Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ṬRF_1 ‘eye, glance, look, to blink’ ↗ṭarf
▪ ṬRF_2 ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ ↗ṭaraf
▪ ṬRF_3 ‘novelty’ ↗ṭurfaẗ
▪ ṬRF_4 ‘shawl’ ↗miṭraf
▪ ṬRF_5 ‘tamarisk (bot.)’ ↗ṭarfāʔᵘ
Other values, now obsolete, include:

ṬRF_6 ‘to drive away, repel’: ^†ṭarafa i (ṭarf)
ṬRF_7 ‘to lose the teeth’: ^†ṭarrafa (Lane, Hava1899)
ṬRF_8 ‘to choose s.th.’: ^†ṭarrafa (Lane, Hava1899); cf. also ^†ṭaraf ‘anything chosen, choice’
ṬRF_9 ‘leather tent, tent of skin’: ^†ṭirāf, pl. ṭuruf (Lane, Hava1899)
ṬRF_10 ‘noble, of high breed; generous’: ^†ṭirf, pl. ṭurūf, ʔaṭrāf (Hava1899), acc. to Lane meaning also ‘generous horse, one that is looked at’; cf. also ^†ṭarf ‘man generous, noble’, ^†ṭaraf, ^†ṭarīf ‘having many ancestors’ (Lane)
ṬRF_11 ‘to be numerous, abound with’: ^†ʔaṭrafa (Lane)
ṬRF_12 ‘to seize, or carry off by force’: sibāʕ ṭawārifᵘ (sg. ^†ṭārifaẗ) ‘animals that seize, or carry off by force, the objects of the chase’ (Lane)
ṬRF_13 ‘flesh, flesh-meat’: ^†ṭaraf (Lane)

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1 eyesight, blinking, to blink, twinkle; 2 edge, utmost part, extremity, to be the extreme; 3 novelty; 4 group’

▪ Showing a high degree of semantic complexity, the Ar root ṬRF (Sem *ṬRP) is very difficult to disentangle etymologically.
▪ For Sem *ṬRP, DRS suggests to distinguish 9 main values, 7 of which are represented in Ar (thereof 1 dialectal value). In contrast, based on the Qurʔānic evidence, BAH2008 identify only 4 main values for Ar, while Zammit2002, on the same basis, lists even less, namely simply 2. One of Badawi&AbdelHaleem’s values (‘group’) does not figure in the DRS list at all; and Zammit’s first main value unites at least two values that DRS prefers to hold apart from each other.
▪ Furthermore, we have only few—and somehow contradictory—hypotheses for a reconstruction in Sem: Huehnergard2011 and Kogan2015 assume a CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ (cf. ṬRF_12 ≙ DRS #ṬRP-1), while Ehret1989 thinks that at least Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to turn off, repel’ (value ṬRF_6 ≙ DRS #ṬRP-1) goes back to a bi-consonantal pre-protSem root nucleus *ṬR‑ ‘to send’. In contrast, Ar lexicographers hold that it is possible to derive the whole spectrum of meanings from the notion of ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ (ṬRF_2) or, as Gabal2012 has it, al-nihāyaẗ al-daqīqaẗ lil-šayʔ al-mumtadd, wa-yulzimu ḏālika al-riqqaẗ al-māddiyyaẗ wa’l-maʕnawiyyaẗ ‘the exact/sharp ending of s.th. extended, implying both material and spiritual fineness’. – For details see below, section DISC.

