Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ The value ‘to pay in instalments’ of naǧǧama is a semantic extension made on the basis of the vb.’s more original value, which is ‘to observe the stars’ (↗¹naǧǧama, from ↗¹naǧm ‘star’). Semantics can be thought to have developed along the line ‘to observe the stars’ > ‘to fix s.th. according to the course of stars, i.e., according to the time at which a certain star (or group of stars) appears in the sky, hence, to accomplish s.th. at appointed terms’ > ‘to pay in instalments’ (cf. also ^†naǧm ‘appointed time, term’, and ↗²naǧm ‘instalment’). Al-Bustānī1869 explained the relation saying that, »The Arabs used to measure time (tuwaqqit) according to the rising of the stars because they did not know how to calculate but remembered the times of the year by natural phenomena [ʔanwāʔ, lit., tempests]. They also called the time at which it [i.e., a tempest etc.] was due [or to be expected], metaphorically, a ‘star’ because its happening was not to be known except by [the observation of] the stars. Then they [sc. the Arabs] extended this meaning [even farther], calling also the due payment [of a debt] a ‘star’ because it was due […] at the time when [its] star rose« (1869: 2136).

west

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deriv

► naǧmī, adj., 1 ↗¹naǧm, ↗naǧmaẗ; 2 in instalments, instalment‑ (in compounds): nisba formation from ↗²naǧm.

For other items of the root, see ↗naǧama, ↗¹naǧǧama, ↗¹naǧm, ↗²naǧm, ↗³naǧm, ↗naǧmaẗ, ↗¹manǧam, ↗²manǧam, ↗manǧim, ↗^†minǧam, (AlgAr) ↗naǧām, and, for the whole picture, root entry ↗√NǦM.

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