ARABIC-L: LING: Origin of "Kuwait" responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 04 Feb 1999
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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-------------------------Directory-------------------------------------

1) Subject: Sanskrit "ko.t"
2) Subject: Urdu, Persian or Hindi
3) Subject: diminuitive "ku:t"

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1)
Date: 04 Feb 1999
From: "Robert A. Hueckstedt" <rah2k at unix.mail.virginia.edu>
By way of: Mohammed Sawaie <ms at virginia.edu>
Subject: Sanskrit "ko.t"

Mohammed,
I've looked in my dictionaries. There's no "kot" in Sanskrit, but there is
a "ko.t", that is, with a retroflex /t/. That, however, means "festival"
among other things, not including "fort".

Bob

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2)
Date: 04 Feb 1999
From: Ahmed Z <mustang6 at rocketmail.com>
Subject: Urdu, Persian or Hindi

Hi,

I remeber reading that Kuwait was a diminutive form
of the Indian word for Fort. I'm not sure which
Indian language it was derived from, most likely
Urdu, Persian or Hindi

Farzan

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3)
Date: 04 Feb 1999
From: John Leake <jleake at shikar.demon.co.uk>
Subject: diminuitive "ku:t"

Dear Udaba',

Thanks for your responses.  I did also get a reply from sci.lang

> Subject:      Re: Kuwait
> Date:         Tue, 02 Feb 1999 22:04:35 GMT
> From:         cluster.user at yale.edu (Cluster User)
> Organization: Yale University
>
> why? "kuwayt" (a dimunitive form) is said to be in reference to a few
> places called ku:t in `iraq along the tigris south of baghdad. ku:t
> (vocalized kot - i.e.ko:t, with no etymology, thus regarded as a
> persian word) appears in steingass (pers. - engl.). in the meaning of
> a fort. in 19th cent. redhouse (turkish - english) the word is given
> as arabic, but sanskrit kot (with the same meaning) is noted. it also
> apeers with the spelling qu:t (the heading appears as ku:t al`ama:ra
> in enc. of islam, but the article uses k.u:t - i.e. qu:t in the text).
>
> >no kwt root in Firuzadabi's 'Qamus' [...]
>
> I have not heard the word used in modern arabic.

John Leake

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End of Arabic-L: 04 Feb 1999