Etymologies of the Camel

Camels are given their name because when loaded they are made to be low and humble [breviores et humiles] in their laying down.

-Etymologies, Isidore of Seville (560-636 CE)

KhairAllah would say Wāti’ wa Miskīn for Breviores et Humiles, Wāti’, Low, coming from the verb Wati’a, meaning, He Trod or He Trampled with his feet, which Lane gives in an example of a variant adjectival form with a variant meaning, Dābba Wati’a, A Riding Animal Easy to Ride…that is, a Camel. And Miskīn was a word we used frequently to describe the drover Muhammad in his tattered clothes and all-accepting manner whose meaning made most sense in its Biblical formula, Poor in Spirit.