A casbah is a citadel or a fortified quarter of an Arab city. Does it have a cognate in Hebrew?
Casbah (sometimes spelled kasbah) entered English from French, which got it from North African Arabic, where kasba meant "fortress." In Hebrew today it is spelled קַסְבָּה.
In Arabic, in addition to fort/citadel, kasba can also mean "reed, cane, pipe." There are two theories as to how the two meanings are connected. Some say that word originally referred to reeds (cane) used in building (for example as insulation), and from there became associated with the kind of buildings/fortified compounds where that material was used. Others say that both meanings descend from a common root, "to cut." Just like pipes are cut when preparing them, a citadel or walled district is "cut off" from the area that surrounds it.
The meaning "to cut" is where we find the cognate in Hebrew - קצב katzav. It can either mean literally "to cut" (as in Melachim II 6:6) or more associatively, "to set aside a fixed amount."
The root קצב only appears a handful of times as a noun or verb in Biblical Hebrew. But its use expands beginning in Rabbinic Hebrew, and then continuing into Modern Hebrew.
Maintaining the original physical sense of cutting, is the word katzav קַצָּב meaning "butcher." But the associative sense gives more meanings.
Money / amounts / bureaucracy:
- הִקְצִיב hiktziv - “allocated”
- תַּקְצִיב takziv - “budget”
- קִצְבָּה kitzba - “allowance / pension”
- קֶצֶב ketzev - "pace / rate / tempo / rhythm" (in music and in life)
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