amzwar

Tashelhit

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Afroasiatic *m-

Proto-Berber *-m-

Medieval Tashelhit اَمْـ (am-)

Tashelhit am-

Proto-Berber *əzwur

Tashelhit izwur

Tashelhit amzwar

From am- +‎ izwur (“to be first”), literally “the first”. Compare semantically with Old English fruma.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /amzwar/

Noun

amzwar m (plural imzwur, Tifinagh spelling ⴰⵎⵣⵡⴰⵔ, Arabic spelling آمزوار)

1. chief, clan leader, head of a subfraction

   Synonyms: amɣar, ixf

2. a rural watchman
3. an individual endowed with baraka who inaugurates the ploughing season
4. a syndic of the shurafa
5. head of the ljmaɛt

Inflection

Inflection of amzwar

	singular	plural
free state	amzwar	imzwur
annexed state	umzwar	imzwur

See also

• amzwaru (“first”)
• anflus (“tribal council”)
• taqbilt (“tribe”)

References

• Stroomer, Harry (2025), Dictionnaire berbère tachelḥiyt-français — Tome 1 A–E (Handbook of Oriental Studies – Handbuch der Orientalistik; 188/1) (in French), Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 272