Arabic

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Etymology

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From Proto-West Semitic *daqal-, in Akkadian only found in the toponymy of Chaldean territory, and likewise the Arabic is suspect to be influenced by semantic loan from Aramaic דִקְלָא (diqlā, date palm; topgallant) for the sense of a “mast”, compare also سَارِيَة (sāriya, post, mast) from Aramaic, though the mast sense is also found in Mehri dəqāl (mast), Soqotri daqal (pole). In Hebrew דֶּגֶל (déḡel, a flag).

The sort of dates denoted by this word varies according to time. In antiquity, it denoted in particular a date palm that produced an abundant number of dates, however of an inferior quality, often characterized by being hard, small, or having a meager ratio of flesh compared to its pit. In modernity the meaning has switched to denote a supreme kind of date; the semantic shift seems to have been brought on by the popular variety دَقْلَة النُور (daqla(t) an-nūr, heavenly or divine dates, literally date-palm of light), so-named for producing a harvest as numerous as the ill-tasting variety, yet instead of being the expected unpleasant taste, they have a notoriously heavenly soft honey-like taste.

 
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Noun

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دَقَل (daqalm (collective, singulative دَقَلَة f (daqala))

  1. a variety of dates (fruit and tree)
    • 7th century CE, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 55:43:
      أَلَسْتُمْ فِي طَعَامٍ وَشَرَابٍ مَا شِئْتُمْ – لَقَدْ رَأَيْتُ نَبِيَّكُمْ صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَمَا يَجِدُ مِنَ الدَّقَلِ مَا يَمْلَأُ بِهِ بَطْنَهُ؟
      ʔa-lastum fī ṭaʕāmin wa-šarābin mā šiʔtum – laqad raʔaytu nabiyyakum ṣallā llāhu ʕalayhi wasallama wa-mā yajidu mina d-daqali mā yamlaʔu bi-hī baṭnahū?
      Don’t you have food and drink as you will, whereas I have seen your prophet not even finding the worst kind of dates to fill his belly?

Declension

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Noun

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دَقَل (daqalm (plural دِقَال (diqāl) or أَدْقَال (ʔadqāl))

  1. topgallant, topmast, mast tree, mainmast

Declension

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Descendants

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  • Swahili: digali (stem of a tobacco pipe)
  • Tigre: ደቀል (däḳäl, mast)
  • Tigrinya: ደቀል (däḳäl, mast)

References

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  • دقل” in Almaany
  • Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne (1881) “دقل”, in Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes[1] (in French), volume 1, Leiden: E. J. Brill, pages 452–453
  • Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 145 and Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 223
  • Freytag, Georg (1833) “دقل”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum[2] (in Latin), volume 2, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 45
  • Guidi, Ignazio (1879) Della sede primitiva dei popoli semitici (in Italian), Rome: Tipi del Salviucci, page 19
  • Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “دقل”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc[3] (in French), volume 1, Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie, page 717
  • Lane, Edward William (1863) “دقل”, in Arabic-English Lexicon[4], London: Williams & Norgate, page 898
  • Müller, David Heinrich (1887) “Arabisch-aramäische Glossen”, in Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes[5] (in German), volume 1, pages 25–26
  • Nöldeke, Theodor (1875) Mandäische Grammatik[6] (in German), Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, pages 43–44
  • Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “دقل”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart[7] (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 400
  • Zadok, Ran (1981) “The Toponymy of the Nippur Region during the 1st Millennium B.C. within the General Framework of the Mesopotamian Toponymy”, in Die Welt des Orients, volume 12, page 67