Bibliotheca Polyglotta

antimony; kohl, a preparation of pulverized antimony used for darkening (the edges of) the eyelids; any preparation for coloring the eyelids – WehrCowan1979.

conc

▪ The word is either a common Sem n. (Huehnergard2011: *kux̣l‑, *gux̣l‑ ‘powder of antimony’) or a WSem term (from which Akk guḫl‑ then would be a loan). Semantic relation with the colour adj. ↗ʔakḥal ‘black’ (sometimes also ‘green; blue’) is likely, but still rather unclear.
▪ The unclarity may stem from the usual identification of kuḥl with black, or dark, colour, which however is not necessarily the case, as Wiedemann/Allen1980 show in their entry in EI². kuḥl, they say, is “synonymous in the Arabic and Persian geographical sources with ↗iṯmid and surma”, a mineral mined at the time mainly in Iran. Quite significantly, none of the geographical sites where antimony is mined today is identical with the places where the primary sources of kuḥl were located in the past. There is reason to believe, therefore, that kuḥl originally is not necessarily antimon, but something else, most probably some lead ore, or a mixture of several minerals. “In this connection it should be noted,” Wiedemann/Allen continue, “that while it had generally been assumed that eye-paint in ancient Egypt had an antimony base, A. Lucas (Ancient Egyptian materials and industries, revised by J. R. Harris, 1962, 195-9) showed by analysis that it in fact consisted of galena, pyrolusite, brown ochre or malachite, and only in one instance, of antimony sulphide.” Cf. also Dozy who, on the authority of a French source of 1849,¹ defines kuḥl as: “la galène ou sulfure de plomb. […] C’est à tort que plusieurs auteurs ont traduit le mot […] par antimoine”.
kuḥl “also had a specifically medical function as an eye unguent, particulars of which are to be found in Ibn al-Bayṭār and other such writers. From this function comes the idea of al-kaḥḥāl, ophthalmist” – Wiedemann/Allen1980.
kuḥl is also the Arabic source of our alcohol. “From a fine powder used to stain the eyelids, it came by extension to mean any fine impalpable powder produced by trituration or sublimation, and hence was applied to fluids of the idea of sublimation—an essence, quintessence or ‘spirit’ obtained by distillation or rectification.”
▪ See also ↗kuḥūl.

1. Prax, Commerce de l’Algérie avec la Mecque et le Soudan, Paris 1849.

hist

C6 ʕAntara b. Šaddād 47,14: lā kuḥla ʔillā min ġubāri ’l-katāʔibi ’▪ …’ (Polosin 413).

cogn

DRS 10 (2012), s.v. kḥl‑1, groups the n. Hbr koḥel, kuḥlā, JP kōḥᵃlā, Ar kuḥl ‘fard pour les yeux’, Akk guḫl‑ ‘pâte d’antimoine’ and Mhr kēḥel, Ḥars eḥel, Soq keḥel ‘kḥol, antimoine’, together with the vb. Hbr kāḥal ‘se farder les yeux’, Te käḥala, Tña kʷäḥalä, Amh kʷalä ‘enduire ses paupières avec de l’antimoine’, but sees this value distinct from kḥl‑2, represented only by Ar ↗ʔakḥal ‘black’, sometimes also ‘green; blueʷ’ (and the f. ↗kaḥlāʔ , a ‘blueweed’).

disc

▪ While Huehnergard2011 holds that the word goes back to a Sem n. *kux̣l‑, also *gux̣l‑ ‘(powder of) antimony’, DRS 10 (2012) seems to regard it as a WSem term (from which the Akk form probably is a loan).
▪ In contrast, Halloran¹ holds that Akk guḫlu is a loan from the Sum expression for ‘Evil Eye’ which is composed of igi ‘eye’ and ḫul ‘bad, evil; hated; hostile, malicious’, so that one could think of the Akk term as the result of a loan with transfer of meaning from ‘Evil Eye’ to the powder/substance that was used to protect against it. Should this be correct, the WSem words would be dependent on the Akk term. Difficult to proove.

1. “Sumerian Eye Makeup Prevented Conjunctivitis, the ‘Evil Eye’, , accessed 18Oct2014.

west

▪ Engl kohl ‘powder used to darken eyelids,’ 1799, from Ar kuḥl (EtymOnline).
▪kuḥl is also the ultimate source of our alcohol. “From a fine powder used to stain the eyelids, it came by extension to mean any fine impalpable powder produced by trituration or sublimation, and hence was applied to fluids of the idea of sublimation—an essence, quintessence or ‘spirit’ obtained by distillation or rectification.”

deriv

► kaḥala, u, a (kaḥl), vb. I, to rub, paint or smear with kohl (the edges of the eyelids), and kaḥila, a (kaḥal), vb. I, to have eye(lid)s that are coloured with kohl: probably denominative. – For other meanings ↗kaḥl, ↗ʔakḥalᵘ.
► kaḥḥala, vb. II = I : denominative
► takaḥḥala, vb. V, to color the edges of one’s eyelids with kohl, smear one’s eyelids with a salve of antimony, etc.; have eye(lid)s that are coloured with antimony: reflexive of II; to be refreshed, enlivened: from kuḥl (*‘feel/look fresher, as a result of the application of antimony), or from ^†kaḥl (a green plant) (↗ʔakḥalᵘ) (?)
► iktaḥala vb. VIII = V.
► kaḥil, adj., pl. kaḥlā, kaḥāʔilᵘ darkened with kohl, dyed black (eyelids): from kuḥl, or deverbative, from ↗kaḥVl‑ ?
► ^†kuḥayl, n. tar, pitch (Wahrmund: Erdpech): *the little dark black thing (?), according to WKAS diminuitive (“ursprünglich humorist. Demin. zu kuḥlun, s. Fünf Moʿall. II 36 oben”).
► kuḥlī, adj. dark blue, navy blue: nsb-adj.
► kuḥaylī and kuḥaylān, adj.,n., pl. kuḥāl, kaḥāʔilᵘ horse of noblest breed: nominalized nsb-adj. and ints. formation, from ↗^†kuḥayl, i.e., < *the tarry one, or *the horse with the dark black eyes (?)
► kaḥḥāl, n. eye doctor, oculist [old designation]: denominative n.prof.
► mikḥal and mikḥāl, n. kohl stick, pencil for darkening the eyelids: n.instr.
► mukḥulaẗ, n.f., pl. makāḥilᵘ kohl container, kohl jar: n.instr.; solar quadrant: ↗s.v.; (syr.) rifle, gun: ↗s.v.
► takḥīl II, vn. treatment of the eyes with kohl’: denominative.

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