a horse’s tail or the bristles of a pig’ and thus from [v1]?
▪ HLB_10
†halūb ʻaffectionate; distant, shy (woman)’: Accord. to ClassAr lexicographers (as summarized in Lane viii 1893), the adj. is used as an attribute either of a ʻ(woman) who draws near to her husband, or ingratiates herself with him; loving, affectionate, distant with respect to others’ or a woman who, contrary to the first, ʻis distant, or shy, with respect to her husband, or who alienates herself from him, or avoids or shuns him, and draws near to, or ingratiates herself with, her special friend’; the seeming contradiction is explained by some as stemming »from [v7]
halabahū bi-lisānih ʻhe carped at him severely with his tongue’ because a wife carps either at her husband or at her friend, or from
yawm hallāb ʻa day of gentle, constant, innocuous rain’ and in the latter sense from the same phrase as signifying ʻa day of rain attended by thunder and lightning and terrors, and destructive to dwellings’«. If this explanation reflects etymological truth, the value is fig. use of
†[v7] ʻto lampoon’ and/or
†[v5] ʻto drench, moisten, wetten; cold wind with rain’ as well as [v6] ʻto continue running, run uninterruptedly’; cf. also the double meaning in
†ʔuhlūb ʻardour, impetuosity (in running; said of a horse); (fig.) a kind\way of speech, of praising, or eulogizing’.
▪ …