خفج

Arabic

Etymology

Unknown. According to Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou, which glosses as wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum), a homonymic word meaning a foot disease of camels is unrelated and the plant name is rather from Persian خفنج (xafanj, “profit, advantage; delight, blandishment”) due to a use as an appetizing snack. But this is doubtful due to the Bedouin usage.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xa.fad͡ʒ/

Noun

خَفَج • (ḵafaj) m

1. wall rocket (Diplotaxis gen. et spp.)
2. nipplewort (Lapsana gen. et spp.)
3. spiked centaury (Schenkia spicata)

Declension

Declension of noun خَفَج (ḵafaj)

Singular	basic singular triptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	خَفَج ḵafaj	الْخَفَج al-ḵafaj	خَفَج ḵafaj
Nominative	خَفَجٌ ḵafajun	الْخَفَجُ al-ḵafaju	خَفَجُ ḵafaju
Accusative	خَفَجًا ḵafajan	الْخَفَجَ al-ḵafaja	خَفَجَ ḵafaja
Genitive	خَفَجٍ ḵafajin	الْخَفَجِ al-ḵafaji	خَفَجِ ḵafaji

Descendants

• Najdi Arabic: خفجي (ḵifjī)

References

• “خفج” in Almaany
• Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017), Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 423
• Freytag, Georg (1830) “خفج”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎^[1] (in Latin), volume 1, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 505
• Mandaville, James Paul (2011) Bedouin Ethnobotany. Plant Concepts and Uses in a Desert Pastoral World, Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 307