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

1. 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

Declension of noun أَبُو الْهَوْل (ʔabū l-hawl)

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)‎ (in German), Göttingen, page 46