Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ŠRB_1 ‘to drink, inhale, absorb; (caus.) to irrigate’ ↗šariba
▪ ŠRB_2 ‘to raise the head’ ↗ĭšraʔabba
▪ ŠRB_3 ‘moustache’ ↗šārib
▪ ŠRB_4 ‘tassel, tuft, bob’ ↗šarrābaẗ
▪ ŠRB_5 ‘(oriel window with) turned wooden latticework’ ↗mašrabiyyaẗ
▪ ŠRB_6 ‘soup’ ↗šūrbaẗ
▪ ŠRB_7 ‘stocking, sock’ ↗šurrāb

Other values, now obsolete or dialectal only:

^†ŠRB_8 ‘doe, hind’: širbaẗ (Dozy)
^†ŠRB_9 ‘palm-tree that grows from the date stone’: šarbaẗ (pl. ‑āt, šarāʔibᵘ, šarābībᵘ) (Lane)
^†ŠRB_10 ‘people, or party, dwelling upon the side of a river, and to whom belongs the water thereof’: šāribaẗ (Lane)
^†ŠRB_11 ‘soft, plain land, in which is always herbage’: mašrabaẗ ; ‘id.; side of a valley’ ↗šarabbaẗ (Lane)
^†ŠRB_12 ‘way, mode, or manner of being, or acting etc.’: šarabbaẗ (Lane)
^†ŠRB_13 ‘tangled and dense, one part above another (herbage)’ (adj.): šurbub (Freytag), šurbubb (Lane)
ŠRB_14 ‘(EgAr, rur) dried mud’: širb
ŠRB_15 ‘(EgAr, carp) to plane (wood)’: šarrab
^†ŠRB_16 ‘to understand, apprehend (a discourse): šaraba, u (šarb).

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1a to drink, imbibe, absorb; to inhale (= ŠRB_1); 1b to irrigate (caus. of ŠRB_1). – 2 to raise the head’ (=ŠRB_2)’.

▪ ŠRB_1 šariba ‘to drink, inhale, absorb’: from Sem *śrb (or *śrṗ) ‘to sip, absorb, drink’
▪ ŠRB_2 ĭšraʔabba ‘to raise the head’, usually seen as derived from ŠRB_1 ‘to drink’ and explained as *‘to crane o.’s neck, reach out to obtain s.th. to drink’ or ‘to raise the head in order to swallow (of birds, animals, etc.)’; may however also be from a 4-cons. √ŠRʔB, or from an archaic Š-stem of RBB with the value ‘to stretch out, prolong; to let down’.
▪ ŠRB_3 šārib (mostly du.det.: al-šāribān) ‘moustache’: usually regarded as derivation from ŠRB_1 ‘to drink’ in the sense of *‘the (co-)drinker(s), the two hairy parts through which water etc. is imbibed’ or (Gabal2012:) *‘hair that flows down into the mouth’; but cf. ŠRB_2, ŠRB_4 and ŠRB_13.
▪ ŠRB_4 šarrābaẗ ‘tassel, tuft, bob’: related to ŠRB_2 ‘to raise the head’ and ŠRB_3 ‘moustache’? Cf. also ŠRB_13.
▪ ŠRB_5 mašrabiyyaẗ ‘(oriel window with) turned wooden latticework’: probably from n.loc. (ŠRB_1) mašrab ‘drinking place, esp. room in an upper floor’; such rooms often had oriels overlooking the street or garden (hence probably influence of mašraf ‘elevated site’, ↗ŠRF) with niches, often made from turned wooden latticework, in which earthen jars (also called mašrabiyyaẗ ‘[vessel] from which to drink’) were put in order to cool. Semantic development thus probably: ‘drinking place’ > ‘oriel (of a drinking place)’ > ‘wooden lattice work (of oriels of drinking rooms)’. – Cf. however ŠRB_15, an EgAr vb. II for ‘to plane (wood)’!
▪ ŠRB_6 šūrbaẗ ‘soup’: (via Tu çorba?) from Pers šōrbā ‘meat stock, soup’.
▪ ŠRB_7 šurrāb ‘stocking, sock’: from Tu çorap ‘id.’ (< Pers ǧorāb ‘id.’ ?).
▪ ^†ŠRB_8 širbaẗ, pl. širab, n., ‘doe, hind’: etymology obscure.
▪ ^†ŠRB_9 šarbaẗ, pl. ‑āt, šarāʔibᵘ, šarābībᵘ, n., ‘palm-tree that grows from the date stone’: probably akin to ‘water’ and ‘drinking’, thus to ŠRB_1, lit. *‘plant that drinks much’ (?).
▪ ^†ŠRB_10 šāribaẗ, n., ‘people, or party, dwelling upon the side of a river, and to whom belongs the water thereof’: morphologically a PA I f. (ŠRB_1), lit., *‘the drinking (side)’.
▪ ^†ŠRB_11 mašrabaẗ, n., ‘soft, plain land, in which is always herbage’: lit., *‘place/land that absorbs (much water)’; šarabbaẗ , with very rare morphological structure, is said to have the same meaning, more generally also ‘side of a valley’; for yet another meaning see next item.
▪ ^†ŠRB_12 šarabbaẗ, n., ‘way, mode, or manner of being, or acting etc.’: ?
▪ ^†ŠRB_13 šurbub(b), adj., ‘tangled and dense, one part above another (herbage)’: usually seen as derived from ŠRB_1; but cf. ŠRB_2, ŠRB_3 and ŠRB_4.
▪ ŠRB_14 (EgAr, rur) širb, n., ‘dried mud (BadawiHinds), lumps of soil left after ploughing (Corriente2008)’: from Copt čalp ‘mass, lump’ (Crum1939) – Corriente2008 (following Behnstedt 1981:92).
▪ ŠRB_15 (EgAr, carp) šarrab, vb. II, ‘to plane (wood)’: denom. from mašrabiyyaẗ (ŠRB_5)? Or should one assume that mašrabiyyaẗ, contrary to common belief, has nothing to do, etymologically, with ‘to drink’ (ŠRB_1) but with carpentry and planing wood?
▪ ^†ŠRB_16 šaraba, u (šarb), vb. I, ‘to understand, apprehend (a discourse) (still mentioned in Hava1899): fig. use of ŠRB_1 ‘to drink’, i.e., lit., *‘to absorb an idea’?

–

See references given in section CONCISE above.

▪ Engl sherbet, shrub, sorbet, syrup, (and also serpent ?) : see Ar ↗šariba.

–

šarib‑ شَرِبَ , a (šurb , mašrab)

ID 449 • Sw 54/31 • BP 2081 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ŠRB

vb., I

to drink; to sip – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Kogan2011: from protSem *śrb ‘to sip, absorb’. – The basic verb for ‘drinking’ in protSem, *šty, has left no trace in Ar.
▪ … protSem *śrb (or *śrṗ) ‘to sip, absorb, drink’.

▪ eC7 šariba Q 56:68 ʔa-fa-raʔaytum-u ’l-māʔa ’llaḏī tašrabūna ‘do you see the water that you drink?’. – šarāb (drink) Q 16:69 yaḫruǧu min buṭūni-hā šarābun muḫtalifun ʔalwānu-hū fī-hi šifāʔun lil-nāsi ‘from their bellies comes a drink of diverse hues, wherein is healing for mankind’; (the act of drinking) 35:12 hāḏā ʕaḏbun furātun sāʔiġun šarābu-hū ‘this [body of water] is sweet, agreeable for drinking’. – mašrab (drinking place) Q 7:160 qad ʕalima kullu ʔunāsin mašraba-hum ‘each tribe knew their drinking-place’, (drinking place; source of drinking, drinks) 36:73 wa-la-hum fī-hā manāfiʕu wa-mašāribu ‘in them there are benefits for them and (diverse) drinks (or, source of drinking)’

