Number: 2606
Proto-Semitic: *ga(n)b-
Meaning: side; beside; back; body
Hebrew: gab 'back' [KB 170]; PB 'body, esp. back' [Ja 203] (<*gabb-, possibly < *ganb-)
Aramaic: OLD PLM gb 'side' [HJ 207]
Biblical Aramaic: gab 'Seite' [KB deutsch 1684]
Judaic Aramaic: gabbā 'back, body' [Ja 203]; cf. gōnǝbā, gǝnūbtā 'tail' [ibid. 257]
Syrian Aramaic: gabbā, st. abs. and cstr. genb 'latus' [Brock 123]
Mandaic Aramaic: gamba, ganba 'flank, side, border' [DM 76]; cf. also guba 'body, trunk; thickness' [DM 82]
Arabic: ǯanb- 'côté' [BK 1 334]
Tigre: gäbo 'side' [LH 582]; cf. ʔǝngǝb 'anus, buttocks' [ibid. 374] (<*ʔV-gVnb with the ʔV-prefix and metathesis?).
Cf. also ǧäm (suff. ǧämma, ǧämba) 'side' [LH 548] (an Arabism?)
Mehri: ganb, gǝnbēt 'side' [JM 122]
Jibbali: ganb do. [JJ 77]
Notes: See derived verbs in ESA: SAB gnb 'to be beside smth.' [SD 50] and MIN gnb 'se trouver à côté de qqn/qqch' [LM 36].
To the ETH examples above to be reconstructed as *gabaw-, cf. TGR AMH ARG wägäb 'side, waist', ZWY wägäb 'waist' [LGur 647] (all metathetically related?).
Cf. GUR: ENN gupa 'height of body, stature' [LGur I 317], GYE gʷǝpa 'height' [ibid. 675], END guppä- [ibid. 191], GOG gubba- 'self' [ibid. 565], SOD gubba- 'alone, self' [ibid. 1063]; all < *gubba (see [LGur 256]), with a meaning shift 'side; back; body' > 'height of body, stature' > 'self'?
Note that MSA examples (MHR, HRS and JIB) may be Arabisms.
[DRS 150]
