Reconstructions Search

The origin is uncertain. Curiously similar are Tgr. šəlgät ‘a handfuľ and Sum. silig ‘fist’ (Civil 2007:26, = Akk. upnu)

Hardly any connection with Amh. sərḳ alä ‘to hiccup’

Cf. perhaps Arb. ˀimraˀat- ṣamiḫat- = γaḍḍat-

No established opinion on the origin. On the one hand, it may be considered as a by-form of the well-known PWS *khl with the same meaning (cf., e.g., CDG 277, HALOT 1891 and Huehnergard–Olyan 2013); on the other hand, one might venture a direct comparison with PS *wkl ‘to (en)trust’. While it is certainly true that “‘to trust’ is not semantically close to ‘to be able’” (Huehnergard–Olyan 2013:13), the gap is probably not so drastic either (“to have trust” > “to have power to do something” > “to be able”).

retention from PWS, but a rather specific one – note in particular the individual meaning “man, person,” unattested anywhere else in Semitic