▪ Zammit2002, Kogan2011: Akk sarāpu, pBiblHbr śrp, Syr srp, Gz śrb ‘to sip, absorb, swallow’, Ar šrb ‘to drink’.
▪ Militarev&Kogan SED-I, cxiii:¹ Akk sarāpu ‘to suck, imbibe’ (with s‑ instead of š‑), pBiblHbr śrp ‘to absorb, quaff, sip, suck’, JudAram srp id., Syr srp ‘suxit, sorbsit’, Mand srp ‘to swallow; gulp down’ ~ Ar šrb ‘to drink’, Gz śaraba, saraba ‘to drink, drink up, absorb, sip’, saraṗa ‘to celebrate Mass, bless an object, sip’ (»the sipping of the blessed wine being a part of the Mass«), Te šärbä ‘to devour, suck up’, Amh särräbä ‘to draw up, to suck up water’.
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#2223: mHbr √śrp (= √srp) ‘to suck, imbibe, drink’, JudAram √śrp (= √srp) ‘einschlürfen, Flüssigkeit an sich ziehen’, JudEAram √śrp (= √srp) ‘to gulp down, consume, quaff’, Syr √srp ‘to sup up, swallow up, absorb’, sarbā ‘syrop’, Mand √srp ‘to swallow, gulp down’, Ar √šrb ‘to drink, suck’, Gz √śrb ‘to drink, absorb, sip’; cf. also Ar (< Aram) √srf ‘donner trop de lait à son enfant, le nourrir de lait à l’excès’, Akk (< Aram) sarāpu ‘to sip’. – Outside Sem: [IE] (in addition to Arm and Alb forms) Grk 1sg rhoph-éō, rhyph-éō ‘to sup greedily, gulp down’; oChSl inf. srъbati, Ru inf. serbat’, Cz inf. střebati, Pol inf. sarbać, serbać ‘to sup’; mHG sür(p)feln, Swed sörpla ‘to sip’, as well as nHG schlürfen ‘to sip; to eat/drink noisily’, Engl slurp ‘to eat greedily, noisily’² .)
▪ While most sources juxtapose NSem *ŚRP and Ar ŠRB, Klein1987 thinks that the Ar root corresponding to Hbr *ŚRP is (with metathesis) Ar RŠF ‘to suck, sip, drink’ (↗rašafa).

1. discussing ṗ hypothesis. 2. nHG, Engl: ‑l‑ due to infl. of Germ root represented in nHG inf. schlucken ‘to swallow’.

▪ Huehnergard2011, Kogan2011: from Sem *śrb ‘to sip, to absorb’.
▪ Militarev&Kogan SED-I, cxiii:¹ From Sem *śrṗ ‘to sip, absorb, drink’.
▪ Ehret1989: Ar šariba ‘to drink’ is an extension in extendative *‑b from a 2-consonantal pre-pSem root *ɬr ‘to take a bite, take a sip’. For other extensions from the same base, cf. ↗šarisa ‘to be vicious, malicious, etc.’ (Ehret: *šaras, vn., ‘to devour’), ↗šariqa ‘to swallow the wrong way’, ↗šariha ‘to be greedy for food or drink, eat or drink greedily’.
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#2223: Sem *śrb ‘to drink’ (and, among others, IE *serbʰ‑ / *sorbʰ‑ /*sr̥bʰ‑ ‘to sip, sup, drink’), from Nostr *ś˹o˺rub˅ ‘to drink, gulp, sup, suck’. – The devoicing *b > p in Aram (> mHbr, Akk, Ar) (just as other cases of the variation *b ~*p in Sem) is still to be explained.
▪ Klein1987 points to the fact that NSem *ŚRP has its counterpart in (with metathesis) Ar RŠF ‘to suck, sip, drink’ (↗rašafa), with regular Sem *p > Ar f. So it is not (as Dolgopolsky has it) a devoicing of Sem *b > Aram p that has to be explained, but rather the ‑b in Ar √šrb from Sem *‑p in *√śrp. (This is the reason why some, as Militarev&Kogan, above, assume Sem *śrṗ rather than *śrb).

