Editing Jinn (section)

==Etymology and translation==
[[Image:Blessing genie Dur Sharrukin.jpg|thumb|The [[winged genie]] in the [[bucket and cone]] motif, depicting a demi-divine entity,<ref name=Fee-Webb-2016>
{{cite book
 |last1=Fee  |first1=C.R.  |author1-link=Christopher R. Fee
 |last2=Webb |first2=Jeffrey B.
 |date=29 August 2016
 |title=American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An encyclopedia of American folklore
 |publisher=ABC-CLIO
 |isbn=978-1-610-69568-8
 |page=527
}}
</ref>
probably a forerunner of the [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|pre-Islamic]] tutelary deities, who became the jinn in Islam. Relief from the north wall of the Palace of king [[Sargon II]] at [[Dur Sharrukin]], 713–716&nbsp;BCE.]]

''Jinn'' is an Arabic [[collective number|collective noun]] deriving from the [[Semitic root]] {{sc|jnn}} ({{langx|ar|جَنّ / جُنّ}}, ''jann''), whose primary meaning is 'to hide' or 'to adapt'. Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, 'beings that are concealed from the senses'.<ref>
{{cite web
 |last=Lane |first=Edward William
 |year=1863
 |title=An Arabic-English Lexicon
 |place=London, UK
 |publisher=Willams & Norgate
 |page=462
 |url=http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/
 |via=tyndalearchive.com   |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408021742/http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/
 |archive-date=8 April 2015
}}
</ref>
[[Cognate]]s include the Arabic ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|majnūn}}'' ({{lang|ar|مَجْنُون}}, 'possessed' or, generally, 'insane'), ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|[[jannah]]}}'' ({{lang|ar|جَنَّة}}, 'garden', 'eden' or 'heaven'), and ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|janīn}}'' ({{lang|ar|جَنِين}}, 'embryo').<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Wehr |first=Hans |author-link=Hans Wehr
 |year=1994
 |title=Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic  |edition=4
 |title-link=Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic
 |publisher=Spoken Language Services
 |place=Urbana, IL
 |isbn=978-0-87950-003-0
 |page=164
}}
</ref>
''Jinn'' is properly treated as a plural (however in [[Classical Arabic]], may also appear as ''jānn'', {{langx|ar|جَانّ|label=none}}), with the singular being ''jinnī'' ({{langx|ar|جِنِّيّ|label=none}}),{{Efn|sometimes Arabs use Jānn ({{langx|ar|جان}}) term for singular, jānn also referred to jinn world – another plural, snakes / serpents and [[Jann (legendary creature)|another type of jinn]]}} which the English word "genie" is derived from.

The origin of the word ''jinn'' remains uncertain.<ref name="Nünlist-2015"/>{{rp|style=ama|p=22}} Some scholars relate the Arabic term ''jinn'' to the [[Latin]] ''[[genius (mythology)|genius]]'' – a guardian spirit of people and places in [[ancient Roman religion|Roman religion]] – as a result of [[syncretism]] during the reign of the Roman empire under [[Tiberius]] and [[Augustus]];{{Sfn|El-Zein|2009|p=38}} however, this derivation is also disputed.<ref name=Nünlist-2015/>{{rp|style=ama|p=25}} Supporters argue that both Roman genii as well as Arabian jinn are considered to be lesser deities inhabiting local [[sanctuary|sanctuaries]], trees or springs, and persons or families.<ref name="Abu-Hamdiyyah, Muhammad 2020">
{{cite book
 |last=Abu-Hamdiyyah |first=Muhammad
 |year=2020
 |title=The Qur'an: An introduction
 |publisher=Routledge
}}
</ref> [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] ''ginnaya'' ({{langx|syc|ܓܢܝܐ}}) with the meaning of '[[tutelary deity]]'<ref name=Nünlist-2015/>{{rp|style=ama|p=24}} or 'guardian' are attributed to similar functions and are another possible origin of the term ''jinn''.

