دقل

Meaning

a variety of dates (fruit and tree)

Concepts

date

📅

mainmast

mast

Etymology

From Proto-West Semitic *daqal-, in Akkadian only found in the toponymy of Chaldean territory, and likewise the Arabic is suspect to be influenced by semantic loan from Aramaic דִקְלָא (diqlā, “date palm; topgallant”) for the sense of a “mast”, compare also سَارِيَة (sāriya, “post, mast”) from Aramaic, though the mast sense is also found in Mehri dəqāl (“mast”), Soqotri daqal (“pole”). Hebrew דֶּגֶל (déḡel, “a flag”), is related to Akkadian dagālu (“to look at”).
The sort of dates denoted by this word varies according to time. In antiquity, it denoted in particular a date palm that produced an abundant number of dates, however of an inferior quality, often characterized by being hard, small, or having a meager ratio of flesh compared to its pit. In modernity the meaning has switched to denote a supreme kind of date; the semantic shift seems to have been brought on by the popular variety دَقَلَة النُور (daqala(t) an-nūr, “heavenly or divine dates”, literally “date palm of light”), so-named for producing a harvest as numerous as the ill-tasting variety, yet instead of being the expected unpleasant taste, they have a notoriously heavenly soft honey-like taste.