Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ BŠR_2a ‘skin’ ↗bašaraẗ .
▪ BŠR_2b ‘to touch, be in direct contact with s.o.; to have sexual intercourse; to initiate’ ↗bāšara .
▪ BŠR_2c ‘man, mankind’ ↗bašar .

▪ Ultimately, the items of this entry all go well back to Sem *baśar‑ ‘skin, flesh’ (as reconstructed by DRS 2 (1994)).
▪ BŠR_2b ‘to touch, be in direct contact with s.o.; to have sexual intercourse’ < *‘to have skin-to-skin contact’.
▪ The Sem cognates suggest that also BŠR_2c ‘man, mankind’ belongs here and is thus akin to bašaraẗ ‘skin’.

▪ eC7 Q

DRS 2 (1994)#BŚR-2: Ug bšr, Hbr baśār ‘chair’; Pun bšr ‘enfant, descendant’; JP bᵉśar, bᵉsar, biśrā, bisrā, Syr besrā, Mand bisra, nSyr bisra, pisra ‘chair’; Ar bašar ‘peau’, SAr bśr ‘peau’ ou ‘chair’, Gz bāsor, Har Gur bäsär ‘chair’; Ar bašara ‘racler (une peau)’; ? Te bašur ‘selle de mariée’. – Ar bašara ‘avoir commerce charnel avec’, ‘avoir un contact immédiat avec, entreprendre personnellement, surveiller de près (un travail)’; ? nSyr *mbašir ‘savoir faire, se tirer d’affaire, être habile’, bašrānā ‘habile’.

▪ Lane I (1863) gives the opinion of some Arab lexicographers that the meaning ‘man, mankind’ of bašar »is a secondary application of the word […], i.e., this signification is tropical« and that »a human being is thus called because his bašaraẗ [‘skin’] is bare of hair and of wool« (s.v. bašar).
▪ Furthermore, Lane mentions that Arab lexicographers suggest a connexion between ‘good news’ (BŠR_1) and ‘skin’ (BŠR_2) in that they interpret [the vb.] bašira a / bašara i as »he became changed in his bašaraẗ (or >complexion) by the annunciation of an event […] and, hence, he rejoiced […]« (op.cit., s.v. bšr 1.).
▪ Jeffery1938, 79-80: »The primitive verb bašara ʻto peel off bark’ [↗BŠR_2 ], then ʻto remove the surface of a thing’, i.e. to ʻsmooth’, is not found in the Qurʔān, though it occurs in the old literature. From this we find bašar un ‘skin’ and thence ʻflesh’, as Syr besrā; Hbr bāśār ¹ ; Akk bišru ʻblood-relation’, whence it is an easy transition to the meaning ʻman’, cf. Hbr bāśār; Syr bar bisrā (pl. banī bisrā = [Grk] ánthrōpoi). bašar^un in this sense occurs frequently in the Qurʔān² and Ahrens, Christliches, 38, thinks it is of Aramaic origin. – The wider use of the root in the Qurʔān, however, is in the sense of ʻto announce good tidings’ […]. This use, however, seems not to be original in Ar but derived from the older religions [etc., ↗BŠR_1 ].«

1. So Sab bs²r and Eth [Gz] bāsor, but these apparently developed late under Jewish or Christian influence. 2. And note bāšara ʻto go in unto a wife’ (ii, 183, only), with Hbr bāśār ‘membrum virile’ [BDB : ‘male organ of generation’ = an euphemism]; Syr bisrā ʻper euphemismum de pudendis viri et feminae.’

–

► bašara, u, vb. I, to scrape off, shave off, scratch off; to grate, shred: the proper etymon?
► bāšara, vb. III, to touch, be in direct contact with; to have sexual intercourse with; to attend, apply o.s., take up, take in hand, pursue, practice, carry out (s.th., a job, a task, etc.): properly *‘to have skin-to-skin, or flesh-to-flesh, contact with s.o.’.

► ^BP#3786bašaraẗ, n.f., outer skin, epidermis, cuticle; skin; complexion: the proper etymon?
► bašarī, adj., epidermal, skin (adj.): nsb-adj from bašaraẗ | ṭabīb b. dermatologist.
► mibšaraẗ, pl. mabāširᵘ, n., skraper, grater: n.instr.
► ^BP#1150mubāšaraẗ, n.f., pursuit practice; direct, physical cause (Isl.Law): vn. III; mubāšaratan, adv., immediately, directly: temporal acc. of vn. III, giving adv. of time.
► mabšūr: ǧubnaẗ m.aẗ shredded cheese: PP I.
► ^BP#912mubāšir, adj., direct; immediate; live (broadcast): PA III, properly *‘having skin-to-skin contact’; – (pl. ‑ūn) practitioner, pursuer, operator; director; manager (Eg.); court usher (Syr.): nominalized PA III.

For bašar ‘man, mankind’, ^BP#1120bašarī ‘human’, and ^BP#2953bašariyyaẗ ‘mankind’ ↗bašar.

