Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Accord. to ClassAr authors, the name refers either to the city’s location at the coast (< ↗^†ǦDː (ǦDD)_10 ‘shore, bank/side of a river’, seen as ^†ǦDː (ǦDD)_8 ‘mark, dividing line’ < ^†ǦDː (ǦDD)_7 ‘to cut, cut off’) or to ǧiddaẗ ‘grandmother’, f. of ↗¹ǧadd ‘grandfather’, i.e., Eve (whose tomb was said to be situated close to the city wall). However, given the city’s environment, the origin of its name may also be ↗^†ǦDː (ǦDD)_7-II.c *‘scarcity of water’ (< ^†ǦDː (ǦDD)_ v7-I ‘to be cut off from water supply, dryness’).
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hist

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cogn

▪ no immediate cognates, but cf. either ↗¹ǧadd, or ↗^†ǦDː(ǦDD)_10 < ↗^†ǦDː(ǦDD)_7.
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disc

▪ According to U. Freitag, most ClassAr authors »agree that the correct name is Ǧuddaẗ (‘coastline’), while others mention the designation Ǧaddaẗ (‘grandmother’) or, in dialect, Ǧiddaẗ, as referring to the tomb of Eve, which, among other locales given in the traditions, was said to be situated north of what was once the city wall […]. As the city did not have any springs, rain was collected in large cisterns both inside and outside the city walls, or to be supplied from sources outside.«¹ These remarks allow for 3 etymologies: (a) from – or actually identical with – ↗^†ǦDː (ǦDD)_10 ‘shore, bank/side of a river’, itself prob. based on ↗^†ǦDː (ǦDD)_7 ‘to cut, cut off’; (b) from – or actually identical with – ǧaddaẗ ‘grandmother’, f. of ↗¹ǧadd; (c) from ↗^†ǦDː (ǦDD)_7-II.c *‘scarcity of water’ < ^† ǦDː (ǦDD)_7-I ‘to be cut off (sc. from water supply), dryness’.
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1. U. Freitag, art. »Jidda«, in ³EI online, consulted 1Nov2022

west

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deriv

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗¹ǧadd, ↗²ǧadd, ↗ǧidd, ↗ǧadda, and ↗ǧāddaẗ as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ǦDː(ǦDD).

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