# Etymology of مكة



## Dho ra'aan

What's the etymology of مكة ?  did mentioned by semitic languages?


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## raamez

Firstly we don't know for sure if it is بكة or مكة. As for your second question the answer is no if by this you mean before the Islam.


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## bearded

Dho ra'aan said:


> What's the etymology of مكة ?


This is what I found in ''Etymonline'':



> mecca | Etymology, origin and meaning of mecca by etymonline


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## raamez

bearded said:


> This is what I found in ''Etymonline'':


Nonsense I wonder where they have these from.


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## Abaye

See thread Is the word مکة an Arabic word?


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## WadiH

There is an interesting idea I came across recently that makkah was originally _mankah_ or even _malkah_.  Assimilation of ‘n’ is not common in FusHa Arabic but it is common in Semitic languages, including South Arabian and ancient Arabic dialects like Safaitic and Hismaic.

This person has found a reference to a _mankat(u)_ in a Nabataean inscription.


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## raamez

I also once read a theory about معكة being the original name. معكة itself occurs a lot in the Bible as a personal name but also as an Aramean kingdom. However it is only a theory. Makka is mentioned once in the Quran as often as Bakka !


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## WadiH

I just don’t see Arabs or Peninsular Arabians dropping the ع.


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## raamez

Peninsular Arabians (or Arabs in general) don't show assimilation of n either


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## WadiH

raamez said:


> Peninsular Arabians (or Arabs in general) don't show assimilation of n either



It occurs in Safaitic, Hismaic and South Arabian languages.  It also occurs in some modern Arabic dialects.


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## raamez

WadiH said:


> It occurs in Safaitic, Hismaic and South Arabian languages.


But Quraish and the Arabs of that area who spread Arabic didn't speak any of these languages! They spoke Classical Arabic.


WadiH said:


> It also occurs in some modern Arabic dialects.


Classical Arabic doesn't miss a chance to insert an unnecessary ن wherever it is possible, like خنزير ,قرنفل and سنبلة etc ...  Syrian Arabic continues this tradition and inserts a ن also in loanwords from Syriac.
The only exception I can think of are the personal pronouns in the Lattakian dialect where you find ات and اتو instead of انت and انتو otherwise I've never seen any other dialects do this.


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## WadiH

raamez said:


> But Quraish and the Arabs of that area who spread Arabic didn't speak any of these languages! They spoke Classical Arabic.



Yes but the idea here is that the name may predate the arrival of Quraysh and their relatives, just like how you find ASA toponyms in Yemen and MSA toponyms in Oman. The Arabian Peninsula has always had these population movements and replacements, and the Arabic tradition retains memories of such previous peoples (Thamud in the Hejaz, Tasm and Jadiis in Yamamah, and Jurhum in Mecca, etc. we are also told that Aws and Khazraj were late arrivals in Yathrib but the city itself is attested from Babylonian times).



raamez said:


> The only exception I can think of are the personal pronouns in the Lattakian dialect where you find ات and اتو instead of انت and انتو otherwise I've never seen any other dialects do this.



Off the top of my head, Egyptian has bint > bitt, and Iraqi has 3ind > 3id.


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## Ihsiin

Iraqi also has _bitt_, as well as _itta_, _itti_, etc.

I suppose منكة is possible as an origin, but we have still to explain بكة.


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## WadiH

Ihsiin said:


> but we have still to explain بكة.



Some dialectal variant I guess, where the 'm' is 'denasalised' (sorry don't know the technical term for this shift).


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## raamez

WadiH said:


> Some dialectal variant I guess, where the 'm' is 'denasalised' (sorry don't know the technical term for this shift).


But we can't know for sure that مكة is not a variation of an original بكة.
There seem to be two places with this name in Syria and Lebanon.
بكا - ويكيبيديا
So it also possible as a place name.


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## WadiH

Do we know what بكا means?  Does it have a shadda on the ك?


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## Dho ra'aan

WadiH said:


> Do we know what بكا means?  Does it have a shadda on the ك?


If You mean on بكة ? Yes . 
That do remember me بكاء "the weeping ,crying ".


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## WadiH

No I mean the Syrian and Lebanese ones (presumably Aramaic names judging by the final ا?).


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## raamez

WadiH said:


> Do we know what بكا means?


Not sure maybe something to do with weeping.


WadiH said:


> Does it have a shadda on the ك?


Yes they are pronounced as bakka


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## Dho ra'aan

raamez said:


> Not sure maybe something to do with weeping.
> 
> Yes they are pronounced as bakka


 We if assume ha'a letter is objective pronoun will become the meaning "kill him" because of baka in the Arabic does mean "kill" as well.


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## raamez

Sorry I don't understand. What is ha'a letter?


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## Dho ra'aan

raamez said:


> Sorry I don't understand. What is ha'a letter?


I mean ha'a letter =  ha'a "ه" in Arabic language.


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## Dho ra'aan

raamez said:


> Sorry I don't understand. What is ha'a letter?


Buk in thamudic inscriptions mentioned buk which means kill.
Like:
Hrdo buk ka'ab. 
May rado (Rado god) kill ka'ab.
O' rado kill ka'ab.


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