جرو

ǯarw-, ǯirw-, ǯurw-

• Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *gVr- (?) dog, cub
• Semitic: *gVr- 'whelp, cub'
• Proto-Semitic: *gVr- whelp, cub
• Akkadian : gerru (2): lion cub , young of the lion , puppy
• Phoenician: gr 'lion whelp' (T 67). Attested in KAI 37B 10 (and reconstructed for KAI 37A 16) in the combination klbm wgrm, literally 'dogs and whelps'. Since both terms are expected to denote cultic officials, it is com- monly thought that klb and gr denote various kinds of male cul- tic prostitutes (v. Gibson 1971 130, HJ 232).
• Hebrew: gūr 'cub (lion, jackal)', gōr (pl. only) 'lion's cub' (KB 185); pB. 'young animal, whelp, cub' (Ja. 226). A poetic term denoting a lion's cub (gūr ʔaryē) in most ca- ses. It is only in Lam 4.3 that g. is applied to jackal's whelps (gam-tannīn ḥālǝṣū šad// hēnīḳū gūrēhän 'even the jackals draw out their brest // and feed their whelps')
• Aramaic: D.-Alla gr 'whelp' (Hackett 1980 128). In I.10 (gry š[ʕl] 'whelps of a fox')
• Judaic Aramaic: gūr(ā) 'young animal, whelp' (Ja. 226), guryā 'cub, young lion', guryǝtā 'a young female cub (dog or lion)' (ibid. 227), all forms in Levy WTM I 315 (translated as 'junges Thier');gwr 'whelp, young animal' (Sok. 124), guryā 'lion cub', gūrītā 'female cub' (Sok. B 272)
• Syrian Aramaic: guryā 'catulus (leonis, canis, suis, serpentis)' (Brock. 130, PS 770)
• Modern Aramaic: gurya 'puppy, small dog' (Kr. 127), N.-Syr. güryâ 'a whelp, a puppy' (M 48), N.-Ass. g^yurya 'cur, bear cub' (Tser. 048)
• Mandaic Aramaic: guria 'whelp, cur, young dog, pariah-dog' (DM 85)
• Arabic: ǯarw-, ǯirw-, ǯurw- 'petit de chien, de lion ou de toute autre bête carnassière' (BK 1 283, Fr. I 271, Lane 415, LA XIV 139)
• Tigre: gǝrǯǝn, pl. gäräggǝn 'cub of lions or of leopards' (LH 578). The word-final -n is probably to be regarded as a result of dissimilation (gurgur > gurgun). It can be considered, alter- natively, as a suffixal element but the semi-reduplicated base gurg-* presupposed by this analysis is rather unusual
• Harsusi: yéru 'puppy' (JH 41). Almost certainly an Arabism

Notes: Only forms with the meaning 'cub, whelp' have been listed in the main section of the present entry (one wonders whether Tgr. kärakur 'young dog', LH 401 and Tna. kurkur 'puppy, lion cub, whelp', K Tna 1602 are related as a variant root with k- instead of g-). At the same time, other phonetically comparable terms are attested in several Sem. languages but the semantic aspect of their comparison to the present root is far from transparent: they denote either adult predatory animals or the young ones of other species (including human children). The first group is formed by Akk. girru 'lion' SB (CAD G 94) and Har. gärgōra (also gängōra) 'leopard' (LH 75, with a refe- rence to Cerulli who considered this term to be a Cushitism). It is worth noting that the Akk. term (transcribed by von Soden as gerru) is rendered as 'Raubtierjunges' in AHw. 285 which is har- dly justified (for a detailed discussion see Landsberger 1934 77: "Nichts spricht allerdings dafür, dass girru das Löwenjunge bezeichnete"; cf. also Salonen 1976 200). Cf. also the element gʷärä in the composed terms for fox, jackal in Gurage: Msq. yägʷärä gǝyä, Cha. Eža Muh. yägʷärä gʷǝyä, Cha. ägʷärä gʷǝyä, Gyt. Muh.ǝngʷärä gʷǝyä, Enm. ǝ̃ngʷärä gʷǝyä (LGur. 287, with discussion; according to Leslau, the meaning of gʷǝyä is un- clear). The second group is formed by the Eth. terms for young elephant (Tgr. goro, LH 572 and Amh. goro, K 1925) and such ge- neral terms for 'young being' as ǯirwat- 'petit fruit, fruit en- core petit' (BK 1 283) and ǯariyy- 'jeune, adolescent, qui pa- raît jeune' (ibid. 285) in Arabic. Moab. gr 'young boy' (HJ 232) may also belong here (attested in the pl. grn in KAI 181:16; the meaning is uncertain, according to KAI, to be rather identified with Hbr. gēr 'client'). Unless the two groups of terms are considered to be mutually unrelated (which does not seem likely), one has to assume that the original meaning 'young of a wild cat' was subsequently generalized into 'wild cat' in some languages and 'young of an animal' in others. Fron. 292: *gurw- 'cucciolo' (Arb., Syr., Hbr., Akk.); DLU 177: Akk., Hbr., Pho., Moab., Arm., Arb., Hrs., Amh. (goro), Tgr. (goro); KB 185: Hbr., Arm., Arb., Akk., Moab.; Brock. 130: Syr., Hbr., Arb., Akk.

• East Chadic: *gVr- 'dog'

Notes: Scarce data.