Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Arabic lexicographical tradition regards both values as essentially one, interpreting [v2] ʻ(a woman’s) chastity, integrity’ as a special meaning developed from [v1] ʻinaccessibility, fortification’. Etymologically, however, one may have to keep the two apart as ¹ḥaṣuna ʻto be strong, fortified’ and ²ḥaṣuna ʻto be chaste’. See DISC below.
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▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤS/ṢN-1 Hbr ḥosen ‘force’, EmpAram ḥsn ‘violence’, JP ḥᵃsen ‘être fort, véhément’, Ar ḥaṣuna ‘être fort, fortifié’; oAram ḥsn, JP ḥisnā ‘forteresse, force’, Syr ḥesnā, Ar ḥiṣn ‘forteresse’, SAr mḥṣn ‘ouvrage défensif, fortification’, Mhr Ḥrs ḥāṣən ‘grande maison’, Jib ḥeṣn, Soq ḥóṣon ‘château’; Gz ḥəṣn ‘forteresse, château’; Hbr ḥāsīn, Aram ḥassīnā, Ar ḥaṣīn ‘fort’. -2 ʔabū ’l-ḥiṣn, LevAr ʔabū ḥsēn, DaṯAr ḥuṣaynī, Soq ḥṣáyni ‘renard’.
▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤṢN-1 Ar *ḥaṣuna ‘être chaste, vertueuse (femme)’, ḥāṣinaẗ ‘femme vertueuse’, ḥaṣān ‘femme vertueuse, épouse légitime’, ḥiṣn, ḥuṣn ‘vertu (d’une femme)’; Sab ḥṣn ‘prendre sous sa protection’, ʔḥṣn (pl.) ‘épouses’. -2 Ar ḥiṣān ‘étalon, cheval de race’, Ḥrs ḥəṣān, Jib hásún ‘cheval’. -3 YemAr ĭḥtiṣān ‘biens, possessions’. -4 Tña ḥad̮in ‘fer’, Ar ʔaḥṣinaẗ ‘fers, pointes de lances’; Soq ḥaṣəhan ‘fer, lame’.
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▪ Arabic lexicographical tradition regards both values as essentially one, interpreting [v2] ʻ(a woman’s) chastity, integrity’ as a special meaning developed from [v1] ʻinaccessibility, fortification’. In contrast, Jeffery1938 (following Guidi and Fraenkel) viewed all verbs signifying ʻfortification’ etc. as denominative from ḥiṣn ʻfortress’, which he thought was a borrowing from Syr ḥesnā ʻfortress’ (with Syr s > Ar ṣ). Supporting this view, also Kogan holds that Ar ḥiṣn ‘fortress’ »almost certainly« is an Aramaism. Moreover, Kogan remarks that »[t]he well-known Ar root √ḤSN ‘to be good, beautiful’ deserves attention as a potential cognate since the semantic shift ʻgood’ > ʻstrong’ (or vice versa) is not unconceivable« – Kogan2015: 383.
▪ DRS, too, keeps two Sem roots apart: one (*√ḤS/ṢN) that gave Ar ¹ḥaṣuna ʻto be strong, fortified’, and another one (*√ḤṢN) that gave Ar ²ḥaṣuna ʻto be chaste’. In *√ḤS/ṢN, the authors consider the forms with /ṣ/ as SSem variants of what in NWSem appears as /s/.¹
▪ For Syr ḥesnā ʻfortress’, Jeffery1938 suggested a relation to Ar ḫašuna ʻto be hard, rough’ (↗ḫašin), a relation, however, that Kogan refutes because »Ar š does not regularly correspond to s in oAram« – Kogan2015: 383 fn. 1099.
▪ Leslau2006 (CDG) considers a Syr origin of Ar ḥiṣn as »doubtful since ḥṣn also occurs in SAr.« Along the same line, Belova2009 derives the fuṣḥà term ḥiṣn~huṣn ‘fortress’ from the dialectal YemAr ḥiṣn~huṣn ‘protected place, fortress’, which she seems to regard as a borrowing from SAr or modSAr (see above, section COGN).
▪ ClassAr lexicographers derive also ↗ḥaṣuna ʻto be chaste’, ↗ḥiṣān ʻhorse’ and (ʔabū ’l‑) ↗ḥuṣayn ʻfox’ from the idea of ʻfortification, protection’; for details see individual entries and root entry ↗√ḤṢN.
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1. »Pour diverses hypothèses à ce sujet, voir Brockelmann Lex 247, Praetorius ZDMG 61 (1907): 616, Fraenkel 235, Landberg Glos. 424, CDG 247. – Pour l’ensemble des formes lexicales en sémitique, Marrassini 93.

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NB: Given that the etymology of several items belonging to √ḤṢN remains unclear so far and that the meaning of ḥaṣuna comprises both ‘fortification’ and ‘chastity’, the list below includes values that may be derived from, or akin to, any of the two.

►ḥaṣṣana, vb. II, 1 to make inaccessible (s.th.); 2 to strengthen (s.th.); 3 to fortify, entrench (s.th.); 4 to immunize, make proof (ḍidda against): D-stem, caus., perh. denom. from ↗ḥiṣn.
►ʔaḥṣana, vb. IV, 1 to make inaccessible (s.th.); 2 to fortify, entrench (s.th.); 3a to be chaste, pure (woman); b to remain chaste, be of unblemished reputation (woman): *Š-stem, caus., [v1] and [v2] perh. denom. from ↗ḥiṣn.
►taḥaṣṣana, vb. V, 1 to strengthen one’s position, protect o.s.; 2 to be fortified; 3 to be secure, be protected: Dt-stem, perh. denom. from ↗ḥiṣn.

►ḥaṣīn, adj., 1 inaccessible, strong, fortified, firm, secure(d), protected; 2 immune, proof, invulnerable (ḍidda against): quasi-PP I. | al-ḥiṣn al‑~, n., stronghold (fig.; e.g., of radicalism)
►ḥaṣānaẗ, n.f., 1 strength, ruggedness, forbiddingness, impregnability, inaccessibility; 2 shelteredness, chastity (of a woman); 3 invulnerability, inviolability; 4 immunity (of deputies, diplomats; against illness): vn. I.
►taḥṣīn, n., pl. ‑āt, n., 1 fortification, entrenchment; 2 strengthening, cementing, solidification; 3 immunization: vn. II.
►ʔiḥṣān, n., blamelessness, unblemished reputation, integrity (Isl. Law): vn. IV; see also ↗s.v.
►taḥaṣṣun, n., securing, safeguarding, protection, protectedness: vn. V.
►muḥaṣṣan, adj., 1 fortified; 2 entrenched; 3 immune, proof (ḍidda against): PP II.
►muḥṣanaẗ / muḥṣinaẗ, adj.f., 1 sheltered, well-protected, chaste; 2 of unblemished reputation (woman; Isl. Law): PP / PA IV; see also ↗ʔiḥṣān.

For other values of the root, cf. ↗ḥiṣān and ʔabū ’l- ↗ḥuṣayn, as well as, for the overall picture, root entry √ḤṢN.

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