Motke: The Arabic and Syriac G-D-L

Submitted by dhimmi no more, Nov 3, 2018 at 09:52

Motke you wrote:

>My Hebrew dictionary, in its etymology line, says "[ Ugaritic GDL; Aramaic GDAL; Arabic JADALA (strong) ]".

I don't use Lane. I use Lisan al-'Arab the earliest extant Arabic dictionary and here is what Ibn Manzur (the author of Lisan al-'Arab) tells us about ج-د-ل or G-D-L in Arabic and you will see that it has nothing to do with the word "Great" or "strong" and this is what the Arabic (as well as Syriac) root G-D-L is about:

1. Argument or to quarrel while arguing
2. braid, plait as in ropes that are tightly twisted

Nothing about "great" or "strong" and this is the reason why Syro-Aramaic and Arabic speakers do not understand the word Yitgaddal in the Qadish because there is no such root in Syriac or Arabic

Here is the link to Lisan al-'Arab:

http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom=1212&idto=1212&bk_no=122&ID=1213

It is also interesting to know that the prefix "Yit" is very commonly used in Hebrew.

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