1. discussing ṗ hypothesis.

▪ Engl sherbet, c1600, zerbet, ‘drink made from diluted fruit juice and sugar’, and cooled with fresh snow when possible, from Tu şerbet,¹ from Pers šarbat, from Ar šarbaẗ ‘a drink’ – EtymOnline.
▪ Engl shrub, from Ar šurb ‘a drinking, drink’ – Huehnergard2011.
▪ Engl sorbet, 1580 s, ‘cooling drink of fruit juice and water’, from Fr sorbet (C16), probably from Ital sorbetto, from Tu şerbet, etc. (see sherbet, above). Perhaps influenced in form by Ital sorbire ‘to sip’. Meaning ‘semi-liquid water ice as a dessert’ first recorded 1864 – EtymOnline.
▪ Engl syrup (formerly also sirup, sirop), lC14, ‘thick, sweet liquid’, from oFr sirop ‘sugared drink’ (C13), and perhaps from Ital siroppo, both from Ar šarāb ‘beverage, wine’. Span jarabe, jarope, and oProv eissarop are directly from Ar; Ital sciroppo is via mLat sirupus – EtymOnline.
▪ Klein1987 connects Engl serpent ‘limbless reptile’ (c1300), the tempter in Gen. iii:1-5, to the lHbr śārap̄ that is usually seen as cognate to Ar šariba. In other etymological dictionaries of Engl, however, incl. Klein’s own CEDEL, this connection is not mentioned. Rather, serpent is traced back, via oFr serpent, serpant, to Lat serpēns, lit. ‘creeping’, from Lat serpere ‘to creep’, cognate to Grk hérpein ‘to creep’, herpetón ‘serpent’ (cf. Engl herpes), oInd sárpati ‘he creeps’, sarpáḥ ‘serpent’, from IE *serp‑ ‘to crawl, creep’ – EtymOnline.

1. According to Nişanyan first attested in ʕĀşık Paşa, Ġarīb-nāme, 1330.

► šariba ’l-duḫān, vb., to smoke.
► šariba sīgāraẗ etc., to smoke a cigarette etc.

► šarraba, vb. II, to give to drink, make or let drink; to drench, soak, saturate, impregnate; to inculcate, imbue: D-stem, caus.
► šāraba, vb. III, to drink in s.o.’s company, have a drink with s.o.: L-stem, associative.
► ʔašraba, vb. IV, to give to drink, make or let drink; to drench, soak, saturate, impregnate; to inculcate, imbue; ʔušriba, vb. pass., to be or become full, be filled, imbued, infused, be dominated, permeated: Š-stem, caus.
► tašarraba, vb. V, to soak up, absorb, imbibe; to be permeated, imbued, infused (bi with s.th.); to be full, be filled, replete (bi with): tD-stem, intr.
► ĭšraʔabba, 1 to stretch one’s neck in order to see (li‑ or ʔilà s.th.), crane one’s neck (li‑ or ʔilà for); 2 to carry one’s head high (out of vanity); to leer (ʔilà at): sometimes interpreted as a var. of form XI, ĭšrābba, and therefore connected to šariba; cf., however, ↗s.v.

