ع ر ب

ع ر ب • (ʕ-r-b)

1. forms words relating to Arabic and Arabs

Given the antiquity of the ethnonym, the possibility that it derives from some obscure nickname cannot be ruled out. A plausible derivation, however, is the root given below, whose original meaning of “to enter”, under the influence of the trading culture, became “to do business with”, “to show economic interest”, and “caravan”, “carriage”. It is thus an open question whether the meaning of أَعْرَبَ (ʔaʕraba, “to clearly declare, to proclaim”) derives from such economic usage, or from the association of the Arabic language with intelligibility.

Verbs

• Form II: عَرَّبَ (ʕarraba, “to make Arabic, translate into Arabic, express”)
  • Verbal noun: تَعْرِيب (taʕrīb, “Arabicizing, Arabization, translation into Arabic, adoption of loanwords into Arabic”)
  • Active participle: مُعَرِّب (muʕarrib, “translator into Arabic”)
  • Passive participle: مُعَرَّب (muʕarrab, “Arabicized, translated into Arabic, loanword”)
• Form IV: أَعْرَبَ (ʔaʕraba, “to make Arabic, give an Arabic form to, express clearly, declare, proclaim; to use the grammatical endings”)
  • Verbal noun: إِعْرَاب (ʔiʕrāb, “declaration, proclamation, expression, grammatical endings”)
  • Active participle: مُعْرِب (muʕrib)
  • Passive participle: مُعْرَب (muʕrab, “inflected with endings”)
• Form V: تَعَرَّبَ (taʕarraba, “to become an Arab, assimilate or naturalize to the Arabs”)
  • Verbal noun: تَعَرُّب (taʕarrub)
  • Active participle: مُتَعَرِّب (mutaʕarrib, “Arabicized, naturalized as an Arab”)
• Form X: اِسْتَعْرَبَ (istaʕraba, “to become an Arab, assimilate or naturalize to the Arabs”)
  • Verbal noun: اِسْتِعْرَاب (istiʕrāb)
  • Active participle: مُسْتَعْرِب (mustaʕrib, “Arabist”)

Nouns

• عَرَب (ʕarab, “Arabs”)
  • عَرَبِيّ (ʕarabiyy, “Arab, Arabic”)
  • الْعَرَبِيَّة (al-ʕarabiyya, “Arabic language”)
  • أَعْرَابِيّ (ʔaʕrābiyy, “Bedouin”)
• عَرَّاب (ʕarrāb, “godfather; translator into Arabic”)
  • عَرَّابَة (ʕarrāba, “godmother”)
• عُرُوبَة (ʕurūba, “Arabism, Arabdom, Arab character”)

ع ر ب • (ʕ-r-b)

1. forms words related to forceful behavior

Compare Ugaritic 𐎓𐎗𐎁 (ʿrb, “to enter”), Akkadian 𒆭𒊏 (KU₄.RA /⁠erēbu⁠/, “to come in, specifically of money, goods, caravan, month, season, water: to come in, to arrive, to flow in”).

Verbs

• Form I: عَرَبَ (ʕaraba, “to be eager, to flow violently”)
  • Verbal noun: عَرْب (ʕarb), عَرَب (ʕarab)
  • Active participle: عَارِب (ʕārib)
• Form II: عَرَّبَ (ʕarraba, “to talk dirty against someone, to scold, to chide”)
  • Verbal noun: تَعْرِيب (taʕrīb)
  • Active participle: مُعَرِّب (muʕarrib)
  • Passive participle: مُعَرَّب (muʕarrab)
• Form IV: أَعْرَبَ (ʔaʕraba, “to talk obliquely about something”)
  • Verbal noun: إِعْرَاب (ʔiʕrāb)
  • Active participle: مُعْرِب (muʕrib)
  • Passive participle: مُعْرَب (muʕrab)

Nouns

• عَرِب (ʕarib, “a pond with much water”)
• عَرَبَة (ʕaraba, “swift river; vehicle”)
• عَرَابَة (ʕarāba, “obscene speech”)
• عَرَبِيَّة (ʕarabiyya, “carriage, coach”)
• عَرْبَجِيّ (ʕarbajiyy, “cabman”)
• عَرْبَخَانَة (ʕarbaḵāna, “car shed, coach house”)

• عَرَبُون (ʕarabūn, “earnest money”) (formed in another Semitic language from the same root)
• عَرُوبَة (ʕarūba, “Friday”) (formed in another Semitic language from the same root)
• عَرُوب (ʕarūb), عَرِيب (ʕarīb), عَرِبَة (ʕariba), عَرُوبَة (ʕarūba, “lascivious”) (formed in another Semitic language)
• عَرُوبَاء (ʕarūbāʔ) ~ عِرْبِيَاء (ʕirbiyāʔ) ~ عَرِيبَاء (ʕarībāʔ, “seventh heaven”) (formed in another Semitic language)

• Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2020) “ʿArab, ʾAʿrāb, and Arabic in Ancient North Arabia: The first attestation of (ʾ)ʿrb as a group name in Safaitic”, in Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, volume 31, number 2, →DOI, pages 422–435
• Freytag, Georg (1835) “عرب”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 3, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, pages 129–130
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “عرب”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN