Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ŠʕR_1 ‘hair’ ↗šaʕr
▪ ŠʕR_2 ‘to feel, know intuitively; (compose) poetry’ ↗šiʕr
▪ ŠʕR_3 ‘scrub country’ ↗šaʕrà
▪ ŠʕR_4 ‘Sirius, Dog Star’ ↗al-šiʕrà
▪ ŠʕR_5 ‘password, slogan, motto’ ↗šiʕār
▪ ŠʕR_6 ‘barley’ ↗šaʕīr
▪ ŠʕR_7 ‘rite, cultic practice’ ↗šaʕīraẗ
▪ ŠʕR_8 ‘goats’ ↗šaʕārà
▪ ŠʕR_9 ‘male dancer in female roles’ ↗šaʕʕār
▪ ŠʕR_10 ‘attacks, diatribes’ (pl) ↗šawāʕirᵘ
▪ ŠʕR_11 ‘split; mad, crazy’ ↗mašʕūr

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to know, to be cognisant of, to perceive by means of any of the senses; poetry, to write poetry; hair, wool, fur, to be covered in hair; innermost garment; sign, rites’. – al-šiʕrà is said to be a corrupted borrowing from Grk.

▪ The main items in this root are ŠʕR_1 ‘hair’ and ŠʕR_2 ‘to perceive; to feel, know intuitively’.
▪ Does the latter depend on the former?
▪ Many of the other values derive probably from ŠʕR_1 and ŠʕR_2, but ŠʕR_4 ‘Sirius, Dog Star’ may be from Grk.
▪ ŠʕR_1 : (Kogan2015 Sw#36:) from protSem *śaʕr‑ ‘hair’ (SED I #260). Passim except modEthSem and modSAr.
▪ ŠʕR_2 …
▪ ŠʕR_3 …
▪ ŠʕR_4 …
▪ ŠʕR_5 …
▪ ŠʕR_6 …
▪ ŠʕR_7 …
▪ ŠʕR_8 …
▪ ŠʕR_9 …
▪ ŠʕR_10 …
▪ ŠʕR_11 …

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▪ BDB1906 #ŚʕR–1 Akk šārtu ‘hairskin’, Hbr śēʕār ‘hair’, Aram seʕrā, Syr saʕrā, sʕartā, Ar šaʕ(a)r ‘hair’, šaʕira ‘to be hairy’, Gz śəʕərt ‘hair’; Hbr (denom.) śāʕar ‘to bristle (with horror)’, śāʕîr ‘he-goat, buck’, śāʕîr ‘satyr, demon (with he-goat’s form, or feet)’, śəʕōrāh ‘barley’, śəʕōrîm ‘priests [the bearded ones?]’ ¹ ; perhaps also n.pr. Śēʕîr (designating either the land of Edom, a specif. mountain, or the Edomites), seen by some together with Hbr śāʕîr ‘goat’, others compare ClassAr ^†al-ʔašʕar ‘the hairy’, i.e. “well-wooded”, cf. ^†šaʕār ‘trees’. – –2 Hbr *śāʕar perh. ‘to be acquainted with’, Ar šaʕara ‘to perceive’, Aram Syr sʕar ‘to visit, inspect’

1. It is not clear why BDB groups the ‘priests’ together with ‘hair’, not with ‘to perceive, have insight’, cf. Ar šāʕir.

▪ From ŠʕR_1 ‘hair’ seem to be derived many of the other values: ŠʕR_3 ‘scrub country’ seems to be the *‘country with the hairy bushes’ (ClassAr has also ^†šaʕrān with the same meaning). ŠʕR_6 ‘barley’ is obviously *‘bearded grain’ (but the word is old, having PSem, perhaps even AfrAs ancestors, see s.v.). ŠʕR_8 ‘goats’ is probably properly *‘the hairy animal’ (cf. ClassAr ^†šaʕiraẗ ‘[sheep or goat] having hair growing between the two halves of its hoof, which in consequence bleed’ – Lane iv 1872).
▪ Also ŠʕR_2 ‘to perceive, know (in minute detail), to feel, know intuitively’ may originally be *‘to have knowledge about, or be sensitive for, things so thin/fine as a hair’, and from this is the value ‘(to compose) poetry’, a poet being endowed with deeper insight, a special sensibility for the nuances of life, as fine as a hair.
▪ ŠʕR_4 ‘Sirius, Dog Star’ is perhaps of Grk origin (see s.v.), but it may also be another derivation from ŠʕR_2 ‘to feel, know intuitively’ or directly from ŠʕR_1 ‘hair’.
▪ ŠʕR_5 ‘password, slogan, motto’ is originally *‘sign by means of which one can know, or make known, s.th. or s.o., marker’, i.e., it is derived from ŠʕR_2 ‘to (get to) know’. The same holds for ŠʕR_7 ‘rite, cultic practice’, which seems to be *‘(practice of things that can be accepted as) signs/markers of obedience to God/a deity)’.
▪ ŠʕR_9 ‘male dancer in female roles’, ŠʕR_10 ‘attacks, diatribes’ (pl), and ŠʕR_11 ‘split; mad, crazy’ are more difficult to connect to any fo the values mentioned so far and must, for the moment, remain unexplained.

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šaʕar‑ شَعَرَ , u (šuʕūr , šiʕr)

ID … • Sw – • BP 508 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ŠʕR

vb., I

to learn or understand intuitively (bi‑ s.th., ʔanna that), to realize, notice (bi‑ s.th., ʔanna that); to perceive, feel, sense, be conscious, be aware (bi‑ of s.th.) — (šiʕr) to make or compose poetry, poetize, versify – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Originally probably *‘to possess intuitive insight, to perceive (of) s.th. intuitively’, the vb. came to mean ‘to feel, notice, understand, etc.’. The notion of being endowed with a deeper insight is more present today in the n. šāʕir ‘poet’ (originally, a PA I meaning ‘knowing, the one with a special “antenna” to the world, the universe) than in the vb. itself, which as a rule means ‘to understand intuitively, realize’.
▪ In the Q, the šāʕir ‘poet, seer’ is a rather negative person, associated with pagan practice.
▪ Depending on ↗šaʕr ‘hair’?

▪ eC7 Q 16:26 wa-ʔatā-humu ’l-ʕaḏāba min ḥayṯu lā yašʕurūna ‘punishment came upon them from directions that they had not perceived/expected’, 2:9 yuḫādiʕūna ’ḷḷāha wa-'llaḏīna ʔāmanū wa-mā yaḫdaʕūna ʔillā ʔanfusa-hum wa-mā yašʕurūna ‘they seek to deceive God and the believers but they only deceive themselves, though they do not realise’

BDB1906 #ŚʕR-3: Hbr *śāʕar perh. ‘to be acquainted with’, Aram sʕar ‘to visit, examine’, Syr sʕar ‘to visit, inspect, look after’, Ar šaʕara ‘to perceive’, (Zammit2002:) SAr šʕr ‘to know, be aware/conscious of’

BDB1906 and Zammit2002 separate the values ‘hair’ (↗šaʕr) and ‘to perceive, feel intuitively’ from each other. Is the latter dependent on the former nevertheless? ‘To perceive, know (in minute detail), to feel, know intuitively’ may originally be *‘to have knowledge about, or be sensitive for, things so thin/fine as a hair’…

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► ʔašʕara, vb. IV, to make feel, let notice; to notify, inform (bi‑ about): caus.
► ĭstašʕara, vb. X, to feel, sense, notice, perceive, realize, be conscious, be aware (of); to be filled (*with a feeling):…
► ^BP#568šiʕr, n., poetry; versification; pl. ʔašʕār, n.pl., poems; poetic works: specialisation of vn. I; Q 36:69 | ~ manṯūr, n., prose poetry, free verse; layta ~ī, I wish I knew…!, would that I knew…!
► ^BP#1932šiʕrī, adj., poetic(al): nsb-adj of šiʕr.
► ^BP#1329šiʕār, pl. ‑āt, ʔašʕiraẗ, n., password, watchword; slogan; catchword, catchphrase (pol.); motto, device; coat of arms; symbol; distinguishing mark or feature; emblem, badge:… | ~ tiǧārī, n., trade mark; ~ al-dawlaẗ, n., official stamp, state emblem; taḥta ~ (+ gen.), adv., under the motto…
► šaʕīraẗ, pl. šaʕāʔirᵘ, n., religious ceremony, rite, cultic practice; pl. also: places of worship, cultic shrines: pseudo-PP, f., *‘place which can give a proof of the worshippers obeying the rules’ or ‘the marked one, place marked for worshippers’; Q 2:158.
► ^BP#1111šuʕūr, n., knowledge, cognizance; consciousness, awareness; perception, discernment; perceptive faculty; sensation; sentiment; feeling; perceptiveness, sensitivity, sensibility; mood: vn. I, partly with semantic extension | al-~ bi’l-nafs/ḏāt, n., self-oonsciousness; diqqaẗ al-šuʕūr, n., sensitivity, sensibility; al-~ al-muštarak, n., community spirit, communality, solidarity; ʕadīm al-~, adj., unfeeling, insensitive; al-lā-~, n., the unconscious (psych.).
► šuʕūrī, adj., conscious; emotional: nsb-adj of šuʕūr | lā-~, adj., unconscious, subconscious.
► šuʕrūr, n., poetaster, versiner, rhymester: pejor., dimin.
► šuwayʕir, n., poetaster, versifler, rhymester: dimin.
► ^BP#1104mašʕar, pl. mašāʕirᵘ, n., ritual site, esp. in and near Mecca, involved in the religious rites of the hadj; sensory organ: n.loc., *‘place where the presence of deity is intuitively felt, where one becomes aware of the deity’s presence’ (?); pl., senses, feelings, sensations; religious rites, customs, ceremonies: n.loc., *‘places where man receives impressions from the world, feels it’; Q 2:198 | al-~ al-ḥarām, n., the hadj station of Muzdalifa east of Mecca.
► ʔišʕār, pl. ‑āt, notification, information (bi‑ of, about), notice: vn. IV.
^BP#636šāʕir, knowing (by instinctive perception), endowed with deeper insight, with intuition; (pl. šuʕarāʔᵘ) poet; (common designation for) popular storyteller, narrator: PA I; Q 69:41
► šāʕiraẗ, pl. ‑āt, šawāʕirᵘ, n., poetess: PA I, f.
► šāʕirī, adj., poetic(al) : nsb-adj, from šiʕr.
► šāʕiriyyaẗ, pl. ‑āt, poetic power or capacity; the realm of creative poetry; poetic character: n.abstr. in iyyaẗ.

For other items of the root, see ↗ŠʕR.

šaʕr شَعْر , var. šaʕar , n.un. ‑aẗ , pl. šuʕūr

ID 464 • Sw 37/65 • BP 947 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ŠʕR

n.coll. (n.un. ‑aẗ)

hair; bristles; fur, pelt; cracks, haircracks (e.g., in a vase) (obs.) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Kogan2011: from protSem *śaʕr‑ ‘hair’, (Orel&Stolbova1994:) prob. from AfrAs *ĉaʕar‑ ‘id.’.
▪ From the protSem ancestor may be derived notions like ‘to perceive, feel intuitively, know minute details’, ‘sheep, goats’, ‘barley’, and others; see ↗ŠʕR.

▪ eC7 Q 16:60 wa-min ʔaṣwāfi-hā wa-ʔawbāri-hā wa-ʔašʕāri-hā ʔaṯāṯan wa-matāʕan ʔilà ḥīnin ‘and of their wool, their fur, and of their hairs, [He made for you] furnishings and comfort for a while’.

▪ Bergsträsser1928: Akk šārtu, Hbr śēʕār, Aram saʕrā, Gz śəʕərt ‘hair’.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#528: Akk šārtu, Hbr śēʕār, śaʕarā, Syr šaʕrō, Gz śeʕert, Soq ṣaʕihor ‘hair’)² . – Outside Sem: WCh *ĉaHar‑ ‘hair on the chest of a ram; hair’, Omot *šaHar‑ ‘hair’.
▪ Elmedlaoui 2012: Berb a-zzar ‘hair’.

2. Ug šʕrt has taken the meaning ‘wool’ (i.e., hair of sheep).

▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#528: from Sem *śaʕr‑ ‘hair’ (so also Kogan2011), from AfrAs *ĉaʕar‑ ‘hair’, which is the ancestor also of non-Sem cognates such as WCh *ĉaHar‑ ‘hair on the chest of a ram; hair’ and Omot *šaHar‑ ‘hair’.
▪ …

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► ^†šaʕar-, a, vb. I, to be hairy: denom.

► šaʕrī, adj., hairy, hirsute; hair (in compounds); capillary: nsb-adj.
► šaʕriyyaẗ, n.f., wire grill, wire netting, lattice work; capillarity: nominalized nsb-adj.
► šiʕriyyaẗ (Eg.), šaʕriyyaẗ (ir.), n.f., vermicelli; spaghetti: nominalized nsb-adj.
► šaʕrānī, adj., hairy, hirsute, shaggy: intns.adj.
► šuʕayraẗ, n.un., little hair: dimin.
► šaʕīriyyaẗ, n.f., vermicelli: nominalized nsb-adj.
► ʔašʕarᵘ, adj., hairy, hirsute, long-haired, shaggy: denom.
► mušʕarānī, adj., hairy, hirsute, shaggy:…

For other items of the root cf. ↗ŠʕR.

šiʕr شِعْر , pl. ʔašʕār

√ŠʕR

poetry; versification; pl. ʔašʕār, n.pl., poems; poetic works – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Vn. of ↗šaʕara ‘to perceive, feel (intuitively)’.
▪ Etymologically perhaps connected to ↗šaʕr ‘hair’.

