Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Kogan2011: from protSem *ʔimmar‑ ‘ram’.
▪ In ClassAr, ʔimmar can also mean ‘ram, lamb’. For systematic reasons, DRS 1 (1994) diffentiates between this ʔimmar ‘ram, lamb’ (#ʔMR-3) and ʔimmar~ʔammar in the sense of ‘simple-minded, stupid’ (#ʔMR-4), although the latter »peut représenter un usage figuré du nom de l’‘agneau’«. In contrast, ClassAr lexicographers explain the meaning ‘simple-minded, stupid’ as *‘who consults everyone respecting his case, resembling a kid, one who obeys the command of everybody, complies with everyone’s desires’, thus deriving the value ‘simple-minded, stupid’ either from ¹ʔamr (*‘one who obeys the command, ʔamr, of everybody’, ↗ʔamara) or from ↗²ʔamr (*‘asking advice in all kinds of affairs, ʔumūr, sg. ²ʔamr’). In this view, ‘lamb’ tends to be seen as dependent on ‘simple-minded, stupid’ (»resembling a kid…«).
▪ However, none of the above options may reflect etymological reality. In fact, the reason why DRS keeps ‘ram, lamb’ and ‘simple-minded, stupid’ apart is that ʔimmar in the sense of ‘ram, lamb’ is believed to be a borrowing, via Aram ʔemmᵊrā~ʔimmᵊrā, from Akk ʔimmeru ‘lamb’. »According to a widespread opinion (cf., e.g., (cf. Zimmern1914: 50), the WSem forms are Akkadisms« (SED II #5). Scholars like Hommel (1879: 237) who hold that Ar ʔimmar ‘lamb’ is from Aram »emphasize[.] the late attestation of the Ar term« (SED II: 8). Indeed, while the value ‘simple-minded’ is attested already in pre-Islamic poetry, DHAL has, as of 30Oct2020, no evidence for ‘lamb’ yet, which means that the value is not attested in the period covered by DHAL so far, i.e., up to 750 CE.
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hist

▪ ca. 525 (‘weak, simple-minded, having no opinion’) in a verse by Imruʔ al-Qays – DHAL.

cogn

▪ DRS 1 (1994) #ʔMR‑ 1 Ar ʔamara ‘ordonner’; SAr ʔmr ‘ordonner, manifester’; Soq ʕemor, Śḥr ʕoñr, Mhr amor ‘dire’; EpigrAram ʔmr, JP ʔāmar, Syr ʔemar, Mand amar ‘dire, parler, ordonner’; Ya ʔmrh ‘ordre(?)’; Phoen Pun Moab EpigrHbr ʔmr, Hbr ʔāmar ‘dire’; Ug ʔamr ‘souhait, parole(?)’. – Akk amāru ‘voir, regarder’; Ug ʔamr ‘être visible, voir’; Ar taʔammala ‘examiner’; Gz ʔammara ‘montrer, indiquer’; təʔmərt ‘signe’; ʔəm(m)ur ‘clair, bien connu’; Tña ʔamära ‘savoir’; Te ʔammärä ‘être clair’; ʔamir ‘connaissance’; Amh ʔamro ‘raison, intelligence’; təmərt ‘signe, marque, science’. – Hbr ʔāmir ‘sommet d’arbre ou montagne’; tīmārā ‘colonne pilier’, Ar ʔamāraẗ ‘signe, indice, repère’, tāmūr(aẗ) ‘tour, tourelles’; ?Amh ʔamärä ‘être beau, plaisant, aimable’. -2 […] -3 Akk immer‑, Ug ʔimr, Phoen Pun ʔmr, oAram EmpAram Palm *ʔmr, BiblAram ʔimmar, JP ʔimmᵊrā, Syr ʔemmᵊrā, Ar ʔimmar ‘chevreau, agneau’. -4 Soq *emer ‘être oisif’; (intensif conatif) ʔomir ‘gâter, rendre oisif’; ?Ar ʔimmar ‘sans jugement, stupide’. -5-15 […].
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disc

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ Lipiński1997#30.10 thinks the word can be segmented into root plus ‎AfrAs “postpositive determinant” *‑l or *‑r “for domestic or tamed animals”, cf. also ʔayyil ‘deer’, baqar‑ ‘cattle’, ṯawr‑ ‘ox’, ǧamal ‘camel’, ḥimār‑ ‘donkey’, ḫinzīr ‘swine, pig’, ʕiǧl ‘calf’, ʕayr‑ ‘ass-fowl’, ^†karr‑ ‘lamb’, naml ‘ant’.

west

–

deriv

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔamr, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

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