عجق

Related to Hijazi Arabic مَعْزُوق (maʕzūg, “cramped, stuck”), which is from the passive participle of Arabic عَزِقَ (ʕaziqa, “to stick to”). (This, alongside the intermediate عَسِقَ (ʕasiqa, “to stick to”), was a Classical variant of Arabic عَشِقَ (ʕašiqa, “to stick to”).)

The Arabic radicals ج (j) and ق (q) were historically forbidden from coexisting in a root, owing to a phonetic constraint developed at least as early as Proto-West Semitic when the former was still [ɡ]. This constraint presumably survived into Arabic until ج (*g) palatalized and distanced itself from ق (q), so any Arabic word that now collocates the two sounds must either reflect a recent sporadic sound change or a borrowing from another language.

Because of this, the ج (j) of North Levantine Arabic عجق (ʕajaʔ) cannot be original. It may instead originate in the ش (š) of Arabic عَشِقَ (ʕašiqa) or in the ز (z) observed in the Hijazi Arabic cognate. For more on the latter possibility, which is that ز (z) developed sporadically into ج (j) in this word, see the development of جَقَر (jaʔar, “to glower (at)”) and جَعَق (jaʕaʔ, “to scream, to shout”).

Early dictionaries of vernacular Arabic, like Dozy and Salmone, only record senses of عجق (ʕajaʔ) related to overwhelming and encroaching on someone, which are reasonably similar to the Classical verbs' senses and suggest that the "to clutter" sense is modern.

• IPA^(key): /ʕa.ʒaʔ/
• (Druze, coastal Syria) IPA^(key): /ʕa.ʒaq/

عجق • (ʕajaʔ) I (non-past يعجق (yiʕjuʔ))

1. to clutter
2. to overwhelm, to occupy (someone)
3. (possibly obsolete) to shove
4. (possibly obsolete) to surround

• عجقة (ʕajʔa)

Intensive of the above's "to clutter" sense.

• IPA^(key): /ʕaʒ.ʒaʔ/
• (Druze, coastal Syria) IPA^(key): /ʕaʒ.ʒaq/

عجق • (ʕajjaʔ) II (non-past يعجق (yʕajjiʔ))

1. to do too much at once

   Synonym: خَبَّص (ḵabbaṣ)

• IPA^(key): /ʕi.ʒiʔ/
• (Druze, coastal Syria) IPA^(key): /ʕi.ʒiq/

عجق • (ʕijiʔ) (feminine عجقة (ʕijʔa), common plural عجقين (ʕijʔīn))

1. cluttered, messy