► ^BP#2369šurb, n., drinking, drink; absorption: vn. I.
► šarbaẗ, n.f., 1 drink; sip, draught, swallow: n.vic. – 2 dose, potion (of a medicine); 3 laxative, purgative, aperient: specialisations of [v1].
► šurbaẗ, n.f., 1 drink; sip, draught, swallow: n.vic. – 2 dose, potion (of a medicine): specialisation of [v1]. – 3 see ↗šūrbaẗ.
► ^BP#3442šarāb, pl. ʔašribaẗ, n., 1 beverage, drink; 2 wine; 3 fruit juice, fruit syrup, sherbet: quasi-PP I.
► šarrāb, n., drunkard, heavy drinker: ints. formation.
► šarīb, adj., drinkable, potable: quasi-PP I.
► šarrābaẗ, var. šurrābaẗ, pl. šarārībᵘ, n., tassel, tuft, bob: similar idea (‘to hang down’) as in ↗šārib ‘moustache’, which may also be related to ↗ĭšraʔabba (ŠRB_2 and ŠRB_3, respectively, both s.v. ↗ŠRB); cf. also adj. ^†šurbub(b) ‘tangled and dense, one part above another (herbage)’ (ŠRB_13 s.v. ↗ŠRB). | ~ al-rāʕī, n., (European) holly (Ilex aquifolium; bot.).
► širrīb, n., drunkard, heavy drinker: ints. formation.
► mašrab, n., 1 drink (as opposed to food): vn., meaning transfer from action to object of drinking. – 2 (pl. mašāribᵘ) drinking place, water hole, drinking trough, drinking fountain; restaurant, bar: n.loc. – 3 inclination, taste; movement, school (e.g., in philosophy): fig. use (similar to ↗maḏhab; cf. also ^†šarabbaẗ, n., way, mode, or manner of being, or acting etc., = ŠRB_12 s.v. ↗ŠRB).
► mašrabaẗ, pl. mašāribᵘ, n., 1 drinking place, water hole, drinking trough, drinking fountain: n.loc. – 2 = mašrabiyyaẗ, [v1] (see below).
► mašrabiyyaẗ, var. mušrabiyyaẗ, n., 1 moucharaby, projecting oriel window with a wooden latticework enclosure; wooden oriel; attic room: nisba formation, lit. most probably *‘(the oriel) pertaining to the mašrab(aẗ), i.e., to the drinking place, more specifically, the room on an upper floor where drinks are served’; perhaps contaminated, or overlapping, with mašrafiyyaẗ (from mašraf ‘elevated site’, ↗ŠRF, ↗šurfaẗ ‘balcony’ ); or from the earthen jars, likewise called mašrabiyyaẗ (see [v2]), that were put on an small external platforms projecting from the oriels in order to cool; or perhaps from a tech. term used in carpentry for ‘to plane (wood)’ (EgAr šarrab, vb. II, cf. ŠRB_15 s.v. ↗ŠRB), after the turned wooden latticework that is a characteristic arch. feature of the oriels; but the EgAr vb. may also be denom., called after the latticework used in the decoration of oriels. – 2 a kind of drinking vessel: nominalized nsb-adj., lit., ‘the one from which to drink, pertaining to drinking’; vase, pot for flowers: extended meaning of the former.
► tašrīb, n., absorption, soaking up, imbibing: vn. II.
► šārib, pl. -ūn, šarb, šurūb, n., 1 drinking; drinker: PA I. – 2 (pl. šawāribᵘ) mustache, frequently dual: šāribān : usually regarded as derivation from šariba ‘to drink’ in the sense of *‘the (co-)drinker(s), the two hairy parts through which water etc. is imbibed’ or (Gabal2012:) *‘hair that flows down into the mouth’; given the old value, mentioned by Dozy, of ^†‘lip, upper lip’ (lit., the drinking one), the value ‘moustache’ may also be the result of a transfer of meaning from the lip to the hair on it; there is, however, also some semantic affinity with šarrābaẗ (see above), a moustache hanging down from the lip like a ‘tassel, tuft, bob’ (which may be related to ↗ĭšraʔabba = ŠRB_2 in disambiguation entry ↗ŠRB); cf. also the obsol. adj. ^†šurbub(b) ‘tangled and dense, one part above another (herbage)’ (^†ŠRB_13 s.v. ↗ŠRB).
► ^BP#4894mašrūb, pl. ‑āt, drink, beverage: nominalized PP I. | ~āt rūḥiyyaẗ, n.pl., alcoholic beverages, liquors.

