Qaf
/qɑːf/noun
Qaf is the name of the Arabic letter ق and, in Islamic and Persian cosmological traditions, a legendary mountain at the edge of the world.
Did you know?In Islamic folklore, Mount Qaf was imagined as a colossal boundary mountain surrounding the world, sometimes described as the dwelling place of supernatural beings.
Etymological Timeline
Phoenician, 1st millennium BCE
Phoenician
𐤒 (qōp)
“The name of a consonantal letter, ancestral to later Semitic forms; its original pictorial meaning is uncertain.”
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
קֹף (qōf)
“The name of the letter ק, represented by the sound /q/.”
Ancient Aramaic
Aramaic
קוף (qōp)
“The corresponding Semitic letter-name and consonant.”
Classical Arabic
Arabic
قاف (qāf)
“The name of the Arabic letter ق, pronounced as a uvular stop in Classical Arabic.”
Medieval Arabic and Persian tradition
Arabic/Persian
جبل قاف (Jabal Qāf)
“The legendary Mount Qaf, a supernatural mountain said to surround or mark the limits of the inhabited world.”
Modern English
English
qaf
“An English loanword referring to the Arabic letter, and sometimes to the legendary cosmic mountain.”