–

▪ DRS 10 (2012)# ṬRP-1 Hbr ṭārap, JP ṭᵉrap ‘arracher, déchirer, mettre en pièces, embrouiller’, ṭᵉrēpā ‘animal déchiré par des bêtes sauvages, chair interdite à la consommation comme nourriture’, Syr ṭᵉrap ‘agiter les ailes, frapper’, ṭarfā ‘feuille; lobe’, ṭᵉrāpā ‘heurt, battement, moment’, Mand (a)ṭirpia ‘feuilles’; Syr ṭarep ‘fatiguer, secouer, faire tomber’, ʔetṭarap ‘être agité, accablé, épuisé’; Mand ṭripa ‘mutilé, déchiré, défiguré’. ? Te ṭärfa ‘s’ébrouer (cheval); rejeter de bouillon (l’eau; bouillonner, écumer’, Tña ṭərif bälä ‘être alarmé’, ? Te ṭərif bela ‘être fier de qc (?)’. Ar ṭarafa ‘éloigner qn de qc; repousser’. -2 Ar ṭarufa ‘être d’acquisition récente; être nouveau, neuf, récent, frais’. -3 Ar ‘compter un grand nombre d’ancêtres nobles’. -4 Ar ṭarifa ‘dévorer les bords, les extrémités d’un pré (chameau, etc.)’, ṭaraf ‘extrémité, côté, partie, portion, morceau’, Mhr Ḥrs ṭərēf, Jib ṭerä́f ‘côté’, Soq ṭaraf ‘zone’, Mhr ṭərūf, Jib ṭorof ‘mettre de côté pour une occasion meilleure’. -5 Ar ṭarafa ‘battre des paupières; regarder’, ṭarf ‘(coup d’) œil’, ṭurifa ‘être atteint, blessé à l’œil’. -6 SudAr ṭarfa ‘source renaissante à l’automne’, ? ṭawārif ‘vents froids’. -7 Soq məṭrəf ‘pli du ventre, ride’. -8 Te ṭärafa ‘s’arrêter, séjourner quelque part’. -9 Akk ṭarpaʔ - : sorte de tamaris.
▪ Zammit2002: 1 Aram ṭrp ‘wink of an eye’?, Ar ṭarf ‘eye, glance, sight of the eyes’. 2 Hbr ṭārap ‘to tear, rend, pluck’, Aram ṭarpā ‘a piece torn off, fragment’, ṭᵉrap ‘to tear’, Syr ṭarpā (d-ednā) ‘the lobe (of the ear)’, ṭᵉrap ‘to smite’, Ar ṭaraf ‘extremity; border’
▪ Klein1987: 1 Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’, Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’, ṭᵊrêp̄â ‘torn animal, torn flesh’, Ar ṭarafa ‘to graze (said of a camel)’, ṭarufa ‘to be freshly plucked’; Hbr ṭārāp̄ ‘fresh-plucked’, hence also ‘fresh leaf’ and nHbr ‘leaf, blade’, Aram Syr ṭarpâ ‘fresh leaf’. – 2 Hbr ṭāraf ‘to cast, knock; to mix, confuse’, Aram Syr ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to shake, clap, smite’, Ar ṭarafa ‘to strike back’.

