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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] the name Qumran

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Herman Meester <crazymulgogi AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] the name Qumran
  • Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 11:06:29 +0100

On 24/05/2006 08:16, Herman Meester wrote:
2006/5/24, Gene Gardner <g_gardner1234 AT yahoo.com>:
Could anyone on the list give me a linguistic breakdown of the name
Qumran?


Fully it's Khirbet Qumrān, Arabic, naturally. Khariba, or Khirba خربة, is
"ruin(s)" (cf. Hebrew charev, חרב). Qumrān قمران seems to have a dualis -ān
ending. So we have "Ruin of 2 QMRs". Qamar, then, commonly means "moon",
also in the sense "satellite", so "big light, other than stars, in the sky".
Al-qamarān, meaning, "the 2 moons", is used for "sun and moon". Qumrān or
qamarān are virtually the same, because short vowels and the way they are
put in the consonant structure differ regionally.
So does Khirbet Qumrān mean: "The ruin of Sun and Moon" or "the Ruin of the
Two Moons"?
I have no idea. The best thing to do would be to consult a scientific
etymology of Levantine place names. Their writers may have just gone to the
place and asked "old and wise" people around what the name really means.

(Btw., there is another meaning for the root QMR, or a different root QMR,
that has to do with "gambling".)

Could there be a link with Hebrew KOMER, Aramaic KUMRA' "priest"? If so, the name could be a memory that this was once a religious community. The change from kaph to qoph could be explained by the phonetic environment before a back vowel.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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