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ع ر ب

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Arabic

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Root

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ع ر ب (ʕ-r-b)

  1. forms words relating to Arabic and Arabs

Etymology

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Given the antiquity of the ethnonym, the possibility that it derives from some obscure nickname cannot be ruled out. A plausible derivation, however, is the root given below, whose original meaning of “to enter”, under the influence of the trading culture, became “to do business with”, “to show economic interest”, and “caravan”, “carriage”. It is thus an open question whether the meaning of أَعْرَبَ (ʔaʕraba, to clearly declare, to proclaim) derives from such economic usage, or from the association of the Arabic language with intelligibility.

Derived terms

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Verbs
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Root

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ع ر ب (ʕ-r-b)

  1. forms words related to forceful behavior

Etymology

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Compare Ugaritic 𐎓𐎗𐎁 (ʿrb, to enter), Akkadian 𒆭𒊏 (KU4.RA /⁠erēbu⁠/, to come in, specifically of money, goods, caravan, month, season, water: to come in, to arrive, to flow in).

Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2020) “ʿArab, ʾAʿrāb, and Arabic in Ancient North Arabia: The first attestation of (ʾ)ʿrb as a group name in Safaitic”, in Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, volume 31, number 2, →DOI, pages 422–435
  • Freytag, Georg (1835) “عرب”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum[1] (in Latin), volume 3, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, pages 129–130
  • Wehr, Hans (1979) “عرب”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN