Semitic etymology : Query result

Number: 104

Proto-Semitic: *pakk-

Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: jaw

Syrian Aramaic: pakkā 'mala, bucca; maxilla' [Brock 567]

Arabic: fakk- 'charnière; jointure de deux mâchoires; partie de la bouche qui comprend la mâchoire supérieure et l'inférieure' [BK 2 624]; ʔafakk- 'endroit où les deux mâchoires se joignent' [ibid.] (historically a stem with the ʔa- prefix?).

Cf. also fanīk- 'endroit où les deux mâchoires se joignent; endroit de la bouche compris entre la lèvre inférieure et le menton à la naissance de la barbe' [ibid.] (with a secondary -n-?)

Tigre: fǝk(k) or fäk(k), pl. ʔafkak 'limb, joint' [LH 670]

Notes: Rather scarce but reliable attestation.

Possibly 'joint of the upper and lower jaws', cf. ARB and TGR.

-n- in one of the ARB examples may in principle imply SEM *pank- > *pakk-.

Cf. a variant root *pagg- 'jaw': HBR PB pag [Ja 1132]; ARM: JUD paggā [Ja 1132], SYR paggā [ibid. 555].

Note a noun 'halter, bit' derived from both *pakk- (MND pukta, pikta 'bridle' [DM 367; 371]) and *pagg- (AKK pagūmu 'Halfterriemen?' OB on [AHw 810], strangely compared by Soden with pugūdātu 'Zaum' borrowed from ARM [ibid. 875]; HBR PB bēt p. 'halter' [Ja 1132]; JUD paggē (pl.) 'bit' [ibid.]).

Cf. ARB fkk 'dégager, séparer, disjoindre; être cassé (se dit des mâchoires)' [BK 2 623], probably to be explained by contamination of two homonymous roots, the present one and a verbal root meaning 'to undo, separate' (cf., for example, TGR fäkkä 'to split, break' [LH 670], JIB efkék 'to undo' [JJ 55]).

[Brock 567]: SYR, JUD (paggā), ARB