جيش

Arabic

Etymology

Central Semitic isogloss with Aramaic גַּיָּיסָא (gayyāsā), ܓܝܣܐ (gaysā, “troop; band of raiders”), Hebrew גַּיִס (gáyis), גַּיָּיסָא (gayyāsā, “troop; band of invaders”), and Sabaean 𐩴𐩺𐩦 (gys²), 𐩴𐩦 (gs², “unit, detachment”), explained as a derivation from the base verb found in Arabic as جَاشَ (jāša, “to be excited, to be agitated, to storm, to rage”), which means in this context to heave or rise up suddenly, hence inciting troops to action, raise military forces, to muster or rally, to incite a war or raise up arms, and can be further related to Ge'ez ጌሰ (gesä, “to rise early”), ገይስ (gäys, “departure, journey particularly at the beginning of the day”). Can be borrowed from Aramaic into Arabic and Old South Arabian if this happened in a century before the Common Era, when Proto-Semitic ś was still distinguished in Aramaic, for which age this term must be imagined in any case.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒajʃ/

• Audio

  (file)

  • (Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ɡeːʃ/
  • (Moroccan) IPA^(key): /ʒajʃ/, /ʒiːʃ/, (archaic) /ɡiːʃ/

Noun

جَيْش • (jayš) m (plural جُيُوش (juyūš))

1. verbal noun of جَاشَ (jāša)
2. an army, a military force

Declension

Descendants

• → Swahili: jeshi

References

• “gys²”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• Bauer, Hans (1915) “Kleine Mitteilungen”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft‎ (in German), volume 69, page 566
• 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 303
• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 238
• Garosi, Eugenio (2022 December 1) “Regional Diversity in the Use of Administrative Loanwords in Early Islamic Arabic Documentary Sources (632–800 CE): A Preliminary Survey”, in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World. From Constantinople to Baghdad, 500-1000 CE, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 416
• Lagarde, Paul de (1866) Gesammelte Abhandlungen (in German), Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, page 28
• Lane, Edward William (1863) “جيش”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, pages 493-494
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “جيش”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic جَيْش (jayš).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒeːʃ/, ,

Noun

جيش • (jēš) m (plural جيوش (juyūš))

1. an army, a military force