Semitic etymology : Query result

Number: 2575

Proto-Semitic: *ka/inpa/ir-

Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: tip of the nose; lip

Arabic: kinfirat- 'tip of the nose' [Fraytag 4 65] (not in [BK])

Geʕez (Ethiopian): kanfar 'lip, language, brim, edge, hem' [LGz 287].

Cf. kǝnfār, konfār 'hump, arm, front of leg of an animal' [LGz 287]), with a meaning shift 'the projecting part of the head' > 'the projecting parts of the body'?

Tigre: känfär, kämfär 'lip' [LH 418]

Tigrai (Tigriñña): känfär 'labbro' [Bass 608]

Amharic: känfär 'lip, brim' [K 1446]

Gurage: CHA EŽA ENN GYE MUH MSQ GOG SOD känfär, END käfär 'lip' [LGur 345]

Notes: Only ARB and ETH supported, however, by AFRASIAN. Both meanings of the proto-form are easily compatible if refer to the tip of animal's muzzle/snout.

There is little doubt that the ARB example is cognate of the ETH ones which therefore are not borrowed from CUSH (see comprehensive discussion in [LGz 287]).

Note the meaning 'edge, brim' in ETH to compare with AKK kibru (kipru) 'edge, shore, bank' OA on [CAD k 334], [AHw 471]; though in both sources kibru is quoted as the basic form, it may rather be kipru (<*kinpVr-), if the comparison is valid. In this case one must assume either an homonymy of the two SEM terms, 'tip of the muzzle/snout; lip' and 'edge, brim ' or a derivation of the former from the latter implied by the AFRASIAN cognates.

That the root is "expressive" may account for a series of variant roots in ARB (kunt_ur-, kant_arat- 'gland du pénis; mufle, bout du museau de l'âne [BK 2 933]; ḳanfar-, ḳunfūr- 'verge, pénis; orifice' [ibid. 825]) and MSA (MHR QISHN kǝrfī́f 'lip' [SSL 1 278], HRS kerōf 'to sniff' [JH 69], JIB kɛrféf 'face' [JJ 134] and metathetic ḳǝfrér 'lip' [SSL 1 279]).

[LGz 287]: GEZ, ETH, ARB (comparison with AKK kipru and MSA kǝrfī́f etc. considered unlikely)