Semitic etymology : Query result

Number: 2139

Proto-Semitic: *ḳ(ʷ)Vlḥ-

Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: genitals; testicles

Akkadian: ḳallû (gallû) 'vulva' (hapax) SB [CAD ḳ 66], 'Sexualorgan' (von Mann ?) [AHw 894].

According to both dictionaries, from SUM (gal₄ 'Scham, Vulva' [IK 301]). Cf. also maḳlālu, a name for female genitals, SB [CAD 251]; according to [AHw 607], 'Geringes', vulva (i.e. interpeted as a form derived from ḳalālu 'to be thin, small'), which seems rather a folk etymology

Arabic: (?) ḥlḳ 'avoir la verge écorchée et rouge à la suite du coit' [BK 1 481].

Related with metathesis and a meaning shift?

Geʕez (Ethiopian): ḳʷǝlḥ 'testicle' [LGz 428].

According to Leslau, a reconstructed form of AMH ḳʷǝla (OLD AMH ḳʷǝlḥa) borrowed, in its turn, from CUSH

Amharic: ḳʷǝla 'testicles, male genitals' [K 675]

East Ethiopic: ZWY ǝnḳulu 'testicles' [LGur 70].

Note the ʔVn- prefix

Gurage: ENN GYE ḳura, END ḳurʔä 'penis' [ibid.].

On -r- <*-l- see [LGur XLVIII]

Notes: Highly problematic. To be cancelled if AKK is a Sumerism, which is hard to prove; in this case the ETH examples are probably to be regarded as a meaning shift from 'egg' (see *ḳa(w)ḥil- ~ *ʔVn-ḳulaliḥ- 'egg', No. ).

Cf. ARB ḥlḳ 'avoir la verge écorchée et rouge à la suite du coit' [BK 1 481] (related with metathesis and a meaning shift?); cf. also MGR ḳǝlwä 'testicles' [LGur 70] (note that in MGR dialects ḥ is normally preserved).

Cf. ETH forms with somewhat unusual phonetic development: SEL ūnḳulābčä [LGur 70], WOL mʷanḳulabče 'testicles' [ibid. 411]; MSQ ǝnḳulalčä do. [ibid. 70] (on -č < -t see [ibid. LVIII-LXII]; on "w becoming b through pseudo-correction or false reconstruction" see [ibid. LXXXII]).

Note HAR kūr 'testicles' [LHar 93]; according to Leslau, from CUSH, which is probable in view of irregular k- and -r.

Cf. SOQ míḳliz 'penis' [LS 375]