nəḳáwl - to choose (ML 297)

The origin of Proto-MSA *nḳl ‘to choose’ is uncertain. Any connection with Syr. nḳal ‘dejecit et volvit; sustulit (lapides); ejecit; traduxit’ (LSyr. 446, SD 947), Arb. nql ‘to transfer, to shift’ (Lane 3037), Sab. nḳl ‘to quarry stone’ (SD 97), Min. nḳl ‘transporter, déplacer’ (LM 68), Qat. nḳl ‘to dig out, to excavate’ (LIQ 111), Gez. naḳala ‘to uproot, to eradicate, to pull up’ (CDG 400, with cognates throughout EthS)? This comparison would imply a semantic shift from “to take out,” “to pick up” (cf. Bittner 1915a:36). (Kogan 2015:565)