Bibliotheca Polyglotta

1 bow, longbow; 2 arc (geom.); 3 arch, vault (arch.; of a bridge); 4 violin bow, fiddlestick; 5 semicircular table; 6 qawsān, n.du., parantheses (punctuation marks); 7 al‑qaws, n.def., Sagittarius, the Archer (sign of the zodiac; astron.); 8 the ninth month of the solar year (Saudi Ar.; cf. ↗ḥamal – WehrCowan1976.

conc

▪ From protSem *ḳawš‑ ‘bow’.
▪ The entry suggests that qaws is the etymon proper, while the vb. is derived.
▪ In the course of time, the original meaning ‘bow’ has been transferred also to geometry (‘arc’), architecture (‘arch, vault’), music (‘violin bow’) and to other objects of a similar shape, among which also parantheses. While these meanings appear to be younger, the usages as an astronomical term (‘Archer’), or with a meteorological meaning (month in the solar year; rainbow) aren probably older.

hist

▪ …

cogn

▪ Bergsträsser1928: (*‘bow’) Akk qaštu, Hbr qéšeṯ, Syr qeštā, Gz qast.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#1560: Akk qaštu, Hbr qešet, Gz qast. – Outside Sem: cognates in 2 CCh languages (kese ‘arrow'; kise ‘bow’) and perh. also in ECh forms like kēse, kese, kɛsɛ, which may however be borrowed from Ar. Cf. also the form ḳasa‑mato ‘arrow’ in a Rift idiom.

disc

▪ All cognates in Sem show fem. ending.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994 1560 reconstruct: protSem *ḳawš‑ ‘bow’, CCh *kyas‑ < *k[a]yas‑, perh. also ECh *kyas‑ < *k[a]yas‑ (unless borrowed from Ar), cf. perh. also Rift *ḳas‑ ‘arrow’. All from hypothetical AfrAs *ḳawaṣ‑ / *ḳayaṣ‑ ‘bow, arrow’.

west

…

deriv

►qaws qazaḥ, n., rainbow
►qaws al‑naṣr, n., triumphal arch
►lam yabqa fī qaws ṣabrī minzaʕ, expr., my patience is at an end (lit.: there is no arrow left for the bow of my patience)

►qawisa, a (qawas), vb. I, to be bent, curved, crooked: prob. denom.
►qawwasa, vb. II, 1 = I; 2 to bend, curve, crook; 3 to shoot: D‑stem.
►taqawwasa, vb. V, 1 = I; 2 to bend: Dt‑stem.
►qawwās, n., 1a bowmaker; 1b bowman, archer; 2 kavass, consular guard: n.ints./prof.
►quwaysaẗ, n.f., sage (bot.): dim.f., so called because of the shape of the leaves?
►muqawwas, adj., bent, crooked, curved, arched: PP II.

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