Granular Ruminations I: Three Words for Wheat

There are three common words for wheat in Arabic: burr, qam7, and 7intah. A scholar of Arabic once told me that there were no exact synonyms in Arabic. Rather, each word had connotations not found in the other words. (This statement assumes, of course, dialectic unity, for exact synonyms do exist across dialects just as they exist across different languages.) Thus, I became gripped by a need to know the differences among these words. After asking a few people and coming up with nothing, I decided to research the matter in the major lexicons of the Arabic language. Instead, I searched over 5200 texts (using the amazing Al-Maktabah Al-Shamilah) and found a gem of information that will soon be disclosed, insha' Allah.

Getting to the kernel of the matter, burr is the dialect of the Hijaz, and is considered the most eloquent word for wheat. Scholars of Arabic rank the dialects of Arabs who were ruled by non-Arabs or accepted religions from outside of Arabia (and thereby prayed in non-Arabic tongues) as inferior and less pure than the dialects of Arabs who did not have as much foreign interaction. The word burr is of the same root as barr, which means, "land." In fact, the Arabs say Abarrat Salma, meaning, "Salma traveled by land" and Abarrat al-Ard, meaning, "the earth produced much wheat." The colour of wheat that is ready for harvest is similar to the colour of earth in Arab lands, so at least one connection is clear.

As for qam7, the strongest opinion is that the word is from a Levantine dialect of Arabic (though some claim it is Coptic). Furthermore, it does not mean wheat in all its phases, but rather, from the point that the grain matures to after it is harvested. Thus, young blades of wheat could not be referred to as qam7. As for 7intah, it is a Kufan dialect of Arabic but is otherwise synonymous with burr in that it can be used to describe the wheat plant during all of its phases. 7intah is related to verbs meaning to bear fruit, but also to embalm or mummify; all of these meanings can be seen in the yielding and eventual maturation and storage of wheat. Finally, the reason that these two words are considered less eloquent than burr is because the Arabs of the Levant and Iraq were under non-Arab rule at the time, and were therefore influenced by other languages.