← All root families

ʾ b

17 lemmas · 9 languages
biliteralOnly two root consonants. Typical of very old grammatical cores (pronouns, particles, body-part basics). Often reconstructed with a weak third consonant that's been lost.📜 Gen.11.26
Themes:father· أَب · אָב·4august·3name· اِسْم · שֵׁם·3male· ذَكَر · זָכָר·2fatherhood·2
POS shape:noun·8name·5other·2adj·1root·1

This root is attested across 9 Semitic languages in our index. Each section below shows representative lemmas; attested means a Wiktionary editor explicitly tagged the root, inferredmeans we derived it mechanically from the word's consonantal skeleton.

Etymology treehow this root diverged from Proto-Semitic through the family

*ʾ-bProto-Semitic
West Semitic
Central Semitic
Northwest Semitic
Ugaritic𐎀𐎁𐎀 𐎁father
Canaanite
Hebrewאֲבָהִיא בfatherly
Phoenician𐤀𐤁𐤀 𐤁in
Punic𐤀𐤁𐤀 𐤁father
Aramaic
Imperial Aramaicאַבא בabsolute form of אַבָּא (ʾabbā)
Assyrian NAܐܵܒܐ ܒAugust (eight month of the Gregorian calendar of thirty-one days, following July and preceding September)
Turoyoܐܒܐ ܒAugust
South Semitic
Old South Arabian
Sabaean𐩱𐩨𐩱 𐩨father
Ethio-Semitic
Ge'ezአብአ በ }father

Branch structure: Huehnergard (2005), Rubin (2010). The reconstructed Proto-Semitic form is computed on the fly from the cognate set's majority reflex pattern.

Ugaritic

irregular reflexug · 2 lemmas
  • ảbnouninferredWiktionary ↗
    father
    From Proto-Semitic *ʔabw-.
  • ỉbnouninferredWiktionary ↗
    enemy
    Cognate to Akkadian 𒀀𒀀𒁍𒌝 (ayyābum), Hebrew אוֹיֵב (ʔoyeḇ).

Phoenician

irregular reflexphn · 1 lemma

Punic

irregular reflexpun · 1 lemma

Sabaean

irregular reflexsab · 1 lemma

Imperial Aramaic

arc · 2 lemmas
  • ʾaḇnouninferred𐡀 tg. Onk. Gen 17:5Wiktionary ↗
    absolute form of אַבָּא (ʾabbā)
    From Akkadian 𒌚𒉈 (Abum).
  • ʾāvnameinferred𐡀 tg. Onk. Gen 17:5Wiktionary ↗
    August
    From Akkadian 𒌚𒉈 (Abum).

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

aii · 1 lemma
  • ābnameinferredWiktionary ↗
    August (eight month of the Gregorian calendar of thirty-one days, following July and preceding September)
    Inherited from Aramaic אָב (ʾāḇ), from Akkadian 𒌚𒉈 (Abum); also borrowed into Arabic آب (ʔāb) and Hebrew אָב ('áv)

Hebrew

he · 6 lemmas
  • avahíadjattestedWiktionary ↗
    fatherly
    2 derivations
  • avnérnameattested📜 1Sam.14.51Wiktionary ↗
    a male given name, Avner or Abner
    From אָב (av, “father”) + נור (nur, “light”) or אָב (av, “father”) + נר (ner, “a candle”).
  • avrámnameattested📜 Gen.11.26Wiktionary ↗
    a male given name, Abram
    From אָב (áv, “father”) + רָם (rám, “high”), literally “high father”.
  • abahútnounattestedWiktionary ↗
    fatherhood, paternity
  • nameattested📜 Josh.17.2Wiktionary ↗
    Abiezer, the name of two Israelites.
    From אבי (aví, “Singular form of אב (av) with first-person personal pronoun as possessor”, literally “my father”) + עֵזֶר (ʿezer, “help, aid”), thus my father is help/aid.
  • ʾ-brootinferred📜 Gen.17.5Wiktionary ↗
    Related to paternity, fatherhood.

Ge'ez

gez · 2 lemmas
  • ʾäbnouninferredWiktionary ↗
    father
    From Proto-Semitic *ʔabw-.
  • ʾabnouninferredWiktionary ↗
    alternative form of አብ (ʾäb)

Turoyo

tru · 1 lemma

Compare two languages side-by-side