Bibliotheca Polyglotta

Since it is problematic to relate the semantics of this word to other values of the root KNF, it is highly probable that it is a foreign word. Youssef2003 suggested to derive it, via Copt kenephiten, from Eg ḫnf.w(t) , a type of cake. Cf. however Huehnergard2011, who thinks it is akin to ‘to flank, surround, provide with an enclosure’ and, hence, ultimately based on ↗kanaf ‘wing, side’.

hist

▪ Alf laylaẗ (Calc.) IV: 677,678 – Ullmann WKAS
▪ 16 hits in arabicorpus.com for the premodern period, all in 1001 Nights (06Jan2015).

cogn

▪ Item not mentioned in DRS 9 (2010)#KNP at all.

disc

▪ The value is not mentioned in DRS 9 (2010)#KNP.
▪ Youssef2003: a kind of Egyptian sweet pastry, possibly from Eg ḫnf.w [also ḫnf.wt, a type of cake], Copt kenephiten [kind of loaf or cake]
▪ The fact that the first attestation we seem to have for this item is in Alf laylaẗ wa-laylaẗ supports the assumption that the word has made its way into fuṣḥā via a dialect, probably EgAr.
▪ Huehnergard2011 derives the word from Ar kanafa ‘to flank, surround, provide with an enclosure’, which is from ↗kanaf ‘wing, side’, from ComSem *kanap‑ ‘id.’

west

▪ Engl kanafeh, kenafeh, knafeh, kunafah, kunafeh, etc. are direct borrowings from Ar.

deriv

► kanafānī, n., maker, seller of kunāfaẗ : n.prof., denom., shortened from *kunā fānī.

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