← All root families

g l g

20 lemmas · 7 languages
soundAll three consonants are regularT Josh.5.9
Themes:gilgamesh·3gulgullum·2king· مَلِك · מֶלֶךְ·2uruk·2life·2
POS shape:noun·15name·4verb·1

This root is attested across 7 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

*g-l-gProto-Semitic
East Semitic
Akkadiangulgulg l gconstruct state of gulgullum
West Semitic
Central Semitic
Northwest Semitic
Canaanite
Hebrewגַּלְגַּלג ל גwheel
Phoenician𐤂𐤋𐤂𐤋𐤂 𐤋 𐤂
Aramaic
Assyrian NAܓܸܠܓܵܡܝܼܫܓ ܠ ܓGilgamesh (legendary king of Uruk)
Arabic
Arabicجُلْجُثَةج ل جGolgotha
South Semitic
Ethio-Semitic
Amharicገላጋይገ ለ ገpeacemaker
Tigrinyaኣገልጋሊገ ለ ገaid

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

Akkadian

akk · 4 lemmas
  • nouninferredWiktionary ↗
    construct state of gulgullum
  • nameinferredWiktionary ↗
    Gilgamesh (a Sumerian king of early dynastic Uruk, later made an epic hero)
    From Sumerian 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌 (“Gilgameš”).
  • nouninferredWiktionary ↗
    Non-mimated form of gulgullum
  • nouninferredWiktionary ↗
    skull
    Cognate with Arabic جُمْجُمَة (jumjuma) and Biblical Hebrew גֻּלְגֹּ֫לֶת (gulgólɛṯ). Compare also Egyptian DA-DA-D1:Z1 (ḏꜣḏꜣ, “head”).

Phoenician

irregular reflexphn · 1 lemma

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

aii · 1 lemma
  • gilgāmīšnameinferredWiktionary ↗
    Gilgamesh (legendary king of Uruk)
    Learned borrowing from Akkadian 𒀭𒄑 (Gilgāmeš), from Sumerian 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌 (ᵈgilgameš₂ /⁠Gilgameš⁠/, “Gilgameš”, literally “the ancestral hero”). Native folk etymology explains this as ܓܸܠܕ (gild, “skin of”) + ܓܵܡܘܿܫܵܐ (gāmōšā, “buffalo bull”); compare Classical Syriac ܓܠܝܓܡܘܣ (glīgmōs), Arabic جِلْجَامِش (jiljāmiš) and…
    1 derivation

Hebrew

he · 8 lemmas
  • galgálnouninferredT Josh.5.9Wiktionary ↗
    wheel
  • gilgélverbinferredT Josh.5.9Wiktionary ↗
    defective spelling of גילגל.
  • geológnouninferredWiktionary ↗
    geologist (male, or ungendered)
    Originally from Ancient Greek γεω- (geō-), from γῆ (gê, “earth”) + Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos, “speech, oration, study”), likely via various Slavic languages—e.g. geolog, гео́лог (geólog), гео́лог (heóloh)—from which it was borrowed by Jewish bilingual speakers as Yiddish געאָלאָג (geolog), whence it made its way into…
  • galgalímnouninferredWiktionary ↗
    plural indefinite form of גַּלְגַּל (gálgal)
  • muglgimnouninferredWiktionary ↗
    plural indefinite form of מוּגְל
  • geológyanouninferredWiktionary ↗
    geology
    From New Latin geologia. By surface analysis, גֵּאוֹ־ (geo-) + ־לוֹגְיָה (-lógya).
  • galgál ha'áyinnouninferredWiktionary ↗
    eyeball
  • galgál hatsalánouninferredWiktionary ↗
    A life preserver, a life-buoy.
    From גַּלְגַּל (galgál, “wheel of”) + הַצָּלָה (hatsalá, “rescue”). Calque of German Rettungsring.

Arabic

ar · 2 lemmas
  • juljuṯanameinferredWiktionary ↗
    Golgotha
    From the Greek Γολγοθᾶ (Golgothâ) from the Hebrew גּלגּלת.
  • gilgāmišnameinferredWiktionary ↗
    Gilgamesh

Amharic

am · 2 lemmas

Tigrinya

ti · 2 lemmas
  • ʾagälgalinouninferredWiktionary ↗
    aid
  • ʾagälgältinouninferredWiktionary ↗
    plural of ኣገልጋሊ (ʾagälgali)

Related rootsshare 2 of 3 consonants with g-l-g

Compare two languages side-by-side