Bibliotheca Polyglotta

1 alleviation, relief, mitigation; 2a abasement, debasement, demotion, degradation (in rank, dignity, prestige); b humiliation, insult, indignity – WehrCowan1976.

conc

▪ All values can be imagined to be derived from the vb. I, ↗ḥaṭṭa.
▪ For some scholars, the obsolete value ^†ʻforgiveness, repentance’ of the Qur’ānic (Q 2:58) ḥiṭṭaẗ is a borrowing from Hbr ḥēṭəʔ ʻsin’ or Syr ḥṭītā; cf. also BabAram ḥiṭʔā ʻsin; offering in reparation for a sin’ (Pennacchio2014). Should such an etymology be correct, the Qur’ānic ḥiṭṭaẗ would be akin to Ar ↗√ḪṬʔ ʻto make a mistake, commit a sin’ rather than to √ḪṬ:(ḤṬṬ). However, it is not unconceivable that ʻforgiveness, repentance’ is just a special use of [v1] ʻalleviation, relief, mitigation’, a *ʻputting off, unloading [of sins]’, thus still directly dependent on ↗ḥaṭṭa ʻto put\take\set\lay down’. Obviously sharing this latter view, DRS groups ʻexoneration’ together with ḥaṭṭa (their #ḤṬṬ-1), rather than singling it out as a separate value. Note, however, the strange variant of ḥiṭṭaẗ, ^†ḥiṭṭīṭà, given e.g. by Wahrmund1887 and Hava1899 (ʻunloading, relief; exoneration’) – almost certainly an Aramaism. ḥaṭīṭaẗ ʻprice reduction’ is perh. an Arabized (and secularized) form of the Aram term.
▪ [v2] seems to be from ↗ḥaṭṭa ʻto lower, decrease, diminish, reduce’, used in the figurative sense of ʻto depreciate’, cf. also the EgAr expressions dī ḥiṭṭa f-šarafak ʻthat’s an insult to your honour’, and huwwa ḥiṭṭa f-ʕelt-u ʻhe is a disgrace to his family’ (BadawiHinds1986).
▪ …

hist

▪ eC7 (ʻforgiveness, putting off [of sins], unloading’) Q 2:58 wa-ʔiḏ qulnā ’dḫulū hāḏihī ’l-qaryaẗa fa-kulū min-hā ḥayṯu šiʔtum raġadan wa-’dḫulū ’l-bāba suǧǧadan wa-qūlū “ḥiṭṭaẗun” naġfiru la-kum ḫaṭāyā-kum wa-sa-nazīdu ’l-muḥsinīna ʻremember when we said, “Enter this town and eat freely there as you will, but enter its gate humbly and say, ʻ[We beg for] relief [repentance!, unload us of our sins!]’”, then We shall forgive you your sins and will increase (reward) for the right-doers’.
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cogn

▪ DRS 9 (2010) #ḤṬṬ-1 Ar ḥaṭṭa ‘poser, déposer, descendre (qc d’un point à un autre plus bas), abaisser, mettre par terre; soulager d’une charge, exonérer’, ḥaṭāṭ ‘dépression, abaissement’, Tham ḥṭ ‘descendre’, Ar maḥaṭṭ ‘endroit où on fait descendre qc, station, relais’; Mhr ḥəṭ ‘déposer’, Ḥrs ḥeṭ ‘tomber’; Jib ḥeṭṭ ‘descendre; décharger’. -2-5 […].
▪ …

disc

▪ Jeffery1938, 110: »Both passages [Q 2:58 and 7:161] are late and were a puzzle to the exegetes as we see from Bayḍawī’s comment on them. The exegetes are in general agreed that the meaning is ʻforgiveness’, and many of the early authorities admitted that it was a foreign word. TA, v, 119, quotes al-Farrāʔ as taking it to be Nab, and al-Suyūṭī’s authorities take it to be Hbr (Itq, 320, compared with Mutaw, 58). / As early as 1829 de Sacy in JA, iv, 179, pointed out that it was the Hbr חטא [ḥeṭʔ ʻsin’?], with which Geiger, 18, and Hirschfeld, Beiträge, 54 ff.; New Researches, 107, agree, though Dvořák, Fremdw, 55, suggests the Syr ḥṭītā [ʻsin’] as a possibility, and Leszynsky, Juden in Arabien, 32, a derivation from חטה. Horovitz, JPN, 198, points out that though it is clearly a foreign word, none of those suggested derivations is quite satisfactory, and the source of the word is still a puzzle.«
▪ Pennacchio2014, 159-60: »les commentateurs […] admettent qu’il pourrait s’agir d’un emprunt. Il a été consideré par al-Suyūṭī comme un emprunt à l’Hbr. D’apres Kazimirski, ḥiṭṭaẗ signifie ʻrémission des péchés, absolution’. Les orientalistes proposent une source Hbr ḥēṭəʔ ʻpéché’ [Blachère, Le Coran, 195, n.55] ou Syr ḥṭytʔ. Dans la Bible, ḥēṭəʔ ʻpéché’ derive ḤṬʔ ʻmanquer, se tromper, pécher’, que le BDB rapproche de la racine Ar ḪṬY avec un /ḫ/ à l’initiale ḫaṭà ʻse tromper’. En Akk ḫaṭū, SAr ḫṭʔ, Gz ḫaṭʔa, en BabJudAram ḥiṭʔā ʻpéché, offrande en reparation d’un péché’, PalJudAram ḥᵃṭēʔ ʻpéché’. Pour A. Geiger p. 18 et H. Hirschfeld p. 107, il s’agirait de l’Hbr ḥᵃṭēʔ. Pour A. Jeffery, aucune des solutions n’est satisfaisante. Pour J. Horovitz, il s’agirait d’une expression que les Juifs de Médine devaient prononcer afin d’obtenir le pardon divin’[Horovitz, “Jewish Proper Names”, 198.]. En effet, selon la liturgie de Yōm Kippūr, l’expression ʕal ḥeṭʔ ʻpour le péché’ correspond aux premiers mots de la ʻgrande confession des péchés’ recitée à neuf reprises dans le but d’obtenir le pardon divin. On ne connaît pas l’origine de cette formule liturgique mais on sait qu’elle apparaît pour la premiere fois au IIᵉ siècle de notre ère [DEJ, 34]. Il y a donc tout lieu de croire qu’elle était connue des Juifs de Médine. D’après le contexte coranique, l’emploi de ḥiṭṭaẗ entre bien dans le processus du pardon des péchés prescrit dans le judaïsme le jour de Yōm Kippūr, puisqu’il faut d’abord demander pardon avant d’obtenir la remission divine.«
▪ For a possible inner-Ar etymology of the Qur’ānic term, cf. above, section CONC.
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west

–

deriv

►^BP#1574ḥaṭṭa, u (ḥaṭṭ), vb. I, 1 ↗s.v.; 2a to take down (a load, burden); b to lower, decrease, diminish, reduce (s.th. or min s.th.); 3 to depreciate (min qadri-h or min qīmati-h the value of s.th.)
►ḥaṭṭaṭa, vb. II, to put down, set down, take off, unload (a load): Dt-stem, tr.

►ḥaṭṭ, n., 1 ↗s.v.; 2 depreciation, belittling, derogation, disparagement (min of s.th.); 3 reduction, diminution, decrease (min of s.th.)
►ḥaṭīṭaẗ, n.f., price reduction

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ḥaṭṭa, ↗ḥaṭāṭaẗ, ↗maḥaṭṭaẗ, ↗ĭnḥiṭāṭ, and, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ ḤṬː (ḤṬṬ).

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