هيدورة

Andalusian Arabic

Etymology

Norwegian or Danish huder (literally “hides”) fits neatly as the source of a borrowing (the vowels of which must have been reanalyzed to be Arabic). That is by reason that هَيْدُورة (haydūra) always means a skin with wool on it, and wool from the native sheep has been the one and only export item of the Faroe Islands before the abolishment of the Danish trading monopoly in 1856.

So a late Old Norse-speaking ship may have brought this term to al-Andalus or Morocco in the 12^th century, when this word is first attested by the glossary الْمَدْخَلُ إِلَى تَقْوِيمِ اللِسَانِ وَتَعْلِيمِ الْبَيَانِ (al-madḵalu ʔilā taqwīmi l-lisāni wataʕlīmi l-bayāni) of Ibn Hišām al-Laḵmīy (who died 577 AH / 1181–82 CE).

A borrowing from Vandalic is not possible due its lacking rhotacism, and the word would have attained a higher prestige, as Classical Arabic, if borrowed that early from the previous Germanic masters of the Maghrebi lands. But as shown by the primary sources, the speakers knew of the word being a foreign intruder.

Accordingly, there is little to affiliate upon natively, as the meanings “to scald, to seethe” of the native Arabic هَدَرَ (hadara), as well as “to roar” and “to go for nothing”, are too vaguely connected, perhaps not even applicable to the treatment of hides or tanning, and probably extinct in the relevant time.

See also كَرْزِيَّة (karziyya) recognized to have come from Early Middle English kersey in the 12th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /haj.duː.ra/

Noun

هَيْدُورة (haydūra) f (plural هَيَادِر (hayādir), and هَيْدُورَات (haydūrāt))

1. sheepskin, cowskin, goatskin
   • 577 AH / 1181–82 CE, ابن هشام اللخمي [Ibn Hišām al-Laḵmiyy], edited by José Pérez Lázaro, الْمَدْخَلُ إِلَى تَقْوِيمِ اللِسَانِ وَتَعْلِيمِ الْبَيَانِ (al-madḵalu ʔilā taqwīmi l-lisāni wataʕlīmi l-bayāni) [Introducción a la corrección del lenguaje y la enseñanza de la elocuencia] (Fuentes Arábico-Hispanas; 6), volume II, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, published 1990, →ISBN, Nr. 417, page 308:

     ويقولون الصَّلِيخَةُ لضرب من العطر بالصّاد. والصّواب السَّلِيخَةُ بالسّين. فأمّا السَّلِيخَةُ التي تقول لها العامّة الهَيْدُورَةُ فليست من كلام العرب وإنّما تقول للإهاب الّذي يُسْلَخُ السَّلاَخُ.

     Them man say صَلِيخَة (ṣalīḵa, “bark”) for a kind of aromatic, with ṣād. But the right form is سَلِيخَة (salīḵa) with sīn. And in what concerns the سَلِيخَة (salīḵa, “peel”) which the vulgar hotes هَيْدُورة (haydūra) this isn’t even from the speech of the Arabs, they say it for the hides that the flayer strips off.

   • a. 1369, Ibn Ḵātima, “Un document nouveau sur l’arabe dialectal d’Occident au XII^e siècle = إيراد اللآل من إنشاد الضوال [ʾīrad l-laʾāl min ʾinšād aḍ-ḍawāl]”, in G. S. Colin, editor, Hespéris‎^[1], volume 12, number 1, published 1931, page 31 line 4:

     هيدورة — لفظة أعجميّة والعرب تسمّيها المِسْلاخ.

     Haydūra is a foreign designation and the Arabs call it مِسْلَاخ (mislāḵ).

Moroccan Arabic

Alternative forms

• هيضورة (hayḍūra)

Etymology

See Andalusian Arabic هَيْدُورة (haydūra) above.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /haj.duː.ra/, /hiː.duː.ra/

Noun

هَيْدورة or هِيدورة • (haydūra or hīdūra) f (plural هيادر (hyādir) or هَيْدورات (haydūrāt) or هِيدورات (hīdūrāt))

1. sheepskin, cowskin, goatskin

Descendants

• → Central Atlas Tamazight: ⴰⵀⵉⵜⵓⵔ (ahitur)