Another suggestion holds that the word is of [[Persian language|Persian]] origin and appeared in the form of the [[Avestic]] ''Jaini'', a wicked (female) spirit. Jaini were among various creatures in the possibly even [[Zoroastrians in Iran|pre-Zoroastrian]] mythology of [[Iranian peoples|peoples of Iran]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=W.S.C. |last=Tisdall |author-link=W. St. Clair Tisdall
 |year=1905
 |title=The Original Sources of the Qur'an
 |publisher=[[Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge]]
 |place=London, UK
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |first=W.S.C. |last=Tisdall |author-link=W. St. Clair Tisdall
 |year=1895
 |title=The Religion of the Crescent or Islam: Its strength, its weakness, its origin, its influence
}}
</ref> Wensick advocates a purely Arabic origin of the term, asserting that according to the common Semitic view psychic and bodily affections are caused by spirits. An object reacting upon such an affect would be an incarnation of said spirit. Since these spirits are covered from the sight of humans, they would have been called jinn.<ref name=MagicAndDivination-2021/>{{rp|style=ama|p=45}}

The [[Anglicization|anglicized]] form ''genie'' is a borrowing of the French ''{{lang|fr|génie}}'', also from the Latin ''genius''.<ref name=oed>
{{cite dictionary
 |title=genie, ''n''.
 |year=2014
 |dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |edition=3rd
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |place=Oxford, UK
 |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/genie_n?tl=true
}}
</ref> It first appeared in 18th&nbsp;century translations of the ''[[The Book of One Thousand and One Nights|Thousand and One Nights]]'' from the 1706 French edition,<ref>
{{cite book
 |title=Arabian Nights' Entertainments
 |year=1706
 |volume=I |page=14
}}
</ref>
where it had been used owing to its rough similarity in sound and sense and further applies to benevolent intermediary spirits, in contrast to the malevolent spirits called '[[demon]]' and mostly-benevolent 'heavenly angels', in literature.<ref>
{{cite book
 |editor-first=John L. |editor-last=Mckenzie
 |year=1995
 |title=Dictionary of the Bible
 |place=New York
 |publisher=Simon and Schuster
 |isbn=978-0-684-81913-6
 |page=192
}}
</ref>
In [[Assyrian art]], the modern term used for creatures [[ontology|ontologically]] between humans and divinities is also ''genie''.<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=Mehmet-Ali |last=Ataç
 |year=2010
 |title=Mythology of Kingship in Neo-Assyrian Art
 |publisher=Cambridge University Press
 |isbn=978-0-521-51790-4
 |page=36
}}
</ref>

Though not a precise fit, descriptive analogies that have been used for these beings in Western thought include ''demon'', ''spirit'', "sprite", and ''fairy'', depending on source.<ref>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |title=jinn – definition of ''jinn'' in English
 |dictionary=Oxford Dictionaries
 |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/jinn
 |url-status=dead  |access-date=27 August 2017
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403193038/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/jinn
 |archive-date=3 April 2019
}}
</ref><ref name=Nünlist-2015>
{{cite book
 |last=Nünlist |first=Tobias
 |year=2015
 |title=Dämonenglaube im Islam
 |trans-title=Demonic Belief in Islam
 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
 |isbn=978-3-110-33168-4
 |language=de
}}
</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p=22}}
In turn, the Arabic translation for the Greek [[nymph]] ('''arūsa'') is also used for jinn by Middle Eastern sources.<ref name=MagicAndDivination-2021/>{{rp|style=ama|p=43}}
Although the term ''spirit'' is frequently used, it has been criticised for not capturing the corporeal nature of the jinn, and that the term ''genie'' should be used instead.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Haring |first=Lee
 |year=1995
 |title=Africa and the Disciplines: The contributions of research in Africa to the social sciences and humanities
 |pages=122–124
}}
</ref>