بطيخ

Presumably borrowed from Aramaic, attested in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic בטיח (*baṭṭīḥ) and Classical Syriac ܦܲܛܝܼܚܵܐ (paṭṭīḥā), and a broken plural Hebrew אֲבַטִּיחַ (ʾăḇaṭṭī́aḥ). While it has been theoretized to have been acquired in Semitic via Egyptian bddw-kꜣ (“watermelon”) from sub-Saharan Africa, there is an explanation as an Iranian borrowing equivalent to Persian بیدخت (bêdoxt, “Venus”), which is the known Akkadian 𒂗 (bēlu, “master; Bel, Baal”) + Persian دخت (doxt, “daughter”), literally “daughter of Baal”, a reinterpretation of the feminine form of the Baʿal god found as ܒܝܠܬܝ (bēltī), ܒܠܬܝ (beltī, “Venus”) in Classical Syriac, equalling بَعْلَة (baʕla, “mistress”). Like in general food items can be reused to denote body parts, especially those viewed sexually, and in Eastern languages specifically the names of fruits come to mean “vulva”, as well-known South Levantine Arabic تِينة (tīne, “fig”), Armenian թուզ (tʻuz, “fig”), Hebrew רִמּוֹן (rimmṓn, “pomegrenate”) in Song of Solomon 7:12 and 8:2, here in turn the meaning of a melon would be secondarily transferred from representations of fertility goddesses. This is corroborated by lexicographers mentioning a Himyaritic word بَيْدَخَة (baydaḵa, “plump, chubby”, applied to women).

بِطِّيخ or بَطِّيخ • (biṭṭīḵ or baṭṭīḵ) m (collective, singulative بِطِّيخَة f (biṭṭīḵa) or بَطِّيخَة (baṭṭīḵa), plural بَطَاطِيخ (baṭāṭīḵ))

1. melon, melons

   Synonyms: شمام (šammām), بَطِّيخ أَصْفَر (baṭṭīḵ ʔaṣfar)

2. watermelon, watermelons

• Cypriot Arabic: pattíx
• Maltese: bettieħ, bettiħ, bittiħ
• → Old Catalan: albudeca
  • Catalan: albudeca
• → Ge'ez: በጢሕ (baṭṭiḥ)
• → Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: petêx

• → Medieval Latin: botefles, buteflez, budusta, batheca
• → Malay: betik
  • Indonesian: betik
• → Malayalam: വത്തയ്ക്ക (vattaykka)
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: albudeca, albudieca, batecha
  • Galician: botefa, potefa
  • Portuguese: pateca
    • → French: pastèque
      • → Italian: pasteca — Liguria
      • → Ligurian: pateca
• → Sardinian: pateca
• → Spanish: patilla
• → Old Spanish: albudeca, budefa, badea, badeha
  • Ladino: bateha
  • Spanish: albudeca, badea
• → Old Venetian: bateco

• “botefles (or: buteflez)”, in Arabic and Latin Glossary, Würzburg: Julius-Maximilians-Universität, 2018–
• “blty”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• Elmaz, Orhan (2014) “Investigating South Arabian words in al-Khalīl's Kitāb al-ʿayn”, in Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies‎, volume 44, Supplement: Language of Southern Arabia: Papers from the Special Session of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held on 27 July 2013, Oxford: Archaeopress, page 34b
• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 140
• Grimme, Hubert (1914) “Semitische P-Laute”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft‎ (in German), volume 68, page 269, who derives owing to phonetic variation from Hittite
• Lane, Edward William (1863) “بطيخ”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, page 216c
• Leslau, Wolf (1991) Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), 2nd edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, →ISBN, page 113
• Löw, Immanuel (1928) Die Flora der Juden‎ (in German), volume 1, Wien und Leipzig: R. Löwit, pages 550–553
• Steingass, Francis Joseph (1884) “بطيخ”, in The Student's Arabic–English Dictionary‎, London: W.H. Allen, page 130a

From Arabic بَطِّيخ (baṭṭīḵ).

• (Kuwait) IPA^(key): /bətˤːiːχ/

بطيخ • (baṭṭīḵ) (collective, singulative بطيخة (baṭṭīḵa))

1. cantaloupe, muskmelon

   Synonym: شمام (šammām)

   شنو تحب اكثر، الرقي ولا البطيخ؟

   šinu tḥib akṯar, ir-raggi wila-lbaṭṭīḵ?

   What do you like more, watermelon or muskmelon?

2. unprofessional, bad, crappy

   المقاول هذا شغله بطيخ

   This contractor's job is crappy

• ديرة بطيخ (dīrat baṭṭiḵ)

From Arabic بَطِّيخ (baṭṭīḵ).

• IPA^(key): /batˤːiːx/

بطيخ • (baṭṭīḵ) m (collective, singulative بطيخة f (baṭṭīḵa), plural بَطِّيخات (baṭṭīḵāt))

1. watermelon, watermelons

   Synonym: حبحب (ḥabḥab)

From Arabic بَطِّيخ (baṭṭīḵ).

• IPA^(key): /batˤ.tˤiːx/, [bɑtˤˈtˤiːx]

• Audio (Bethlehem)

  (file)

بطّيخ • (baṭṭīḵ) m (collective, singulative بطّيخة f (baṭṭīḵa), plural بطِّيخات (baṭṭīḵāt))

1. (uncountable) watermelon