# جرذ
## Arabic
### Alternative forms

* جِرْذَوْن (jirḏawn) — rare

### Etymology

From the root ج ر د (j r d) related to gnawing the exterior off, a variation like in the also common جِذْر (jiḏr, “root”) from ج د ر (j d r). In dialects also جُرْذ (jurḏ), and جُرْد (jurd), but a stop for this spirant is common in dialects. It finds cognates in Mehri gərḏīn (“rat”), Harsusi gerḏīn (“rat”), Classical Syriac ܓܪܕܐ (garḏā, “beaver”), Akkadian 𒂵𒊑𒁺 (/⁠gāridu⁠/, “beaver”) and is alleged to be an inter-Semitic borrowing, specifically passed into Arabic from Aramaic, and ultimately an Iranian loanword based on the trade of castoreum comparing Gilaki گرزه (garze, garza, “rat”), Bakhtiari گرزه (girza, gerza, “rat”), obsolete rare Classical Persian گرزه (garza, “rat”), metathetical Khwarezmian [script needed] (ʾrdɣyk, “rat”), Ormuri [script needed] (gilak, “rat”), Gilaki غل (ğal, “mouse”), Mazanderani گل (gal, “mouse”), which are brought together with Ancient Greek γαλέη (galéē, “mustelid”) and Latin glīs (“doormouse”) and Sanskrit गिरि (giri, “mouse”) to claim a Proto-Indo-European *gl̥h₁éys or similar but are in turn due the consonant variations suspected by Schwartz to be from Semitic although he also pondered the reverse direction, not acquainted with Semitic cognates to the Arabic, himself proposing a derivation from the stem of Persian گزنه (gazane, “nettle”) (probably a Caspian borrowing) which is in Gilaki گرزنه (garzane, “nettle”) with a base meaning “to bite, to sting”, Persian گزیدن (gazidan).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /d͡ʒu.rað/

### Noun

جُرَذ • (juraḏ) m (plural جِرْذان (jirḏān) or جُرْذَان (jurḏān))
* rat (without any qualifying adjective sensu strictu referring to Rattus gen. et spp. and Meriones gen. et spp.)

#### Descendants

* Maltese: ġurdien
* → English: jird
* → Ge'ez: ቅርዳን (ḳərdan), ቅራዲን (ḳəradin, “field mouse”)

### Adjective

جَرِذ • (jariḏ) (feminine جَرِذَة (jariḏa))
* infested with rats

#### Declension
### References

* Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017), Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 258
* Freytag, Georg (1830) “جرذ”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 1, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 265
* Hommel, Fritz (1879) Die Namen der Säugethiere bei den südsemitischen Völkern als Beiträge zur arabischen und äthiopischen Lexicographie, zur semitischen Kulturforschung und Sprachvergleichung und zur Geschichte der Mittelmeerfauna. Mit steter Berücksichtigung auch der assyrischen und hebräischen Thiernamen und geographischen und literaturgeschichtlichen Excursen‎ (in German), Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, pages 364–365
* Kogan, Leonid (2006) “Animal Names of Biblical Hebrew. An Etymological Survey”, in Babel und Bibel 3: Annual of Ancient Near Eastern, Old Testament, and Semitic Studies, Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns in conjunction with the Russian State University for Humanities, page 282
* Landsberger, Benno (1934) Die Fauna des alten Mesopotamien nach der 14. Tafel der Serie ḪAR-RA = ḫubullu (Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften; XLII. Nr. VI)‎ (in German), Leipzig: Salomon Hirzel, page 85
* Lane, Edward William (1863) “جرذ”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, page 408
* Militarev, Alexander, Kogan, Leonid (2000) Semitic Etymological Dictionary, volumes I: Anatomy of Man and Animals, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 124–125 No. 84, seeing all the Semitic words but not the Iranian ones and providing similar Berber and Chadic words, all referring to other animals except for Dangaléat gârzè and a word widespread in Berber but unlikely to be related, Tashelhit ⴰⵖⵔⴷⴰ (aɣrda).
* Monchi-Zadeh, Davoud (1990) Wörter aus Xurāsān und ihre Herkunft (Acta Iranica; 29)‎ (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 65 Nr. 197
* Monchi-Zadeh, Davoud (1990) Wörter aus Xurāsān und ihre Herkunft (Acta Iranica; 29)‎ (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, pages 83–84 Nr. 251
* Schwartz, Martin (1970) “Miscellanea Iranica”, in W.B. Henning Memorial Volume, London: Lund Humphries, published 1970, pages 387–388
* Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “جرذ”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart‎ (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 176