▪ Huehnergard2011 #snn states that
sunnaẗ is (deverb.) from <
sanna ‘to sharpen, shape; to prescribe’, which is (denom.) from
sinn ‘tooth’ < ComSem *
šinn ‘tooth’.
▪ Nişanyan (02Feb2014):
sunnaẗ is from Ar
sanna ‘1. to bite, nibble, gnaw; to sharpen, whet, grind; 2. to set up a rule or norm’, from Ar
sinn ‘tooth’. »The ultimate source of the Ar word is the old Arab tribes’ habit of filing the teeth of male children who had reached a certain age, in order to sharpen them«.
1
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▪ In ClassAr, a number of additional values are attested for
sunnaẗ and related items. Those that with all likelihood belong to the same semantic group are: ▪
†sanna, vb. I, ‘to form, fashion, shape, make long; to plaster (pottery with clay)’ (having the idea of ‘shaping, form-giving, fashioning’ in common with
sunnaẗ in the sense of ‘norm’); ▪
†sunnaẗ ‘nature, natural disposition, temper’ (lit., *o.’s habit?); ▪
†sunnaẗ ‘(handsome long) face’ (lit., *the well-formed, beautifully shaped one?). – More doubtful: ▪
†sunnaẗ ‘black line, or streak, on the back of the ass’; ▪
†sunnaẗ,
sinnaẗ ‘sort of Medinan dates’; ▪
†sanan ‘(middle part of) way, road’.
▪ In ClassAr, there are not only
sanaẗ ‘year’ and
sinaẗ ‘slumber, doze’ that have the same
rasm سنة as
sunnaẗ, but also
†sannaẗ ‘she-bear’ and
†sinnaẗ ‘double-edged axe; ploughshare; coin, money’ (values given as in Steingass1884 / Wahrmund1887).