▪ ṬRF_1 (≙ DRS #ṬRP-5) ṭarf ‘eye, glance, look, to blink’ : Kogan2015:220,n5 thinks that the ClassAr vb. I ^†ṭarafa ‘to strike one’s eye’ is almost certainly denominative from ṭarf. In contrast, Ar lexicographers usually regard ṭarf as originally a vn. of this ^†ṭarafa, supporting their argument with the fact that ṭarf does not take a pl. – Any relation to ṬRF_2 ‘end, extremity’ (the eye as an “extremity” of the head, or a twinkling interpreted as a look “from a side”)? Or to (C)Sem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ (cf. ṬRF_12 ≙ DRS #ṬRP-1) as reconstructed by Huehnergard2011 and Kogan2015 (with a shift of meaning from ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ to ‘to strike’, then ‘to strike the eye’ > ‘eye’)? All highly speculative! (Cf. however ṬRF_3, below.) The same holds true for making ṬRF_2 ‘side’ depend on ṬRF_1 ‘eye’, as suggested by Nişanyan (23Oct2014, s.v. Tu taraf), in rendering Ar ṭaraf as ‘bakım, cihet, yan, yön’ and in this way identifying ‘direction, side’ (ṬRF_2) with ‘glance’ (ṬRF_1), tracing it all back to Ar ṭarafa ‘to look, cast an eye on’, from ṭarf ‘eye’. – Whatever the origin of ṭarf and ṭarafa themselves, some believe that ‘to strike the eye’ is the original meaning of value ṬRF_3 ‘novelty’ (*what strikes the eye because it is new).
▪ ṬRF_2 (≙ DRS #ṬRP-4) ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ : This value is without doubt one of the oldest ones; yet, its etymology needs still further research. Nişanyan23Oct2014 (s.v. Tu taraf), in rendering Ar ṭaraf as ‘bakım, cihet, yan, yön’, sees the meaning cihet, yan, yön ‘direction, side’ (ṬRF_2) and bakım ‘glance’ (ṬRF_1) as one unit, tracing it all back to Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to look, cast an eye on’, from Ar ṭarf ‘eye’. In contrast, DRS finds cognates of Ar ṭaraf only in modSAr, keeping it separate from other values of Sem *ṬRP. Yet another position is taken by Klein1987 and Zammit2002: both see Ar ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ together with Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’, Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’ (and derivates), i.e., with the value that lies at the basis also of the obsolete Ar vb. ^†ṭarafa ‘to seize, carry off by force’, preserved in ClassAr ^†sibāʕ ṭawārifᵘ (sg. ^†ṭārifaẗ, f. of *ṭārif, PA I) ‘animals that seize, or carry off by force, the objects of the chase’, which with all likelihood is the “purest”, least “contaminated” descendant of an original CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ (cf. ṬRF_12 in root entry ↗ṬRF). The link between ‘edge, extremity’ and ‘to tear, pluck’ here would be the obsolete vb. Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to graze, depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage (said of a camel)’. This would give us the semantic chain *‘to tear, pluck, seize > to graze, depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage > utmost part, edge, extremity’. This, however, would contradict Kogan2015’s assumption that the vb. »almost certainly« is denom. from ṭaraf, not the other way round. – However that may be, quite a number of the other values are with some probability derived from ṬRF_2 ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’. One line of semantic development could be: *‘utmost part, edge, extremity > to depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage > to make a choice (for more, better, more delicate food) > to choose, anything chosen, choice’ (ṬRF_8). Another branch (unless dependent on ṬRF_1) seems to identify the preference of the lateral parts of a pasturage with a looking for alternatives, hence: *‘~ > to appreciate a novelty > novelty’ (ṬRF_3). (There is, however, some overlapping with ↗ẒRF here, and another theory derives the value ‘novelty’ from CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’—cf. above, ṬRF_1, and below, ṬRF_12/13 —in the sense of ‘fresh-plucked’, cf. ṬRF_5.) – The value ‘to drive away, repel’ (ṬRF_6), too, could be explained—in theory—as a derivation from ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, the act of repelling being a driving away “to the utmost parts”; cf., however, DRS (and also Klein1987) where Ar ṭarafa ‘éloigner qn de qc; repousser’ is grouped differently on account of the wider Sem evidence. – ^†ṭirāf ‘leather tent, tent of skin’ (ṬRF_9), too, seems to be somehow connected to ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, but the relation is not really clear. – ṭaraf was, and is still, used in many expressions with a specialized or figurative meaning. The pl. ʔaṭrāf, for instance, can also mean ‘fingers’ (i.e., the extremities of the hand); the construct ʔaṭrāf al-nahār signifies the *‘extremities of a day’, i.e., ‘morning and afternoon, daybreak and sunset’, and the *‘extremities of the people’, ʔaṭrāf al-nās , mean ‘the lower orders of society’. Furthermore, ʔaṭrāf can mean ‘a man’s father and mother and brothers and paternal uncles and any relations whom it is unlawful for him to marry’. – Ar lexicographers also tend to regard ṬRF_10 ‘noble, of high breed; generous’ as a derivation from ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’: ^†ṭaraf, as well as ^†ṭarīf, can mean ‘having many ancestors, up to the greatest (i.e. most remote [= “extreme”]) forefather, of long descent’ (Lane), and ^†ṭarf ‘man generous, noble’ is likewise explained as ‘…in respect of ancestry, up to the greatest [i.e. most remote] forefather’ (ibid.).¹ – In addition, with the notion of ‘generosity’ and the plentitude of ancestors we are already in close to value ṬRF_11 ‘to be numerous, abound with’.
▪ ṬRF_3 (≙ DRS #ṬRP-2) ṭurfaẗ ‘novelty’ : dependent on ṬRF_1 ‘eye’ (a novelty being s.th. that “strikes the eye”) or on ṬRF_2 ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ (see preceding paragraph)? Probably neither the former nor the latter, but, as Klein1987 assumes, a derivation from the (C)Sem vb. *ṭrp (see ṬRF_12 below) along the line ‘to tear, pluck, seize > to be freshly plucked > to be fresh, new’. – Cf. also ṬRF_5 ‘tamarisk’? – There is some overlapping also with ↗ẒRF.
