# حناء
## Arabic
### Alternative forms

* حِنَّة (ḥinna)

### Etymology 1

Unknown chain of etymology, but based on the era of Aramaic equivalents which are taken to be Arabisms and its absence from earlier Semitic languages, the dating seems to suggest the Abbasid Era, a period with great Iranian court influence. Ultimately being derived from Middle Persian hndwtn' (/⁠handūdan⁠/), its stem hndʾd (/⁠*handāy-, *hannāy-⁠/, “to smear, to plaster, to anoint”); a semantic cognate or calque translation with its Semitic equivalent the Qur'anic Arabic كَافُور (kāfūr, “Lawsonia inermis; alternatively identified as camphor”), from Arabic كَفَرَ (kafara, “to cover over”), a root connection found all across Semitic languages.
Compare Akkadian 𒇒𒌓𒀀 (kupru, “bitumen, pitch”), from Akkadian 𒅗𒉺𒊒 (kapāru, “to smear, to daub on”), Hebrew כֹּפֶר / כּוֺפֶר (kōp̱er, “pitch, tar; henna”), Aramaic כּוּפְרָא, Classical Syriac ܟܘܦܪܐ (kūp̄rā, “pitch, tar; henna”), Ugaritic 𐎋𐎔𐎗 (kpr, “henna”). For the Iranian compare Manichaean Middle Persian ʾnwdg (annōdag, “the anointed one, Messiah”), and Persian اندودن (andudan, “to besmear, to coat”).

#### Noun

حِنَّاء • (ḥinnāʔ) m (plural حُنْآن (ḥunʔān))
* henna; the plant (Lawsonia inermis)
* henna; dye prepared from (Lawsonia inermis)

##### Descendants

* Gulf Arabic: حنة (ḥinna)
* Moroccan Arabic: حنة (ḥanna)
* → Afar: cinna
* → Amharic: ሒና (ḥina), ሂና (hina)
* → Catalan: alquena, henna
* → Classical Persian: حِنَّا (hinnā)
** Dari: حِنَا (hinā), حِنَاء (hinā') (prescribed, uncommon)
** Iranian Persian: حنا (hanâ)
** Tajik: ҳино (hino)
** Bengali: হেনা (hena)
** → Hindustani:
    Hindi: हिना (hinā)
    Urdu: حِنَا (hinā)
** → Punjabi:
    Gurmukhi script: ਹਿਨਾ (hinā)
    Shahmukhi script: حِنَا (ḥinā)
* → English: henna
** → Greek: χένα (chéna)
* → German: Henna
** → Polish: henna
* → French: henné
** → Italian: henné
* → Harari: ሒና (ḥinna)
* → Hebrew: חִינָה (ḥī́nā)
* → Kazakh: қына (qyna)
* → Medieval Latin: alcanna, alcenna, alhenna
** → English: alcanna
** → French: alcana
** → Italian: alcanna
** → Spanish: alcana
* → Malay: inai
* → Portuguese: hena
* → Russian: хна (xna)
* ⇒ Old Armenian: դհունաղհունար (dhunałhunar), հունաղհունար (hunałhunar)
* → Old Spanish: alhenna
** Ladino: alhenya
** Spanish: alheña
* → Ottoman Turkish: قنا (kına)
** Turkish: kına
** → French: kenna
** → Greek: κίνα (kína)
** → Bulgarian: къна́ (kǎná)
** → Macedonian: кана (kana)
** → Serbo-Croatian:
    Cyrillic script: ка̀на
    Latin script: kàna
* → Tigre: ሕና (ḥənna)

##### References

* Lane, Edward William (1863) “حناء”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate
* Löw, Immanuel (1922) “Semitische Färberpflanzen”, in Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete‎ (in German), volume 1, pages 136–144
* Löw, Immanuel (1924) Die Flora der Juden‎ (in German), volume 2, Wien und Leipzig: R. Löwit, pages 218-225
* MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press
* “ḥnˀ”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
* "A Concise Pārsīg Dictionary: English - Persic; A" by The Society of Friends of the Pārsīg language, parsig.org, founded in 2010.
* Schönig, Hanne (2002) Schminken, Düfte und Räucherwerk der Jemenitinnen: Lexikon der Substanzen, Utensilien und Techniken (Beiruter Texte und Studien; 91)‎, Würzburg: Ergon-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 112–126

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

حَنَاء • (ḥanāʔ) m
* verbal noun of حَنَا (ḥanā) (form I)