قريش

Various theories exist. One theory cites the Diminutive form of قِرْش (qirš, “shark, any large fish that eats smaller fish”); the name semantically is parallel to being the top dog, as sharks are apex predators at the top of their food chain. 9th-century scholar Hisham ibn al-Kalbi asserted that the name stemmed from تَقَرُّش (taqarruš, “coming together”) to denote the various tribes unified under Quraysh.