▪ eC7 Q 36:69 wa-mā ʕallamnā-hū ’l-šiʕra wa-lā yanbaġī la-hū ‘We have not taught him [the Prophet] the art of poetry, nor is it fitting for him (or: nor does it fall within his ability) to be a poet’

▪ …
▪ …

▪ See ↗šaʕara.
▪ …

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► šiʕr manṯūr, n., prose poetry, free verse.
► layta šiʕrī, exclam., I wish I knew…!, would that I knew…!

► ^BP#1932šiʕrī, adj., poetic(al): nsb-adj, from šiʕr.
► šuʕrūr, n., poetaster, versiner, rhymester: pejor./dimin.
► šuwayʕir, n., poetaster, versifler, rhymester: dimin.
► ^BP#636šāʕir, knowing (by instinctive perception), endowed with deeper insight, with intuition; (pl. šuʕarāʔᵘ) poet; (common designation for) popular storyteller, narrator: PA I.
► šāʕiraẗ, pl. ‑āt, šawāʕirᵘ, n., poetess: PA I, f.
► šāʕirī, adj., poetic(al): nsb-adj from šāʕir.
► šāʕiriyyaẗ, pl. ‑āt, poetic power or capacity; the realm of creative poetry; poetic character: n.abstr. in iyyaẗ.

For other items of the root, see ↗ŠʕR.

al-šiʕrà الشِعْرَى

√ŠʕR

Sirius, Dog Star (astron.) – WehrCowan1979.

Unless just another of the many derivations of ↗šaʕara ‘to know in detail, feel, perveive’ or directly from ↗šaʕr ‘hair’, the name of the Dog Star, widely worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia, may go back to its Grk counterpart, Seírios. Until recently, this has been a common assumption. But it has been contested by the theory that it is the other way round and the Grk name is a borrowing from the East.

▪ eC7 Q 53:49 wa-ʔanna-hū huwa rabbu ’l-šiʕrà ‘and that He it is Who is the Lord of Sirius’

▪ …
▪ …

▪ Rolland2014: »Peut-être du Grk Seírios, à moins que ce ne soit l’inverse.« ¹
▪ Jeffery1939: »The common explanation of the philologers is that it is from √ŠʕR and means ‘the hairy one’, but there can be little doubt that it is derived from the Grk Seírios,² whose r, as Hess shows, is regularly rendered by Arab ʕ. The word occurs in the old poetry³ and was doubtless known to the Arabs long before Islam.«

1. Dans son «Nomenclature stellaire internationale et divinités arabes antiques», in Bulletin de la SELEFA no 17: 11-26, Roland Laffitte conteste en effet cette étymologie. Il voit dans ce nom propre un simple dérivé du verbe šaʕara ‘sentir, percevoir’. 2. Hess, ZS, ii: 221, thinks we have formal proof of the foreign origin of the word in the fact that the Bedouin know only the name mirzam for this star. LA, ii: 116, and vi: 84, gives mirzam as a synonym for šiʕrà, and this word is found again in the Bishari Mirdim. 3. See Hommel, ZDMG, xlv: 597, and Horovitz, KU, 119.

▪ Perhaps the Ar name is not loaned from Grk, but Grk Seírios is from an eastern source, perhaps Ar šiʕrà.

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šaʕīr شعير

√ŠʕR

n.coll. (n.un. ‑aẗ)

barley; (n.un. -aẗ) barleycorn – WehrCowan1979.

A lexical item of particular importance for the history of agriculture in the Middle East. The word goes back to Sem *śaʕār‑ or/and *śaʕīr‑ (▪ Kogan2011: protCSem *ś˅ʕ˅r‑) ‘barley’ (from AfrAs *ĉar‑ /*ĉaʕ˅r‑ ‘dto.’), which probably is akin to ‘hair’, cf. ↗šaʕr (*‘the hairy, bearded grain’).

▪ …

▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#544: Ug šʕr, Hbr śeʕorā, Syr sǝʕārǝtā, Sab śʕr. – Outside Sem: Eg šr.t ‘barley’ (MK).
▪ …

▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#544 reconstructs Sem *śaʕār‑ or/and (with derivative vocalism) *śaʕīr‑ ‘barley’ < AfrAs *ĉar‑ /*ĉaʕ˅r‑ ‘barley’. Given a form without Sem ‑ʕ‑ in Eg, one could think of Sem *śaʕār‑ /*śaʕīr‑ as being secondary formations, stemming from an original AfrAs *śar‑ which became influenced by or contaminated with Sem *śaʕar‑ ‘be hairy’ (↗šaʕr). If this was the case, the variant AfrAs *ĉaʕ˅r‑ will have to be completely dismissed in favour of *ĉar‑.
▪ …

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