▪ ṬRF_4 miṭraf ‘shawl’ : The explanation, given by ClassAr lexicographers, that miṭraf is a ‘garment, square or four-sided, having ornamental or coloured or figured borders’ (Lane) connects the word with ṬRF_2 ṭaraf ‘edge, extremity’, which seems plausible.
▪ ṬRF_5 (≙ DRS #ṬRP-9) ṭarfāʔᵘ ‘tamarisk (bot.)’: probably related to Akk ṭarpaʔ- ‘sort of tamarisk’, which, however, may in itself be a borrowing from a foreign language. Do we have to compare Hbr ṭārāp̄ ‘fresh-plucked’, hence also ‘fresh leaf’, Aram Syr ṭarpâ ‘id.’? If so then Ar ṭarfāʔᵘ ‘tamarisk’, like a number of other values in this root, is based on (C)Sem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ (see ṬRF_12/13, below). – In contrast, based on the evidence in Akk and some Aram langs, Militarev&Stolbova2007 reconstruct a Sem *ṭarpaʔ- ‘tamarind [sic!]; leaf’, to which they juxtapose an EChad (Bidiya) tìrìp ‘kind of tree’, all from an hypothetical AfrAs *ṭarip- ‘tree’.
▪ ṬRF_6 (≙ DRS #ṬRP-1) ^†ṭarafa i (ṭarf) ‘to drive away, repel’: While semantics may suggest a connection between this vb. and ṬRF_2 ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, the act of repelling being a *‘driving to the edges’, DRS and others rather see it akin to the notion of ‘tearing (to pieces), plucking, seizing’ (cf. ṬRF_12, below). The idea, put forward by Klein1987, that Hbr ²ṭārap̄ ‘to cast, knock; to mix, confuse’ (which is seen together with Ar ṭarafa ‘to strike back’) »probably« is a »sense enlargement« of Hbr ¹ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’ (< CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’, see ṬRF_12/13, below), may help to understand a development that is far from being immediately evident. – Yet another theory is Ehret’s: he suggest to regard Ar ṭarafa ‘to turn off, repel’ as an extension in intensive (manner) * f from a bi-consonantal root nucleus *ṬR- ‘to send’ (Ehret1989); for other extensions from the same nucleus, he refers to ↗ṭaraʔa ‘to fall upon unexpectedly, happen, occur’, ↗ṭaraḥa ‘to remove, turn from, avert, throw far away, (Hava1899:) to fling, cast away s.th.’, ↗ṭarada ‘to push away, drive away, repel, expel, pursue, chase, drive together, (Hava1899:) to persecute, drive back etc.; to collect (scattered flocks)’.
▪ ṬRF_7 ^†ṭarrafa ‘to lose the teeth’ : acc. to Lane said of a camel that loses teeth by reason of extreme age. If this explanation is correct, the value is dependent on ṬRF_2 (≙ DRS #ṬRP-4), denom. from ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’.
▪ ṬRF_8 ^†ṭarrafa ‘to choose s.th.’: denom. from ṭaraf in the sense (now obsolete) of ^†‘anything chosen, choice’, which seems to have developed from the word’s basic meaning of ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ (ṬRF_2 ≙ DRS #ṬRP-4). Animals that depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage ‘make their choice (for better food)’, cf. the meaning given in DRS for the modSAr cognates, Mhr ṭərūf and Jib ṭorof, namely ‘mettre de côté pour une occasion meilleure’.
▪ ṬRF_9 ^†ṭirāf ‘leather tent, tent of skin’: probably connected to ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ (ṬRF_2 ≙ DRS #ṬRP-4)—but this would need further explanation.
▪ ṬRF_10 (≙ DRS #ṬRP-3) ^†ṭirf ‘noble, of high breed; generous’: The explanation, given in Lane, for ṭirf in the more specific sense of ‘generous horse, one that is looked at (yuṭrafu) because of its beauty’ would connect this value to ṬRF_1 ‘eye’. Hava1899, however, translates ṭirf as ‘noble from both parents’, suggesting that we have to draw a line to ṬRF_2 ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ rather than to ṬRF_1 ‘eye’. This would be in line with the var. ^†ṭarf ‘man generous, noble’ which the lexicographers (acc. to Lane) understand as ‘noble in respect of ancestry, up to the greatest (i.e. most remote [!]) forefather’, and ^†ṭaraf ~ ṭarif, ^†ṭarīf ‘having many ancestors, up to the greatest [i.e. most remote] forefather, of long descent’ (Lane).
▪ ṬRF_11 ^†ʔaṭrafa ‘to be numerous, abound with’: is probably the same as (or a generalization of) ṬRF_10 (≙ DRS #ṬRP-3), cf. ^†ṭaraf ~ ṭarif, ^†ṭarīf ‘reckoning many ancestors’ (Hava1899), ṭarufa (a, ṭarāfaẗ) ‘to descend from an ancient family (man)’.
▪ ṬRF_12 ^†ṭarafa ‘to seize, carry off by force’: Preserved only in ClassAr sibāʕ ṭawārifᵘ (sg. ^†ṭārifaẗ, f. of ṭārif, PA I) ‘animals that seize, or carry off by force, the objects of the chase’, this is with all likelihood the “purest”, least “contaminated” descendant of an original CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’. Klein1987 connects the corresponding Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’ and Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’ with Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to graze (said of a camel)’ (cf. ṬRF_2 ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’) as well as with ^†ṭarufa ‘to be freshly plucked’ (cf. ṬRF_3 ‘novelty’), which in turn may be akin to ṬRF_5 ‘tamarisk’ (if this is cognate with Hbr ṭārāp̄ ‘fresh-plucked’, hence also ‘fresh leaf’). Furthermore, if Klein1987 is right, then Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to cast, knock; to mix, confuse’ and Aram Syr ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to shake, clap, smite’ are cognate with Ar ṭarafa ‘to strike back’ (ṬRF_6), and this complex is a secondary development (Klein: »sense enlargement«) from the original CSem ‘to tear, pluck, seize’.
▪ ṬRF_13 ^†ṭaraf ‘flesh, flesh-meat’: This value is without doubt derived from the preceding, cf. Hbr ṭᵊrēp̄āʰ ‘animal torn by wild beasts’ (> postBiblHbr ‘animal with organic defect’, mHbr ‘ritually forbidden food’), ṭ ^ärā̈p̄ ‘prey; food’ (»orig. prob. meaning ‘food carried off’«, Klein1987), from Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces’, from CSem ‘to tear, pluck, seize’.