For the theme ‘(to announce) good news’ cf. ↗BŠR_1.

bāšar‑ باشر

ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√BŠR

vb., III

to touch, be in direct contact with; to have sexual intercourse with; to attend, apply o.s., take up, take in hand, pursue, practice, carry out (sth, a job, a task, etc.) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ From bašaraẗ < Sem *bašar‑ ‘skin, flesh’, the original meaning thus being *‘to have skin-to-skin contact’

▪ …

See ↗BŠR_2.

Lane I 1863 gives the Arab lexicographers’ interpretation: in the phrase bāšara ‘l-marʔaẗ, the word means »He was, or became, in contact with the woman, skin to skin […,] he enjoyed [contact with] her skin […,] he became in contact with her, skin to skin both being within one garment, or piece of cloth […,] he lay with her, [skin to skin, or in the sense of] inivit eam «. – In the phrase bāšara ‘l-ʔamr, the meaning »He superintended, managed, or conducted, the affair himself, or in his own person« is interpreted »properly« as »he managed, or conducted, the affair with hisbašaraẗ, i.e., his own hand […] and hence a later application of the verb in the sense of […] ↗lāḥaẓa he regarded, or attended to, the thing, or affair, &c.« (ibid., s.v. bšr 3.).

–

► ^BP#1150mubāšaraẗ, n.f., pursuit practice; direct, physical cause (Isl.Law): vn. III; mubāšaratan, adv., immediately, directly: temporal acc. of vn. III, giving adv. of time.
► ^BP#912mubāšir, adj., direct; immediate; live (broadcast): PA III; – (pl. ‑ūn) practitioner, pursuer, operator; director; manager (Eg.); court usher (Syr.): nominalized PA III.

bašar بشر

√BŠR

man, human being; men, mankind – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Kogan2011: It seems that the word for ‘man, human being; men, mankind’ is akin to bašaraẗ ‘skin’ and ultimately goes back to protWSem *baśar‑ ‘skin, flesh, meat’. The original sense then would be *‘the being(s) with skin/flesh’.

▪ eC7 Q

▪ The Sem cognates suggest that bašar ‘man, mankind’ and bašaraẗ ‘skin’ are semantically related. Lane I 1863 gives the opinion of some lexicographers that bašar is »a secondary application of the word […], i.e., this signification is tropical; or, as some say, the word is so much used in this sense as to be, so used, conventionally regarded as proper; the sense not depending upon its having another word connected with it: but […] by the generality of authors, this signification is given as proper. […] Some say that a human being is thus called because his bašaraẗ [‘skin’] is bare of hair and of wool« (s.v. bašar). Furthermore, he mentions that Arab lexicographers suggest a connexion between ‘good news’ (bšr_1) and ‘skin’ (bšr_2) in that they interpret the vb. bašira a / bašara i as »He became changed in his bašaraẗ (or ‘complexion’) by the annunciation of an event […] and hence, he rejoiced […]« (op.cit., s.v. bšr 1.).
▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BŚR-2: From Sem *baśar‑ ‘skin, flesh’.

–

► ^BP#1120bašarī, adj., human: nsb-adj; n., human being: nominalized nsb-adj. – See also ↗bšr_2.
► ^BP#2953bašariyyaẗ, n., humankind, human race: n.abstr. in ‑iyyaẗ.

For the semantic complexes ‘scrape, peel; skin’ (bašaraẗ, mibšaraẗ, mabšūr) as well as ‘pursuit, practice’ and ‘directness, immediateness’ (bāšara, mubāšaraẗ, mubāšir) ↗BŠR_2.

For all items connected to the value ‘(to announce) good news’ ↗BŠR_1.

bašariyyaẗ بَشَرِيّة

√BŠR

n.f.

mankind

▪ …abstr. formation in -iyyaẗ

bašaraẗ بَشَرَة

√BŠR

n.f.

outer skin, epidermis, cuticle; skin; complexion – WehrCowan1979.

▪ …

↗BŠR_2.

–

► bašara, u, vb. I, to scrape off, shave off, scratch off; to grate, shred: derived from lemma, or vice the lemma’s proper etymon?
► bāšara, vb. III, to touch, be in direct contact with; to have sexual intercourse with; to attend, apply o.s., take up, take in hand, pursue, practice, carry out (s.th., a job, a task, etc.): properly *‘to have skin-to-skin, or flesh-to-flesh, contact with s.o.’.

► bašarī, adj., epidermal, skin (adj.): nsb-adj from bašaraẗ | ṭabīb b. dermatologist.
► mibšaraẗ, pl. mabāširᵘ, n., skraper, grater: n.instr.
► ^BP#1150mubāšaraẗ, n.f., pursuit practice; direct, physical cause (Isl.Law): vn. III; mubāšaratan, adv., immediately, directly: temporal acc. of vn. III, giving adv. of time.
► mabšūr, adj.: ǧubnaẗ m.aẗ shredded cheese: PP I.
► ^BP#912mubāšir, adj., direct; immediate; live (broadcast): PA III, properly *‘having skin-to-skin contact’; – (pl. ‑ūn) practitioner, pursuer, operator; director; manager (Eg.); court usher (Syr.): nominalized PA III.

For bašar ‘man, mankind’, ^BP#1120bašarī ‘human’, and ^BP#2953bašariyyaẗ ‘mankind’ ↗bašar.

For the theme ‘(to announce) good news’ cf. ↗BŠR_1.

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