December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝

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Semitic *ʿrb *ġrb to depart, to set ^[1]

Central Semitic
- Arabic غ ر ب ġ r b
  - Arabic غرب ġaraba to depart, to withdraw, to set
  - Arabic غرب ġaruba to be a stranger, to be strange, to be difficult to understand
  - Arabic غرب ġarb west
    
    Maltese għarb west
    
    Azerbaijani qərb west
    
    Persian غرب ġarb west
    
    Ottoman Turkish غرب ġarb
    
    Turkish garp west
- Northwest Semitic
  - Aramaic ערב / ܥܪܒ / 𐡏𐡓𐡁 ʿ-r-b
    
    Aramaic 𐡏𐡓𐡅𐡁𐡄 ʿrōbā sunset, evening, (Sabbath) eve
    
    Aramaic ערבא ʿərāḇā sunset
    
    Classical Syriac ܥܪܒܐ ʿrāḇā sunset, eve
  - Canaanite
    
    Hebrew ע־ר־ב ʿ-r-b
    
    Hebrew ערב érev evening, night
    
    Yiddish ערבֿ erev eve
    
    Phoenician 𐤏𐤓𐤁 ʿereb sunset, evening
    
    Archaic Greek *Eurōpā ^[2]
    
    Homeric Greek Ευρώπη Eurṓpē Western shore of the Aegean, mainland Greece (as opposed to Pelopennese or the islands)
    
    Classical Greek Εὐρώπη Eurṓpē Land north of the Mediterranean Sea and west of the Aegean and Black Seas, Europe, Europa
    
    Greek Ευρώπη Evrópi Europe, Europa
    
    Doric Greek Ευρώπα Eurṓpa
    
    Latin Europa
    
    French Europe
    
    English Europe
    
    Hindi यूरोप yūrop
    
    Korean 유럽 Yureop
    
    English Proto-Indo-European
    
    Italian Europa
    
    Portuguese Europa
    
    Japanese ヨーロッパ Yōroppa
    
    Spanish Europa
    
    Arabic أوروبا ʾūrubbā Europe
    
    Literary Chinese 歐羅巴 Europa, Europe (archaic)
    
    Mandarin 歐羅巴 Ōuluóbā
    
    Mandarin 歐洲 Ōuzhōu Europe ^[3]
    
    English Europa
    
    German Europa
    
    Russian Европа Jevropa Europe
    
    Ukrainian Європа Jevropa Europe
    
    Ukrainian Євромайдан Jevromajdán Euromaidan
    
    English Euromaidan
    
    French europium
    
    English europium
    
    Translingual Eu
- Central Semitic *ma-ʿrb *ma-ġrb place of sunset, western place, the west locative
  - Arabic مَغْرِب maḡrib place or time of sunset, west, evening
    
    Arabic الْمَغْرِب al-maḡrib The Maghreb, Morocco
    
    English Maghreb
- Northwest Semitic
  - Aramaic מערבא ma-ʿrba west
    
    Classical Syriac ܡܰܥܪܒܐ ma‑ʿrḇā west, occident, sunset, western sky, west wind
  - Canaanite
    
    Hebrew מערב ma‑ārov the west, occident
- Central Semitic *ʿrb? surety, pledge (money before you leave)?
  - Arabic عراب ʿarrāb
  - Aramaic ערב / ܥܪܒ / 𐡏𐡓𐡁 ʿăraḇ to vouch for
    
    Classical Syriac ܥܪܒܐ ʿarrāḇā sponsor, guarantor, godfather, groomsman
  - Northwest Semitic
    
    Canaanite
    
    Hebrew ערבון erabon guarantee
    
    Phoenician
    
    Punic *ʿarb
    
    Latin arbiter
    
    Western Romance
    
    French arbitre mediator, arbitrator, referee
    
    English arbiter
    
    Italian arbitro referee, umpire, arbitrator
    
    Spanish árbitro referee
    
    Classical Greek ἀρραβών arrabōn pledge, surety, deposit, down payment
    
    Greek αρραβώνας arravónas engagement, betrothal, deposit, earnest money
    
    Latin arrhabō
    
    Latin arrha
    
    Western Romance
    
    French arrhes down payment, deposit
    
    English earnest ^[4]
East Semitic
- Akkadian 𒌅 erēbu to go down, to set, to enter
  - Akkadian Ereb night, sunset, the west in contrast to sunrise/east: Asu (Asia?
    
    Arabic عرب ʿarab Arab ^[5]
    
    Aramaic
    
    Old Persian 𐎠𐎼𐎲𐎠𐎹 Arabāya Arabia
    
    Classical Greek Ἄραψ Áraps Arab, Arabian
    
    Greek Άραβας Áravas Arab
    
    Classical Greek Ἀραβία Arabíā Arabia
    
    Greek Αραβία Aravía Arabia
    
    Latin Arabia Arabia
    
    English Arabia
    
    French Arabie
    
    Italian Arabia
    
    Spanish Arabia
    
    Yiddish אַראַביע arabye
    
    Classical Greek Ἀραβικός Arabikós Arabic, Arab
    
    Latin arabicus Arabic
    
    English Arabic
    
    Chinese 阿拉伯 Ālābó Arabia
    
    Hebrew עֲרָב aráv Arabia
    
    Persian عرب 'arab Arab, Arabian
    
    Persian عربستان 'arabestân Arabia
    
    Turkish Arabistan Arabia
    
    Somali Carabiya Arabia
    
    Swahili Uarabuni Arabia
    
    Arabic عربية / العربية ʾarabiyya al-ʾarabiyya Arab (f.), Arabic
    
    Translingual ara ISO 639 code for Arabic
Proto-Indo-European *h₁régʷos darkness ^[6]
- Old Armenian երեկ erek evening, west, evening star (Venus)
  - Old Armenian երեկոյ erekoy evening
    