1. In another interpretation, the ‘nobility’ and ‘generosity’ of a ^†ṭirf (pl. ṭurūf, ʔaṭrāf) ‘generous horse’ are explained as deriving from ṬRF_1 ‘eye’ rather than from ṬRF_2 ‘edge, extremity’: a ‘generous horse’ is ‘one that is looked at (yuṭrafu) because of its beauty’.

▪ Huehnergard2011: Not from Ar, but from a Hbr cognate is Engl tref (var. treif, trayf, treyf) ‘any form of non-kosher food’. It goes back to Hbr ṭərēpâ ‘torn flesh’ (= Ar ṬRF_13), from Hbr ṭārap ‘to tear, pluck’, from CSem *ṬRP ‘id.’, which is the ancestor also of Ar ṬRF_12 and, indirectly, many other Ar values.

–

ṭarf طَرْف , no pl.¹

1. Lane: no pl. because the word is originally a vn., therefore it may denote also the pl. ‘eyes’

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

√ṬRF

1 eye; 2 glance, look – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Ar lexicographers (as referred to by Lane) think the word is originally a vn., i.e., [v2] is the more original value, and [v1] is secondary. But this is not necessarily true.
▪ DRS groups the word together with the obsol. ^†ṭarafa ‘battre des paupières; regarder’ and ^†ṭurifa ‘être atteint, blessé à l’œil’ (DRS #ṬRP-5), but not with Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to cast, knock’ or Aram Syr ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to shake, clap, smite’ (DRS #ṬRP-1), in spite of the notion of ‘casting/striking’ shared by all. Should there be a relation nevertheless, then the ‘eye’ would have developed from ‘to strike/hit/hurt the eye’, from ‘to strike/hit’, from ‘to cast, smite, knock, clap’, which perh. is a secondary value, evolved from a CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’, cf. Ar ṬRF_12 in root entry ↗ṬRF (≙ DRS #ṬRP-1). In contrast, Kogan2015 thinks that ^†ṭarafa ‘to strike one’s eye’ is almost certainly denominative from ṭarf ‘eye’, not the other way round; but he remains silent about the origin of ṭarf itself.
▪ Nişanyan23Oct2014 (s.v. Tu taraf) derives also Ar ↗ṭaraf ‘direction, side’ from Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to look, cast an eye on’, from Ar ṭarf ‘eye’.

