قتاد

Meaning

milkvetch (Astragalus gen. et spp.)

Concepts

lead

lead away

tragacanth

bed of thorns

Pronounced as (IPA)

/qa.taːd/

Etymology

Regressively assimilated respectively progressively dissimilated in voicedness from dialectal variants قَدَاد (qadād), قَتَات (qatāt), also قَدِيد (qadīd), قَتِيت (qatīt), from قَدَّ (qadda), قَتَّ (qatta, “to snithe into strips, to cut lengthwise”) – the former more known, the latter however reflected in قَتّ (qatt, “lucerne”) and قَات (qāt, “qat”) –, as cutting, slitting is what one does with the milk-vetches, whose profusion of sap was also the motive for the derivation of كَثِيرَاء (kaṯīrāʔ, “tragacanth, gum of milk-vetches”).