Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ C
▪ Either simply a PA I from the vb. ↗kafara (′one who conceals his belief’), or from TalmHbr kōp̄ēr ′unbeliever’ (Horovitz), or inspired by Syr kāp̄ōrā ′unbeliever’, kāp̄ōrūṯā ′unbelief’ (Ahrens), or derived from, or akin to, Ar ↗kafr ′village’, an ′infidel’ originally being a *′villager’ (Huehnergard).

hist

▪ …

cogn

Depending on how the etymological situation is viewed, (indirect) cognates (via the non-Ar words from which the etymon of kāfir is borrowed) belong to the complexes of KFR_1 or KFR_2, see ↗KFR.

disc

▪ Huehnergard2011 derives the figurative meaning ‘to be infidel’ of the vb. kafara not from the vb.’s basic value ‘to hide, conceal’ but from ↗kafr, the ‘infidel’ being, originally, the *‘villager’. Huehnergard is the only reference who makes this connection. But cf. the extra-Sem evidence, see section "Loans into Western languages", below.

west

▪ Kluge2002: Ge Kaffer ‘silly person, idiot’ (attested since C18), from Rotwelsch kaffer, from WYid kaf(f)er ‘peasant, villager’, from post-TalmHbr kafrī ‘rural’, akin to WYid kefar ‘village’, from Hbr kāp̄ār ‘village’.
▪ Huehnergard2011: from Ar kāfir are Engl giaour ¹ , kafir, Kaffir ² , takfir, takfiri.

1. In contrast, EtymOnline says: »1560s, Turkish term of contempt for non-Muslims, from Pers gaur, var. of gabr ‘fire-worshipper,’ originally applied to the adherents of the Zoroastrian religion.« 2. Cf. also EtymOnline : »1790, from Arabic kāfir ‘unbeliever, infidel, impious wretch,’ with a literal sense of ‘one who does not admit the blessings of God,’ from kafara ‘to cover up, conceal, deny, blot out.’ Technically, ‘non-Muslim,’ but in Ottoman times it came to be used almost exclusively for ‘Christian.’ Early English missionaries used it as an equivalent of ‘heathen’ to refer to Bantus in South Africa (1792), from which use it came generally to mean ‘South African black’ regardless of ethnicity, and to be a term of abuse since at least 1934.«

deriv

Derivational situation not clear yet. Should kāfir, as Huehnergard2011 thinks, be from kafr ′village’, then the following items must be considered derivations that ultimately go back to kāfir (otherwise they belong to the vb. kafara on which then also would depend):

► kafara, i (kufr, kufrān, kufūr), vb. I, to be irreligious, be an infidel, not to believe: denom. from kāfir or kufr (?).
► kaffara, vb. II, to make an infidel, seduce to unbelief: caus., denom. from kāfir or kufr. – For another value see ↗kafara.
► ʔakfara, vb. IV, to make an infidel; to call an infidel, accuse of infidelity: caus., denom. from kāfir or kufr.

► ^BP#3044C kufr, kufrān, n., unbelief, infidelity.
► kaffār, n., infidel, unbeliever: ints.
► takfīr, n., seduction to infidelity; charge of unbelief: vn. II. – For another value see ↗kafara.

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