Bibliotheca Polyglotta

1a digging, earthwork, excavation (also archeol.); 1b unearthing; 1c drilling (for oil); 2a carving, inscribing (e.g., of letters); 2b engraving, etching; graphic arts (etching, wood engraving); 3 tartar of the teeth, dental calculus (Mawrid1995); 4 (SyrAr) scurvy – WehrCowan1976.

conc

▪ While values [v1a-c] and [v2a-b] represent the primary meaning of the vn. of ↗ḥafara ‘to dig’, [v3] and [v4] are less obviously connected to the idea of digging. That there is such a relation and these values too are dependent on ‘to dig’ becomes clearer from a look into other historically attested items, such as:
▪ ad [v3]: ^†ḥafara and ^†ʔaḥfara ‘to shed one’s milk-teeth’; ^†ḥafara~ḥafira (intr.) ‘to become cankered, wobbling, loose (teeth)’ (Hava1899), »previously to their [the teeth’s] falling out, because, when they have fallen out, their sockets become hollow« (Lane ii 1865), (fig.) ‘to be(come) in a corrupt, or unsound, state’ (ibid.); ^†ḥaf(a)r ‘rottenness, unsound state of the roots of the teeth, erosion’, ^†ḥāfūr ‘tartar of the teeth’ (Hava1899), and
▪ ad [v4]: ^†ḥafara ‘to emaciate, render lean’, said of a young animal »rendering the mother flabby in flesh by much sucking« (Lane ii 1865); ^†ḥaf(a)r ‘emaciation, leanness’; cf. also EgAr ḥafraẗ gafraẗ ‘barren and uninhabited land, desolate area’.
▪ For the overall picture and lines of semantic development, cf. ↗ḥafara and ↗√ḤFR.

hist

▪ See above, section CONC.

cogn

See ↗ḥafara, ↗√ḤFR.

disc

▪ See above, section CONC.

west

…

deriv

ǧahāz al-ḥafr, n., oil rig; oil derrick

ḥafriyyaẗ, n.f., 1 digging, excavation; 2 gravure; 3 pl. ḥafriyyāt, excavations (archeol.): f. (pl.) of nisba formation.

For other values of the root, cf. ↗ḥafara, ↗ḥāfir, ↗ḥāfiraẗ, as well as, for the general picture, ↗√ḤFR.

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