Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Probably dependent on the idea of a *‘wide opening (through which s.th. flows out, spring)’ (cf. ↗ʔanǧalᵘ), itself seen as the result of some *‘splitting, piercing’, caused by *‘throwing away, flinging, striking off (a spear, etc.)’.
▪ For the latter, Orel&Stolbova1994 reconstructed Sem *n˅gil‑ ‘to throw’ < AfrAs *n˅gol‑ ‘id.’ as hypothetical predecessors.

hist

▪ first attested 628 CE in a verse by al-ʔAʕšà al-Kabīr – HDAL (1Jun2020)
▪ In ClassAr, naǧl is not only attested as ‘offspring, descendants’, but also as ‘water oozing from the ground; flowing water; crowd’ – Hava1899.

cogn

▪ Leslau1987: 391 regards as “doubtful” Dillmann’s and Barth’s (1893: 33) theory that would connect Ar naǧl with Gz nagad ‘tribe, clan, kin, stock, kindred, progeny, lineage, family’.
▪ Leslau1987: 137: Equally or even more unlikely is the derivation, suggested by Praetorius1879: 77, of Gz dəngəl ‘chaste (young man), celibate (monk), virgin’ from Ar naǧala ‘to beget’.
▪ The value may be dependent on ^†[v15] ‘to split, pierce’ and/or ^†[v16] ‘outflowing water, spring’ of root ↗NǦL.

disc

▪ As none of the cognates suggested by Dillmann, Barth and Praetorius (see COGN) are particularly convincing, the most probable etymology seems to be, for the time being, a derivation from the notion of an *‘opening through which water flows out, spring’ or a *‘wide opening’ in general, both of which are attested values within ↗√NǦL, cf. ^†[v16] and [v2], respectively; see also ↗ʔanǧalᵘ ‘wide open (eyes), gaping (wound)’. naǧl ‘offspring’ would then either refer to the descendants who “spring” from the same source, or signify the product of the *‘ejaculation of sperma’.
▪ In either case, the etymology matches quite well Gabal’s and Ehret’s idea that this Ar √NǦL should be regarded as an extension in *‑l from a bi-consonantal root nucleus *NǦ‑ (↗NǦ_2), the meaning of which Ehret1995 gave as *‘to seep, ooze’ while Ǧabal2012 described it as the ‘breaking through [and welling/pouring out, i.e., eruption] of s.th. thick, but not solid, from within s.th.’. Interestingly enough, in ClassAr texts naǧl is not only attested as ‘offspring’, but also as ^†‘water oozing from the ground; flowing water’.
▪ The idea of an ‘opening’ may, in its turn, go back to that of *‘splitting, piercing’, from a still earlier *‘throwing away, flinging, striking off (a spear, etc.)’, d.i., values ^†[v15] and ^†[v11], respectively, in ↗NǦL. For the latter, Orel&Stolbova1994 saw an AfrAs dimension: < Sem *n˅gil‑ ‘to throw’, from AfrAs *n˅gol‑ ‘id.’.
▪ There may have happened some contamination with ↗NSL (nasala ‘to beget, procreate, father’, nasl ‘progeny, offspring, descendants’).

west

–

deriv

► naǧl, pl. ʔanǧāl, n., offspring, descendant, scion, son; progeny, issue: vn. I.

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