Proto-Semitic root

*rtḳ

‘to tie up, fetter; to close up’

di Mino’s gloss: to bind fast, fetter, close up

In Linear A1 entry

*21F-RI-TU-QAha-ritūqathe tied, sealed (packet)SpeculativeSemitic1

Notes

DULAT 737 sets Hebrew rtq ‘to be fettered’ and Arabic rataqa ‘to close up’ beside Ugaritic rtqt ‘to tie up / close’ (k rtqt mrġt ‘because you tied up corruption (?)’, KTU 1.13:24), with Akkadian ratāqu ‘to join together (?)’ (CAD R 218, lexical). HALOT 1300 calls the Ugaritic not yet explained with certainty, compares Arabic rataqa ‘to mend, sew together’ and Jewish Aramaic ritqā ‘fence, enclosure’, and keeps Middle Hebrew rātaq ‘to knock’ and Syriac rtq ‘to sting’ apart.

Reflexes3 languages

Northwest Semitic2

Hebrewrtq pu. ruttǝqû (Nah 3:10) (HALOT 1300)gloss withheld
Ugaritic/r-t-q/ G (DULAT 737)gloss withheld

Arabic1

Arabicrataqa 'he closed up, and repaired, a renthe sewed up, or together'irtataqa ‘it was closed up’ (Lane 1027)

† Gloss withheld: the cited dictionary’s licence is closed, so its form and page stand without its gloss.