Spanish jara (old xara) 'rock rose (Cistus); low bushes' designates several species of perennial shrubs common in the Mediterranean area, especially Cistus ladanifer, which in other Hispano-Romance languages and Moroccan Arabic are designated with derivatives of Hispanic Latin stip(p)a.
The Spanish word has correspondences in Portuguese (en)xara 'low bushes' and Galician xara, Basque xara, txara, zara 'rock rose', and it's a borrowing from Hispano-Arabic ʃáʕra (Classical ʃaʕrāʔ) 'thicket, wood'1. The Arabic word is in turn related to ʃaʕār- 'thick and interlaced trees which give shadow in summer and shelter in winter; vegetation', ʃaʕīr 'barley' < Semitic *ɬaʕVr- 'barley; grass, straw' (ND 2219), contaminated with ʃaʕr- 'hair' < Semitic *ɬaʕr- 'hair' (ND 2220).
The Spanish word has correspondences in Portuguese (en)xara 'low bushes' and Galician xara, Basque xara, txara, zara 'rock rose', and it's a borrowing from Hispano-Arabic ʃáʕra (Classical ʃaʕrāʔ) 'thicket, wood'1. The Arabic word is in turn related to ʃaʕār- 'thick and interlaced trees which give shadow in summer and shelter in winter; vegetation', ʃaʕīr 'barley' < Semitic *ɬaʕVr- 'barley; grass, straw' (ND 2219), contaminated with ʃaʕr- 'hair' < Semitic *ɬaʕr- 'hair' (ND 2220).
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1 F. Corriente (2003): Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, p. 307-308.
Just as an addendum:
ReplyDeleteʃaʕr- 'hair' < Semitic *ɬaʕr- 'hair' (ND 2220)
This Semitic root is often connected to:
Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *c̣ag-(ar)
Meaning: hair
Western Chadic: *c̣ag- 'hair (in the horse's tail' 1, 'hair' 2
Central Chadic: *ʔVm-Cig- 'hair' (?)
Central Cushitic (Agaw): *c̣VgwVr- 'hair'
Low East Cushitic: *ḍagur- 'hair'
South Cushitic: *c̣ag- 'hair'
Which could be connected to Claude Rilly's Pre-Nubian/ Nobiin Substratum: Nobiin: shigir “hair”, Nara: s`abi (< *sugir) “hair” perhaps < Central Cushitic (Agaw): *c̣VgwVr- = Proto-Agaw: *šVgwVR- “hair” Cf. AA N 108, 211, > Bilin:. šǝgʷǝr.
Phonetically speaking, the Hispano-Arabic word is almost identical to 'hair', but semantically is related to the other word, so this must be a case of contamination between these two roots.
Delete