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SEMITIC ETYMOLOGY Any historical linguistic analysis, including the etymology of the word ''Arab'', out of necessity has to be based on - learned or political - speculation, due to the fact that there is no etymological dictionary of Arabic, nor is there one of the Semitic languages as whole. In addition to this fundamental lack of knowledge or indeed curiosity, no comprehensive historical comparitive grammar of the Semitic languages has ever appeared - in spite of the fact that Semitic is the oldest and best attested language group in the history of mankind. Such essays as were produced in this field have the limited scope of "introduction", "outline" or are simply too abridged (Bergstrasser, Moscati, Gray, Grande, Kramer, Lipinski). The root of the word has many meanings in Semitic languages including "west / sunset", "desert", "mingle", "merchant", "raven", "comprehensible" with all of these having varying degrees of relevance to the emergence of the name. It is also possible that some forms were Metathetical from "moving around" (Arabic "traverse"), and hence, it is alleged, "nomadic". The plurality of meanings results partly from the assimilation of the Proto-Semitic '' Ghayin '' with '' ʿayin '' in some languages. In Hebrew the word ' thus has the Same Triconsonantal Root as the root meaning "west" (') "setting sun" or "evening" ('''', ''''). The direct Arabic cognate of this is '''' ("west", etc.) rather than ''''; however, in Ugaritic , a language which normally preserves Proto-Semitic '' Ghayin '', this root is found with '' ʿayin '' adding to the confusion. IN ARABIC In the '' is from the same root, referring to a particularly clear and correct mode of speech. Bedouin elders still use this term with the same meaning; those whose speech they comprehend (ie Arabic-speakers) they call ''Arab'', and those whose speech is of unknown meaning to them, they call '' Ajam '' (ajam or ajami). In the Persian Gulf region, the term ''Ajam'' is often used to refer to the Persians . The plural noun '''' refers to the Bedouin tribes of the desert who resisted Muhammad, for example in ayat 9 .97, Based on this, in early Islamic terminology, ' referred to sedentary Arabs, living in cities such as Mecca and Medina, and ' referred to the Arab Bedouins, carrying a negative connotation due to the Qur'anic verdict just cited. Following the Islamic Conquest of the 8th Century , however, the language of the nomadic Arabs came to be regarded as preserving the highest purity by the grammarians following Abi Ishaq , and the term "language of the Arabs" came to denote the uncontaminated language of the Bedouins. IN ASSYRIAN Although the term ''mâtu arbâi'' describing or Canaanite of words derived from either the proto-Semitic root ' or '. It is in the case of the Assyrian forms that a possible derivation from ' ("west") is most plausible, referring to people or land lying west of Assyria in a similar vein to the later Greek use of the term Saracen meaning in Arabic "Easterners", ' for people living in the east. IN HEBREW In Hebrew the words ''`arav'' and ''`aravah'' literally mean "desert" or "steppe". In the Hebrew Bible the latter feminine form is used exclusively for the . In the Bible, the word ''`arav'' is closely associated with the word ''`erev'' meaning a "mix of people" which has identical spelling in unvowelled text. and tells him ''u`rub'', from Syriac ''`rob'', "mingle". The early Nabateans are also referred to as ''`arvim'' in 30:5. Any of the other meanings of the root are also possible as the origin of the name. The words ''`aravim'' (plural of ''`aravi'') and ''`arvim'' appear the same in unvowelled texts as the word ''`orvim'' meaning translates the term as "Arabians" in 1 Kings 17:4-6. 2 tribute of rams and he-goats. Their name is also generally translated as "Arabians" although it differs noticeably in spelling from the above mentioned names as it contains the letter Aleph at the end of the stem. Nothing else is known about these groups. REFERENCES
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