▪ eC7 (eyesight, sight, glance) Q 38:52 qāṣirātu ’l-ṭarfi ‘not given to staring, modest, restraining their glances, of modest gaze [lit., women who cast down their gaze/eyes]’, 42:45 yanẓurūna min ṭarfin ḫafiyyin ‘they look furtively [lit., they look with a hidden glance], 14:43 lā yartaddu ʔilay-him ṭarfu-hum ‘not blinking, utterly stupefied, they cannot take in what they see [lit., their glance does not return to them]’, 27:40 qabla ʔan yartadda ʔilay-ka ṭarfu-ka ‘before you bat an eye [lit., before your glance returns to you]’
▪ ClassAr ṭarafa (i, ṭarf) (ʕayna-hū) ‘to hit, strike, smit, hurt s.o.’s eye (with a garment, etc.) so that it sheds tears’, ^†ṭarf ‘slapping with the hand upon the extremity of the eye’, hence also ‘striking upon the head’, ^†ṭārifaẗ , pl. ṭawārifᵘ, ‘s.th. that causes a twinkling or winking of the eye’, ^†ṭarfaẗ ‘red spot of blood, in the eye, occasioned by a blow or some other cause’, ṭurfaẗ ‘hurt of the eye, occasioning its shedding tears’ (Lane).

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬRP-5 Ar ṭarafa ‘battre des paupières; regarder’, ṭarf ‘(coup d’) œil’, ṭurifa ‘être atteint, blessé à l’œil’.
▪ Zammit2002: Aram ṭrp ‘wink of an eye’?, Ar ṭarf ‘eye, glance, sight of the eyes’.

▪ For the main picture, cf. above, section CONC.
▪ Any relation to ↗ṭaraf ‘end, extremity’ (the eye as an “extremity” of the head, or a twinkling interpreted as a look “from a side”)?
▪ Whatever the origin of ṭarf itself, some believe that ↗ṭurfaẗ ‘novelty’ essentially is *‘what strikes the eye (because it is new)’. (Others, however, would rather derive ‘novelty’ from CSem *ṬRP ‘to pluck’, regarding it as a generalization of ‘freshly plucked’, cf. ṬRF_3 in root entry ↗ṬRF.)
▪ In a similar vein, some Ar lexicographers explain Ar ^†ṭirf ‘noble, of high breed; generous’ as stemming from the more specific sense of ‘generous horse, one that is looked at (yuṭrafu) because of its beauty’, in this way connecting ‘nobility, generosity’ with ‘eye’ and ‘looking’. (Others, however, explain ‘nobility, generosity’ as having emerged from the idea of looking back to a long line of noble ancestors, i.e., “extremities”, in this way connecting it to ↗ṭaraf ‘end, extremity’.)

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► mā ʔašāra bi-ṭarf, expr., he didn’t bat an eye
► min ṭarf ḫafiyy, adv., secretly, furtively, discreetly
► ka-’rtidād al-ṭarf, adv., in the twinkling of an eye, instantly

► ṭarafa, i (ṭarf), vb. I, to blink, twinkle, wink, squint (also bi-ʕaynay-hi): prob. denom.
► ṭarfaẗ, n.f.: quasi-n.vic. of ṭarafa | bi-/fī ~ ʕayn, adv., in the twinkling of an eye, instantly; mā… ~a ʕayn, adv., not one moment

ṭaraf طَرَف , pl. ʔaṭrāf

ID … • Sw – • BP 371 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ṬRF

1 utmost part, outermost point, extremity, end, tip, point, edge, fringe, limit, border; 2 side; 3 region, area, section; 4 ~ min, a part of, a bit of, some; 5 party (as, to a dispute, of a contract, etc.); 6 ~a…, prep., with, at, on the part or side of; 7 pl. ʔaṭrāf, limbs, extremities; 8 (with foll. gen.) sections of, parts of – WehrCowan1979.

