Attested in Chronicles only (in the parallel passages of Samuel, gǝwiyyā); possibly from ARM. See also PB gūp 'body, person, self' [Ja 225]

    A considerable variety of meanings throughout SEM.

    Cf. ARB ǧawf- 'creux, cavité; interieur' [BK 1 357]; TGR gof 'interior, heart, soul' [LH 594]; and probably UGR gp, pl. gpt [DLU 149] where 'interieur' is one of the suggested translations (the others being 'orilla, ribera; linde, ladera'; see a comprehensive discussion [ibid.]). One wonders whether these examples represent independent meaning shifts in each language or can be made into a separate SEM root eventually derived from the present one with a current semantic development 'chest/belly' > 'interior'.

    Another meaning shift well attested in SEM (see Introduction) is 'body' > 'person/self': HBR *gapp- [KB 200] (attested only in bǝ-gapp-ō 'he alone' [Ex 21:3]), PB gūp 'person, self' (see above); ARM: OFF gp 'person', JUD gūpā 'self, substance' (above). These examples can also be analysed either as an independent development in HBR and ARM or as a common HBR-ARM root derived from the present one or else as an instance of ARM influence on HBR. Anyway, however, one cannot avoid comparing them to ETH GUR: GOG SOD gubba-, END guppä- 'self, alone' [LGur 256] ("-" implying a respective pronominal suffix), with a remarkable parallelism in meaning and structure, but with -bb- (> END -pp-, cf. [LGur XXXII]) vs. HBR and ARM -p(p)-; probably all these forms are to be treated as a separate root *gaṗṗ- meaning 'alone, self, person' (then not related to the present root).

    [Maizel 168; 217]; [DRS 108]: HBR (gūpā, gap), ARM, ARB, TGR; [KB 184]: HBR (gūpā, related to gap), ARM, ARB, TGR (erroneusly quoted as gāf)