Semitic etymology : Query result

Number: 116

Proto-Semitic: *ga/in(a)n-

Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: interior; heart

Akkadian: gannu 'part of the body of an animal' SB on [CAD g 41]; 'ein innere Körperteil des Schafes' [AHw 280]

Ugaritic: gngn, ggn, gngnt 'interior, corazón' [DLU 145, 148] (all forms are redupl.)

Hebrew: Cf. gāḥōn 'belly (of snakes and reptiles)' HAL 187

Arabic: ǧanān- 'coeur, esprit, âme' [BK 1 332l, ǧīn- 'intérieure (de toute chose), coeur (chez les poetes)' [ibid.]; ǧanīn- 'embryon' [ibid. 333]

Notes: Scarcely attested and not well definable semantically.

To ARB ǧanīn- 'embryon', cf. GEZ ganin 'foetus, embrio' [LGz 198] (according to Leslau, borrowed from ARB), TGR ǧǝnna 'foetus, new-born child' [LH 552] (ǧ suggests an Arabism). Besides these two presumed ARB loan-words in ETH, however, there is also TGR gǝnay 'miscarriage, monster; small child' [ibid. 589], which does not look an Arabism and, therefore, creates a problem: if its meanings are comparable to 'foetus, embrio' with plausible semantic shifts, this word should be united with ARB ǧanīn- 'embryo' to make a separate, though poorly attested, SEM root probably to be further compared to the present one.

Of possible AFRASIAN parallels, cf. N. CUSH: BEJA gínha, gínʔa 'Herz, Brust, Bauch' [Rein Bed 98], ginạ 'heart' [Hudson 46] (unless an Arabism).

Cf. [DRS 147-8] (Nos. 2, 13 and 14; comparison quite different from this one)