Semitic etymology : Query result

Number: 127

Proto-Semitic: *gawp-

Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: (dead) body; chest, belly

Hebrew: gūpā 'corpse' [KB 184].

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

Aramaic: HTR gwp 'corpse, dead body' [HJ 23]

Judaic Aramaic: gūpā 'body' (also 'self, substance') [Ja 225]; gwp 'body' [Sok 124]

Arabic: ǧawf- 'ventre' (also 'creux, cavité; interieur') [BK 1 357]; cf. ǧyf 'exhaler une odeur fétide (se dit d'un cadavre)', ǧīf-at- (<*ǧiwf-at-) 'cadavre, charogne, surtout en putréfaction' [BK 1 362]

Tigre: gof 'body' (also 'interior, heart, soul') [LH 594]; hardly from ARB ǧawf-, because of a wide scope of meanings in TGR only partly coinciding with ARB

Mehri: gawf 'chest' [JM 127]; mǝgǝfūt 'corpse, chest cavity of a corpse' [JM 115]

Jibbali: mgɔffɔ́t 'corpse, carcass' [JJ 72] (the root consonants are *gff)

Notes: Note ARB ǧīf-at- (<*ǧiwf-at-) 'corps', where -y-/-ī- cannot be explained from SEM *gawp-, and the MSA forms with prefixed m-.

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)