تنوب

Unknown origin; due to the date of its record appearance, it seems less likely to be from German Tannenbaum, although it may play a factor in its later association with Christmas. The connection to Hittite 𒄑𒋫𒈾𒀀𒌑 (^GIŠta-na-a-ú /⁠tanau⁠/, “fir”) also is a challenge due to the lack of intermediaries; for more see Tanne. Perhaps there is a connection to ن ي ب (n-y-b) in نَاب (nāb) dealing with sharp points, with Semitic glosses like “fang, tusk, pincer, honeybee, stingers, shaped like a long tooth”. This could be a reference to either the sharp and pointed pine needles, or even the general pointed cone shape of the tree.

• IPA^(key): /tan.nuːb/

تَنُّوب • (tannūb) m

1. spruce (Picea gen. et spp.)
   • a. 1000, المقدسي, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم [ʾaḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifa al-ʾaqālīm] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 3)‎, Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1877, 1906, page 165, line 11:
   • a. 1000, المقدسي, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم [ʾaḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifa al-ʾaqālīm] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 3)‎, Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1877, 1906, page 169, line 11:
   • a. 1283, Abū Yahyā Zakariyāʾ ibn Muhammad al-Qazwīnīy, edited by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات [ʿajāʾib al-maḵlūqāt wa-ḡarāʾib al-mawjūdāt]‎, Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, published 1849, page 250:
   • 2018 December 2, “فلسطيني يصنع آلة موسيقية تقليدية عمرها 5 آلاف عام”, in AlQuds.com‎, archived from the original on 3 December 2018:

     وعادةً ما يتم تصنيعه باستخدام خشب شجرة التنوب أو خشب السدر المتين والذي يسمح للأداة بصوت نقي.

     Usually the fabrication takes place under utilization of spruce wood or thick buckthorn wood which confers the instrument a pure resonance.

2. fir, conifer, pine
   1. Christmas tree

• Freytag, Georg (1830) “تنوب”, 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 201
• Jacob, Georg (1892) Studien in arabischen Geographen‎ (in German), volume 4, Berlin: Meyer & Müller, page 156