šarāb شَراب , pl. ʔašribaẗ

ID … • Sw – • BP 3442 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ŠRB

1 beverage, drink. – 2 wine. – 3 fruit juice, fruit syrup, sherbet – WehrCowan1979.

Quasi-PP I, from ↗šariba ‘to drink’. [v2] and [v3] are specialisations, perh. under the influence of the meanings the word took when it was loaned into Pers and Tu.

▪ eC7 (drink) Q 16:69 yaḫruǧu min buṭūni-hā šarābun muḫtalifun ʔalwānu-hū fī-hi šifāʔun lil-nāsi ‘from their bellies comes a drink of diverse hues, wherein is healing for mankind’; (the act of drinking) 35:12 hāḏā ʕaḏbun furātun sāʔiġun šarābu-hū ‘this [body of water] is sweet, agreeable for drinking’.

↗šariba.

See ↗šariba.

▪ Engl syrup (formerly also sirup, sirop), lC14, ‘thick, sweet liquid’, from oFr sirop ‘sugared drink’ (C13) and perhaps Ital siroppo, both from Ar šarāb ‘beverage, wine’. Span jarabe, jarope, and oProv eissarop are directly from Ar; Ital sciroppo is via mLat sirupus – EtymOnline.

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šurrāb شُرّاب , pl. ‑āt (EgAr šurāb , šarāb – BadawiHinds1986)

√ŠRB

stocking, sock – WehrCowan1979.

šurrāb seems to be borrowed into MSA (probably via EgAr or LevAr) from Tu çorap, OttTu ǧūrāb ‘stocking, sock’, which most probably is from Pers ǧorāb, Ar ǧūrāb ~ ǧurāb ‘id.’

Nişanyan (13Nov2014) s.v. Tu çorap : OttTu cūrāb ‘stocking’, first attested in Meninski’s Thesaurus (1680).

See ↗ǧurāb; but cf. also ↗ǧawrab and ↗ǧirāb.

▪ Phonology and semantics of ǧurāb are almost impossible to disentangle because of mutual influence, and also interference from, and overlapping with, ↗ǧawrab (also meaning ‘socks, stockings’, but having a short ‑a‑ in the second syllable) and ↗ǧirāb ‘traveling bag, knapsack’.

–

šarrābaẗ شَرّابة , var. šurrābaẗ , pl. šarārībᵘ

√ŠRB

n.f.

tassel, tuft, bob – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Like also ↗šārib ‘moustache’, šarrābaẗ (vocalised šurrābaẗ and said to be »probably post-classical« by in Lane iv 1872), is usually regarded as deriving from ↗šariba ‘to drink’. The semantic relation however is nowhere explained in detail and remains rather doubtful.
▪ Therefore, instead of trying to link šārib and šarrābaẗ to ↗šariba, is it not possible that we are dealing with reflexions of another etymon here? I suggest to put šārib and šarrābaẗ together with ↗ĭšraʔabba ~ ĭšrābba ‘to stretch/crane one’s neck’, which seems to be cognate to lHbr širbēḇ ‘1 to stretch out, prolong, enlarge; 2 to draw down, let down’, Aram šarbēḇ ‘to prolong, let hang down, let down’, Š-stems belonging to the complex of Sem *rabb‑ ‘big’ (cf. Ar ↗rabb ‘lord, master’). šārib ‘moustache’ as well as šarrābaẗ ‘tassel’ could then be explained as *‘hanging down’. The unusual phonology—the regular correspondance would be (Sem *š >) Hbr š, Aram š ~ Ar s, and (Sem *ś >) Hbr ś, Aram s, Ar š —could be explained as the result of a late development. – Should it be possible to corroborate this hypothetic etymology, then also ↗mašrabiyyaẗ may have to be reconsidered, see s.v.

