Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ One is tempted to assume that ¹naǧm ‘star’ is the etymon of all (or at least most) lexical items and semantic values encountered in the root √NǦM. However, given that ¹naǧm ‘star’ is without cognates in Sem – in other Sem languages, the term for ‘star’ is expressed by words akin to Ar ↗kawkab – it is more likely that naǧm is an Ar idiosyncrasy, a secondary formation from ↗naǧama ‘to appear, come in sight’, literally meaning *‘the appearing, rising one’.
▪ [v2] and [v3] are dependent on [v1] or ↗naǧama: [v2] ‘instalment, partial payment’ is from ‘payment due at an appointed term’, from ‘term (date/time) of the rising of a star, to be known by observation of the stars (↗¹naǧǧama)’, from ¹naǧm ‘star’. [v3] ‘plants with no stalk; herbs, herbage, quack\couch grass, quitch’ may be the *‘plants that appear on the ground like stars, or cover it like stars’ or *‘plants somehow appearing from the ground’ – unless it is the result of a phonological-semantic confusion, due to a merging with naǧl, see ↗naǧīl.

hist

▪ Older pl.s, found in ClassAr dictionaries in addition to nuǧūm and ʔanǧum: ^†ʔanǧām, ^†nuǧum.
▪ [v1] ‘bright star’: first attestation <230 CE in a verse by the pre-Islamic poet ʔAws b. Zayd Manāt al-ʕAbdī – HDAL_200620; then also ▪ eC7 Q 6:97 wa-huwa ’llaḏī ǧaʕala lakum-u ’l-nuǧūma li-tahtadū bihā fī ẓulumāti ’l-barri wa’l-baḥri ‘and He it is who has made the stars for you to use as a guide through the darkness of land and sea’.
▪ naǧm is also attested as ^†‘astrology’, <732 CE, in a saying reported by Wahb b. Munabbih – HDAL_200620. For this value, cf. esp. ↗¹naǧǧama.
▪ Another earlier value of naǧm, ^†‘mine, pit’, has become obsolete now (replaced by ↗¹manǧam). Its earlier use can be explained as either *‘place where s.th. (esp., metal ore) sparkles like stars in the sky’, or *‘place where s.th. (e.g., metal ore) appears, comes in sight’ (↗naǧama).

cogn

–

disc

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ …

west

–

deriv

► naǧm ḏū ḏanab, n., comet: lit., star with a tail
► nuǧūm al-sīnamā, pl., film stars, movie stars: neol.
► (M) naǧm al-baḥr, n., starfish, sea star: neol.?
► (M) naǧm al-quṭb, al‑naǧm al‑quṭbī, n., Polaris, the North Star, polestar, polar star: …

► naǧǧama, vb. II, 1 to observe the stars; to predict the future from the stars, practice astrology; 2 ↗²naǧǧama: D-stem, denom. from ↗naǧm.
► tanaǧǧama, vb. V, to observe the stars, predict the future from the stars: Dt-stem, denom. from naǧm.

► ^BP#3363naǧmaẗ, pl. naǧamāt, n.f., star; asterisk (typ.) | naǧmaẗ sīnamāʔiyyaẗ, n.f., film star, movie star; naǧmaẗ raqṣ, n.f., ballet star; maraḍ al-naǧmaẗ, n.f., a disease afflicting horses; (M) naǧmaẗ al-baḥr, n.f., starfish, sea star; (M) naǧmaẗ al-ṣabāḥ, n.f., morning glory (bot.): (?singulative) f. of ¹naǧm.
► naǧmī, adj., 1 star-shaped, stelliform, starlike, stellate, stellular, stellar, astral: nisba formation from ¹naǧm and/or naǧmaẗ; 2 ↗²naǧm.
► (M) naǧmiyyaẗ, n.f., aster (bot.): abstr. formation in f. nisba ‑iyyaẗ for scientific classification.
► (M) naǧmiyyāt, n.f.pl., asteroidea (zool.): abstr. formation in f.pl. nisba ‑iyyāt for scientific grouping.
► naǧǧām and munaǧǧim, ^†mutanaǧǧim, pl. ‑ūn, n., astrologer: n.prof. (I) and PA II, ^†PA V, respectively.
► manǧam, pl. manāǧimᵘ, n., 1 source, origin; 2 mine; pit: n.loc., either *‘place where s.th. (e.g., metal ore) sparkles like stars in the sky’, or *‘place where s.th. (e.g., metal ore) appears, comes in sight (↗naǧama)’.
► manǧamī, adj., mining (in compounds): nisba formation from manǧam.
► tanǧīm, n., astrology: vn. II, from ↗¹naǧǧama ‘to observe the stars’, from ¹naǧm.
► manǧūm, adj., starred; marked with a star or asterisk: neol., rather from ↗naǧmaẗ than from ¹naǧm.

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

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