    Armenian երեկո ereko evening
  - Old Armenian ցերեկ cʿerek by day, day, daytime lit. "up until evening"
    
    Armenian ցերեկ cʿerek day, daytime ^[7]
  - Old Armenian երէկ erēk yesterday
    
    Armenian երեկ erek yesterday
- Germanic *rekwaz darkness
  - East Germanic
    
    Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌵𐌹𐍃 riqis darkness
  - North Germanic
    
    Old Norse røkkr / røkr twilight
    
    Old West Norse
    
    Icelandic rökkur twilight
- Hellenic
  - Classical Greek Ἔρεβος Érebos primordial divinity of darkness
    
    Latin Erebus
    
    English Erebus
- Indo-Iranian *Hráǰas
  - Indo-Aryan *Hráȷ́as
    
    Sanskrit 𑀭𑀚𑀂 रजः rájaḥ darkness, dust, space between heaven and earth
- Proto-Indo-European *h₁regʷesyéti to be getting dark
  - Germanic *rikwizjaną to get dark
    
    East Germanic
    
    Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌵𐌹𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 riqizjan to become dark, to darken
  - Indo-Iranian *Hraǰasyáti
    
    Indo-Aryan *Hraȷ́asyáti
    
    Sanskrit 𑀭𑀚𑀲𑁆𑀬𑀢𑀺 rajasyáti to become dust, to be scattered
- Proto-Indo-European *h₁rgʷsnos
  - Hellenic *erkʷʰnos
    
    Hellenic *orkʷʰnā secondary o-grade
    
    Classical Greek ὄρφνη órphnē night, darkness
- Proto-Indo-European *h₁régʷenih₂
  - Indo-Iranian
    
    Indo-Aryan
    
    Sanskrit 𑀭𑀚𑀦𑀻 रजनी rájanī night

Visual

Collected English words

Footnotes

The first consonant of the Semitic root is ambiguous. The Arabic form points to *ġ (/ɣ/), but in that case Akkadian should have ḫ (/χ/); instead the Akkadian has e-coloring and no consonant, which should come from Semitic *ʕ. Aramaic, Hebrew, and Phoenician forms can't help answer the question, because *ġ and *ʕ merged in Northwest Semitic.

If the Proto-Indo-European *h₁régʷos is related, IE *h₁ usually corresponds to Semitic *ʔ, h₂ is the usual correspondence to Semitic *ʕ.

Εὐρώπη`=grc-Grek Eurṓpē (Archaic and Doric Eurōpā) is traditionally derived in Greek as "broad-face", the name of a mythological Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus and brought to Crete. This is almost certainly a folk-etymology of a non-Greek borrowing.

Phoenician ʿereb is a very likely candidate for what the Greeks folk-etymologized as Eurōpā, given that (1) the mythological Europa is described as a Phoenician princess, (2) phoentically similar to Eurōpā is Phoenician 𐤏𐤓𐤁 ʿereb: "sunset, evening" probably either also meant "west" or had a related word *m-ʿrb that did, and (3) Greece is to the west of Phoenicia.

Modern Mandarian 歐洲 Ōuzhōu is formed by abbreviation of 歐羅巴 Ōuluóbā to 歐 and then suffixing 洲 zhōu: "continent". The same process is used to create the modern forms of the other continent names, such as Yàzhōu: "Asia" from Yàxìyà; or Fēizhōu: "Africa" from Āfēilìjiā.

English earnest as in "down payment, surety", of uncertain etymology, but probably a mixture of French arrhes: "down payment, surety" and Old English eornost: "sincerity, earnestness".

Arabian self-designation is of uncertain origin. It is the same triconsonantal root in some but not all Semitic languages, but does not follow the normal rules for which languages merge [ɣ] and [ʕ]. The most likely explanation is that it is a doublet borrowing of the root for "west" from Eastern Semitic.

Prof. Ahmad Al-Jallad (@Safaitic) once said:

"Where does the term ‘Arab‘ come from? It is impossible to know for sure, but there are many theories. A popular one relates it to the root ‘-b-r, which gives the name of the Hebrew language. The best explanation IMO is a derivation from the root ġ-r-b ‘west’ > ‘westerners’.

"This makes sense geographically. The name wouldn’t have originated in Arabic; it was a term used by outsiders to refer to the land/people/language, comparable to the term Amorite Mar.tu ‘westerner’. But it must have been adopted by the people it referred to early on."

Since we know there are some borrowings from Semitic into Indo-European, the similarity between Semitic *ʿrb: "sunset" and Proto-Indo-European *h₁régʷos bears a second look. There are no attested words coming from any morphological form other than *h₁régʷos (and secondary derivations from there), which could point to a borrowed word that never had a root form, that was secondarily fit to an adjective morphology.

On the other hand, the forms don't match up quite well enough to prove a connection. PIE *h₁ usually corresponds to Semitic *ʔ. Similarly Semitic *b and PIE *gʷ are close neighbors—both voiced stops with a labial component—but not an expected correspondence. *gʷ to *b would be a normal and expected distortion in borrowing, but *b to *gʷ is much less expected.

Armenian cʿerek : "day" replaced Old Armenian տիւ tiw: "day" from Proto-Indo-European *diwoh₁: "bright" (the same root as many other IE words for "day" Latin dies, Welsh dydd, Sanskrit दिन diná)

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