Proto-Semitic root

*badal-

‘exchange’, ‘separate’

di Mino’s gloss: to exchange, substitute; separate

In Linear A1 entry

PI-TA-RAbidālatrade agents, deputies, a personnel group drawing grainSpeculativeSemitic1

Notes

GEZ badala ‘exchange’ is from Ar. badala (LGz. 86). HALOT 110 sets Hebrew bdl ‘divide, withdraw’ beside Arabic badala ‘substitute’, II ‘change, exchange’, and Ugaritic bdlm ‘merchants’ under one root.

Reflexes5 languages

East Semitic1

Eblaiticba-da-lum, ba-da-lu-um ‘royal deputy’, not ‘merchant’ (ELISIR s.v. ba-da-lum)

Northwest Semitic3

AramaicBDL (Aramaic Root Atlas; CAL s.v. bdl)gloss withheldAnderson–Moser 2024 root bdl
Hebrewbadal ‘divide’ (BDB 95)Anderson–Moser 2024 root bdl
Ugariticbdl (Kogan 2015, ch. 5 §3.2.1.2 no. 4)gloss withheldAnderson–Moser 2024 root bdl

Arabic1

Arabicbadala ‘changed’Anderson–Moser 2024 root bdl

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