Semitic etymology : Query result

Number: 2615

Proto-Semitic: *pi/uʔ-at-

Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: face, front

Akkadian: pūtu 'Stirn, Stirnseite' OB on [AHw 884], pl. pâtu (< *puātu) and pūtātu [ibid.]

Hebrew: (?) pōt 'brow, forehead', pl. pōtōt [KB 983].

Note the form with pronominal suffix pot-hēn 'their (fem.) pōt' in [Is 3.17], which definitely implies the proto-form *put-. Meaning questionable; attested in the Bible only twice in ambiguous contexts: in [1 K 7: 50] denoting part of the door, translated as 'front side, fac̣ade' in [KB 983] and alternatively interpreted as 'socket of the door pin' in [Ja 1149]; and in [Is 3: 17] in the phrase "The Lord will make scabby the skull (ḳodḳōd) of the daughters of Zion and Yhwh will lay bare their pōt" (on an interpreting this term as 'female pudenda' see *paʔw/y-at- 'genital organ', No. )

Syrian Aramaic: paʔtā, patā 'facies', also 'latus' [Brock 554]

Mandaic Aramaic: puta 'forehead' [DM 369]

Amharic: fit 'face, features, front' [K 2305]

East Ethiopic: ZWY ǝfit, SEL WOL uft 'face' [LGur 22].

u- is rather from *i- before -f

Gurage: ENN END GYE MSQ GOG SOD ift, MUH ǝft, CHA EZ̆A ENN MUH GOG SOD yift, yǝft do. [ibid.]

Soqotri: fío 'front' [LS 332]; QADHUB fī́ʔoh, HADIBO fī́^yʔɔh [SSL LS 1456]

Notes: *-V- in the proto-form should probably be replaced by *-i- supported by ETH and SOQ; -u in AKK, MND and HBR (if related) might be explained by the influence of *p-, and -a- in SYR, by the influence of -ʔ-.

Likely related to SEM *piʔ-at- 'border, side' rather to be reconstructed, however, on the PSEM level as a separate root: AKK piātum 'Seite' OB Mari [AHw 861] (considered by Soden a Canaanite loanword); UGR paʔt 'Saum, Grenzen, Gefilde' [Aist 252]; HBR pēʔā 'side, edge, hairline, corner' [KB 907-8]; JUD pā(ʔ)tā 'section, segment, corner' [Ja 1132], SYR paʔtā, patā 'latus' [Brock 554].

Note ARM: JUD ʔappūtā 'front of the face, forehead' (also 'nose') [Ja 101] and SYR ʔappūtā (ʔāpūtā) 'frons' [Brock 39], where ʔais to be explained either by contamination of the present root with ARM *ʔappā 'nose' (see *ʔanp- 'nose', No. ) or as a prefix (in this case, however, with an unusual doubling of the primary stem first radical); cf. ʔV-prefixed stems also in ETH EAST (SEL WOL and ZWY) and GUR, where the underlying form is likely *ʔifit <*ʔafit <*ʔa-piʔ-t.

There is ARB fiʔ-at- 'troupe (d'hommes)' [BK 2 531] interpreted as 'front' in [Noeldeke 1910 152], which can be as well compared to *piʔ-at- 'border, side'; anyway, a meaning shift is not clear.

Cf. GEZ la-fe 'to this side, in the direction of, that way' (prep.) [LGz 154] and TNA fit 'di fronte, dirimpetto' [Bass 998] which may relate either to *pVʔ-at- or to *piʔ-at- 'border, side'.

Of interest are pl. forms in AKK pūtātu and HBR pōtōt where the feminine marker -t is similarly treated as part of the root.

[Holma 13]: AKK pūtu considered "eine Weiterbildung von pû 'Mund" and "also weder mit [HBR] pēʔā noch mit pōt zusammenhängend"; [KB 983]: HBR, AKK, ARB (fiʔat- 'group'), AMH, SOQ; [Brock 554]: SYR, AKK; [LHar 65]: HAR, ETH, AKK (compared, in its turn, to HBR pēʔā, ARB fiʔat-); [LS 332]: SOQ, ARB (fiʔat-), HBR (pēʔā), SYR, AKK, GEZ (fit)