According to Lane the word is postClassAr.

No direct cognates, but perh. akin to the complex treated s.v. ↗ĭšraʔabba and ↗šārib (partly also ↗mašrabiyyaẗ).

See section CONCISE above, as well as ↗ŠRB, ↗šariba, ↗ĭšraʔabba, ↗šārib, ↗mašrabiyyaẗ.

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šarrābaẗ al-rāʕī, n., (European) holly (Ilex aquifolium; bot.)

mašrabiyyaẗ مَشْرَبِيّة , var. mušrabiyyaẗ

√ŠRB

n.f.

1 moucharaby, projecting oriel window with a wooden latticework enclosure; wooden oriel; attic room. – 2 a kind of drinking vessel; vase, pot for flowers – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Morphologically, mašrabiyyaẗ is a nominalized nsb-adj., formed from mašrab(aẗ), which in MSA is either a ‘drink, s.th. to drink’ or a ‘drinking place’ (n.loc.).
▪ [v2] is derived from mašrab in the sense of ‘drink’ and thus literally means *‘belonging to drinking’, hence ‘drinking vessel’, whence also generalised to mean *‘vessel, vase (in the form of a drinking jar)’.
▪ The case of [v1] is a bit more complicated, see section DISC below.

▪ …

…

▪ [v1]: While in WehrCowan the meaning of mašrabiyyaẗ is only that of a place (window, oriel, attic), other sources identify the word with a certain technique of turning wood and a characteristic feature of Middle Eastern, esp. Cairo, architecture. In EI², e.g., we find the following description (and etymology): mašrabiyyaẗ »designates a technique of turned wood used to produce lattice-like panels, like those which were used in the past to adorn the windows in traditional domestic architecture. […] The term derives from Ar šariba ‘to drink’. The connection between the turned wood technique and drinking was established last century by E. W. Lane, who describes the mašrabaẗ as a niche attached to such lattice wooden windows and used to keep the water jars cool and fresh for drinking. This interpretation is confirmed by waqf documents, which since the 10th/16th century refer to such niches as mašrabaẗ and also to the turned wood technique as mašrabiyyaẗ. Muḥammad ʕAlī is said to have prohibited the use of mašrabiyyaẗ windows, in order to replace traditional by European architecture. The mašrabiyyaẗ technique is a speciality of Cairo, where it was used with a multitude of patterns and combinations […]« – D. Behrens-Abouseif, art. “Mashrabiyya”, in EI².
▪ Thus, according to the EI² entry, the famous ‘Islamic’ technique of turned wood is called mašrabiyyaẗ after the niches in the windows called mašrabaẗ, these having their name from the drinking jars (= [v2]) that were put into the niches to cool their contents.
▪ Other possible etymologies:

