أبو الهول
Arabic
Etymology
From أَب (ʔab) and هَوْل (hawl): “the dreadful one,” literally “father of dread.” Phono-semantic matching from Coptic only attested by transcription in al-Maqrīzī as بلهيب and بلهويه which in turn is likely derived from Demotic pꜣ-ḥwr (“Horon, a Canaanite god with whom the Sphinx was identified”).
Noun
أَبُو الْهَوْل • (ʔabū l-hawl) m
- sphinx
- a. 1932, أَحْمَد شَوْقِيّ [ʔaḥmad šawqiyy], “أَبُو الْهَوْل [ʔabū l-hawl]”, in اَلشَّوْقِيَّات, part 1, Beirut: دَار اَلْكِتَاب الْعَرَبِيّ [dār al-kitāb al-ʕarabiyy], page 132:
- أَبَا الْهَوْلِ طَالَ عَلَيْكَ الْعُصُرْ / وَبُلِّغْتَ فِي الْأَرْضِ أَقْصَى الْعُمُرْ
- ʔabā l-hawli ṭāla ʕalayka l-ʕuṣur / wabulliḡta fī l-ʔarḍi ʔaqṣā l-ʕumur
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Declension
| singular | singular long construct | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | construct | |
| informal | — | أَبُو الْهَوْل ʔabū l-hawl |
— |
| nominative | — | أَبُو الْهَوْلِ ʔabū l-hawli |
— |
| accusative | — | أَبَا الْهَوْلِ ʔabā l-hawli |
— |
| genitive | — | أَبِي الْهَوْلِ ʔabī l-hawli |
— |
Related terms
- هَرَم (haram, “pyramid”)
Descendants
- → Classical Persian: اَبُوالهَوْل (abū-l-hawl), اَبُو الهَوْل (abū l-hawl)
References
- Peust, Carsten (2010) Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Ägypten (Göttinger Miszellen. Beihefte; 8)[1] (in German), Göttingen, page 46