Arabic-L:LING:Lexical Foresight

[Dilworth Parkinson]

Arabic-L: Wed 31 Jan 2007
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Lexical Foresight

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1)
Date: 31 Jan 2007
From:"Dr. M. Deeb" <muhammaddeeb at gmail.com>
Subject:Lexical Foresight

Lexical Foresight


             Their richness and diversity notwithstanding, Arabic  
lexicons pay only passing attention to etymology, and when they do,  
the background information is either general or uncertain. Whilst  
much can be said about this unfortunate deficiency which still  
persists despite the efforts of the Arabic academies, I would like  
specifically to point out the conflicting etymology of Iraq.


I.    Al-Qa:mu:s al-MuHi:T traces the (????) entry to its presumed  
Persian origin as (????? ???) which means a country rich in palm-trees.


II.    Lisa:n al-'Arab, on the other hand, suggests that (????) is  
the Arabicized form of the Persian origin (?????).


     III.    The philologist al-ASma'iyy has a different view, quoted  
in al-Muzhir.  Whereas he agrees that (????? ???) is the Persian  
origin, he contends,

              with an uncanny modern foresight, that it means "the  
wasteland."   [my emphasis]



             *MD

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End of Arabic-L:  31 Jan 2007