إبل

The root ء ب ل (ʔ-b-l) else but contains terms plausibly denominative from this word for camels; the animal name, as well as the raincloud-name reminiscing وَبْل (wabl, “heavy-dropped rain”), must be connected to Proto-Semitic *wabal- (“to carry, to bear”) also of restricted Arabic use in the root formula و ب ل (w-b-l), with glottal stop as أُهْبَة (ʔuhba, “gear, accoutrement”). In Classical Syriac one finds ܐܒܠܬܐ (ʾabbāltā, ʾebbaltā, ʾebbāltā, “a herd or caravan of camels”), accounting for its vocalism probably a separate derivation of this sense, whereas the Arabic unusual measure of إِبِل (ʔibil) is inflated by a prop vowel^[1] from an original pattern as in animal names like عِجْل (ʕijl) and حِسْل (ḥisl).

• IPA^(key): /ʔi.bil/

إِبِل • (ʔibil) f (collective, plural آبَال (ʔābāl))

1. (collective) camels
   • a. 965, اَلْمُتَنَبِّي [al-mutanabbī], “لَا خَيْلَ عِنْدَكَ تُهْدِيهَا وَلَا مَالُ [lā ḵayla ʕindaka tuhdīhā walā mālu]”, in عَبْد الرَّحْمٰن اَلْبُرْقُوقِيّ [ʕabd ar-raḥmān al-burqūqiyy], شَرْح دِيوَان اَلْمُتَنَبِّي [šarḥ dīwān al-mutanabbī], part 3, Beirut, Lebanon: دَار اَلْكِتَاب اَلْعَرَبِيّ [dār al-kitāb al-ʕarabiyy], published 1980, page 402:

     تَجْرِي النُّفُوسُ حَوَالَيْهِ مُخَلَّطَةً / مِنْهَا عُدَاةٌ وَأَغْنَامٌ وَآبَالُ

     tajrī n-nufūsu ḥawālayhi muḵallaṭatan / minhā ʕudātun waʔaḡnāmun waʔābālu

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (collective, obsolete) rain clouds
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 88:17-19:

     أَفَلَا يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَى ٱلْإِبِلِ كَيْفَ خُلِقَتْ
     وَإِلَى ٱلسَّمَآءِ كَيْفَ رُفِعَتْ
     وَإِلَى ٱلْجِبَالِ كَيْفَ نُصِبَتْ

     ʔafalā yanẓurūna ʔilā l-ʔibili kayfa ḵuliqat
     waʔilā s-samaʔāʔi kayfa rufiʕat
     waʔilā l-jibāli kayfa nuṣibat

     Then do they not look unto the rainy clouds^[2] – how they are created? And the sky, how it has been raised? And the mountains how they have been set up?

• → Akkadian: 𒄿𒁉𒇻 (i-bi-lu /⁠ibilu⁠/)^[3]

• بَعِير (baʕīr)
• جَمَل (jamal)
• نَاقَة (nāqa)