from mašrab(aẗ), but not in the sense of ‘drinking vessel’ (= [v2]) but in that of ‘drinking place’ (= [v1]), more specifically, ‘room on an upper floor where drinks are served’. The nisba formed from mašrab(aẗ) would then refer to s.th. ‘pertaining to the drinking room, mašrab(aẗ) ’, particularly the oriel projecting from this room to the garden or street. Signifying ‘oriel’, mašrabiyyaẗ overlaps, and may have been influenced by, mašrafiyyaẗ, the proper term for ‘projecting balcony enclosed by lattice-like wooden screens’ (BadawiHinds1986), from mašraf ‘elevated site’, cf. ↗ŠRF, ↗šurfaẗ ‘balcony’;
the fact that an oriel is ‘stretching out, projecting, overhanging’ from a fassade relates it semantically to other items of ŠRB such as ↗šārib ‘moustache’ (properly only ‘what overhangs from a moustache into the mouth’), ↗šarrābaẗ ‘tassel’ (hanging down from the roof etc.), and ↗ĭšraʔabba ~ ĭšrābba ‘to stretch/crane one’s neck’. Traditionally, these items too are believed to derive from to ↗šariba ‘to drink’, but it is perhaps more appropriate to link them, and also mašrabiyyaẗ as *‘(niche in) the overhanging one’ to lHbr širbēḇ ‘1 to stretch out, prolong, enlarge; 2 to draw down, let down’ and Aram šarbēḇ ‘to prolong, let hang down, let down’, archaic Š-stems (šap̄ʕel forms) belonging to the complex of Sem *rabb‑ ‘big’ (cf. Ar ↗rabb ‘lord, master’). The unusual phonology—the regular correspondence would be (Sem *š >) Hbr š, Aram š ~ Ar s, and (Sem *ś >) Hbr ś, Aram s, Ar š —could be explained as the result of a late development;
the EgAr vb. II, šarrab ‘to plane (wood)’ (BadawiHinds1986) can also suggest that mašrabiyyaẗ is derived from a tech. term in carpentry for turning wood in a specific way. In this case, the meaning ‘(niche in an) oriel’ would be secondary, taken from the wooden latticework with which the oriels often were ornated. EgAr šarrab may however be denom. itself, from the latticework used. The modern use as documented in WehrCowan does not give any hint here: even in its most specific technical meaning, as ‘to impregnate’, vb. II šarraba is clearly a causative (*‘to make drink, absorb’), from vb. I, šariba ‘to drink’. Hava1899 gives, in addition to ‘to impregnate, saturate’, also ‘to purify (a new skin)’, a meaning however that seems to belong to tanning rather than carpentry;
EgAr širbaẗ ‘breeze, fresh air’ (BadawiHinds1986) is probably not an original value attached to ŠRB either.

▪ Engl mashrabiya, arch. moucharaby, from Ar mašrabiyyaẗ.

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šārib شارِب , pl. šawāribᵘ

√ŠRB

1 (pl. ‑ūn, šarb, šurūb) ↗šariba . – 2 (pl. šawāribᵘ) moustache, frequently dual: šāribān – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Like also (post-classical) ↗šarrābaẗ ~ šurrābaẗ ‘tassel’, šārib ‘moustache’ is usually regarded as derivation from ↗šariba ‘to drink’. The semantic relation however is nowhere explained convincingly in detail and remains rather doubtful.
▪ Therefore, instead of trying to link šārib and šarrābaẗ to ↗šariba, is it not possible (and also more likely) that we are dealing with reflexions of another etymon here? I suggest to put both together with ↗ĭšraʔabba ~ ĭšrābba ‘to stretch/crane one’s neck’, which seems to be cognate to lHbr širbēḇ ‘1 to stretch out, prolong, enlarge; 2 to draw down, let down’, Aram šarbēḇ ‘to prolong, let hang down, let down’, Š-stems belonging to the complex of Sem *rabb‑ ‘big’ (cf. Ar ↗rabb ‘lord, master’). šārib ‘moustache’ as well as šarrābaẗ ‘tassel’ could then be explained as *‘hanging down, projecting, overhanging’. The unusual phonology—the regular correspondence would be (Sem *š >) Hbr š, Aram š ~ Ar s, and (Sem *ś >) Hbr ś, Aram s, Ar š —could be explained as the result of a late development. – Should it be possible to corroborate this hypothetic etymology, then also ↗mašrabiyyaẗ may have to be reconsidered, see s.v.

▪ …

…

▪ The fact that ClassAr dictionaries often explain šārib as ‘long portions [of hair] on the two sides of the sabalaẗ [moustache]’ (Lane iv 1872) could corroborate the idea that šārib originally did not signify the moustache itself but only what was ‘overhanging’ from it. Morphologically a PA I, šārib could be seen as derived from a vb. *šar˅b‑ ‘to overhang’.
▪ See section CONCISE above, as well as ↗ŠRB, ↗šariba, ↗ĭšraʔabba, ↗šarrābaẗ, ↗mašrabiyyaẗ.

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