ذ ه ب

See also: ذهب and دہت

Arabic

Etymology

The senses of “going” relate to ذ و ب (ḏ-w-b) / ذَابَ (ḏāba, “to melt away”) and ذ ه ل (ḏ-h-l) / ذَهِلَ (ḏahila, “to become diverted, distracted, absent-minded”) and conversely ذ ه ن (ḏ-h-n) ذَهِنَ (ḏahina, “to have a retentive mind; to understand”) / ذِهْن (ḏihn, “mind”).

For the “gold” senses this can mean that the term references its coruscant appearance, replacing in Central Semitic, Hebrew זָהָב (zāhāḇ), Classical Syriac ܕܗܒܐ (dahbā), Old South Arabian 𐩹𐩠𐩨 (ḏhb), the term for gold found in Biblical Hebrew חָרוּץ (ḥārūṣ), Ugaritic 𐎃𐎗𐎕 (ḫrṣ /⁠ḫurāṣu⁠/), Akkadian 𒆬𒄀 (ḫurāṣum) but not attesting the base verb “to go” later in a language other than Arabic. Another explanation would be a reference to its economic significance from ذُو (ḏū) + و ه ب (w-h-b) / وَهَبَ (wahaba, “to grant, to give”).

Root

ذ ه ب • (ḏ-h-b)

1. related to going
2. related to gold

Derived terms

• Form I: ذَهَبَ (ḏahaba)
  • Verbal noun: ذَهَاب (ḏahāb)
  • Active participle: ذَاهِب (ḏāhib)
  • Passive participle: مَذْهُوب (maḏhūb)
• Form II: ذَهَّبَ (ḏahhaba)
  • Verbal noun: تَذْهِيب (taḏhīb)
  • Active participle: مُذَهِّب (muḏahhib)
  • Passive participle: مُذَهَّب (muḏahhab)
• Form IV: أَذْهَبَ (ʔaḏhaba)
  • Verbal noun: إِذْهَاب (ʔiḏhāb)
  • Active participle: مُذْهِب (muḏhib)
  • Passive participle: مُذْهَب (muḏhab)
• Form V: تَذَهَّبَ (taḏahhaba)
  • Verbal noun: تَذَهُّب (taḏahhub)
  • Active participle: مُتَذَهِّب (mutaḏahhib)
  • Passive participle: مُتَذَهَّب (mutaḏahhab)
• مَذْهَب (maḏhab, “sect, doctrine, way”)
  • Form Iq: مَذْهَبَ (maḏhaba) (derived from the noun)
  • Form IIq: تَمَذْهَبَ (tamaḏhaba) (derived from the noun)

References

• Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017), Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 503
• Freytag, Georg (1833) “ذ ه ب”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎^[1] (in Latin), volume 2, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 97
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “ذ ه ب”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎^[2] (in French), volume 1, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 785