▪ DRS finds cognates of Ar ṭaraf only in modSAr, keeping it separate from other values of Sem *ṬRP. In contrast, Nişanyan23Oct2014 (s.v. Tu taraf) derives ṭaraf ‘direction, side’ from Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to look, cast an eye on’, from Ar ↗ṭarf ‘eye’. Yet another etymology is given by Klein1987 and Zammit2002: they see Ar ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ together with Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’, Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’ (and derivates), i.e., with the value that lies at the basis also of the obsolete Ar vb. ^†ṭarafa ‘to seize, carry off by force’, preserved in ClassAr ^†sibāʕ ṭawārifᵘ (sg. ^†ṭārifaẗ, f. of *ṭārif, PA I) ‘animals that seize, or carry off by force, the objects of the chase’, which with all likelihood is the “purest”, least “contaminated” descendant of an original CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ (cf. ṬRF_12 in root entry ↗ṬRF). The link between ‘edge, extremity’ and ‘to tear, pluck’ here would be the obsolete vb. Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to graze, depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage (said of a camel)’. This would give us the semantic chain *‘to tear, pluck, seize > to graze, depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage > utmost part, edge, extremity’—which, however, would contradict Kogan2015’s assumption that the vb. »almost certainly« is denom. from ṭaraf, not the other way round.
▪ If the affiliation of Ar ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ to CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ is correct, then ṭaraf is indeed a relative of many other values of ↗ṬRF, like ‘novelty’ (*freshly plucked, cf. ↗ṭurfaẗ) (cf. Klein1987’s grouping in section COGN below) and perh. also ‘tamarisk’ (↗ṭarfāʔᵘ). There are also theories that ultimately connect CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ with ↗ṭarf ‘eye’; if these can be substantiated then there would also be a relation, however indirect, between ṭarf and ṭaraf. – For the whole picture, cf. root entry ↗ṬRF.

▪ eC7 (edge, border; part; group) Q 3:127 li-yaqṭaʕa ṭarafan min-a ’llaḏīna kafarū ‘and that He might cut off a part of the disbelievers’ [army]’; (dual: two ends) 11:114 ṭarafay-i ’l-nahāri ‘two ends of the day, morning and evening’; [pl. ʔaṭrāf : edges, borders; notables; good things] 13:41 ʔa-wa-lam yaraw ʔannā naʔtī ’l-ʔarḍa nanquṣu-hā min ʔaṭrāfi-hā ‘do they not see how We visit the land, curtailing it from its borders (variously interpreted as: causing districts belonging to the disbelievers to fall one after the other to the Muslims, reducing its vegetation, curtailing it from its learned people’ (‘Scientific interpreters’ of the Q see in this verse reference to the fact that Earth’s sphere looks as if it had been clipped at the edges); 20:130 ʔaṭrāfa ’l-nahāri ‘the [two] ends/extremities of the day [lit., edges of the day]’
▪ ClassAr ^†ṭarif, f. ^†ṭarifaẗ, ‘male / she-camel that removes from one pasturage to another, not keeping constantly to one pasturage; that depastures the extremities, or sides, of the pasturage’; ^†ṭarifa a (ṭaraf), vb. I, ‘to depasture the lateral parts of the pasturage’; ^†ṭarrafa, vb. II, ‘to fight around the army (charging upon or assaulting those who form the side or flank or extreme portion of it), drive back, fight (those who formed the side or flank of an army)’; cf. also the description ḫayru ’l-kalāmi mā ṭurrifat maʕānī-hi wa-šurrifat mabānī-hi ‘the best of language is that of which the meanings are pointed, and of which the constructions are crowned with embellishments as though they were adorned with šuraf (pl. of šurfaẗ ‘balcony’)’; cf. also the expression, involving a vb. X, ^†ĭstaṭrafa, used for a woman who does not keep constantly to a husband: tastaṭrifu ’l-riǧāl ‘she takes, or chooses, new ones of the men’, she who does thus being likened to the she-camel termed ṭarifaẗ that depastures the extremities of the pasturage and/or tastes, and does not keep constantly to one pasturage – Lane.

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬRP-4 Ar ṭarifa ‘dévorer les bords, les extrémités d’un pré (chameau, etc.)’, ṭaraf ‘extrémité, côté, partie, portion, morceau’, Mhr Ḥrs ṭərēf, Jib ṭerä́f ‘côté’, Soq ṭaraf ‘zone’, Mhr ṭərūf, Jib ṭorof ‘mettre de côté pour une occasion meilleure’.
▪ Zammit2002: Hbr ṭārap ‘to tear, rend, pluck’, Aram ṭarpā ‘a piece torn off, fragment’, ṭᵉrap ‘to tear’, Syr ṭarpā (d-ednā) ‘the lobe (of the ear)’, ṭᵉrap ‘to smite’, Ar ṭaraf ‘extremity; border’.
▪ Klein1987: Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’, Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’, ṭᵊrêp̄â ‘torn animal, torn flesh’, Ar ṭarafa ‘to graze (said of a camel)’, ṭarufa ‘to be freshly plucked’; Hbr ṭārāp̄ ‘fresh-plucked’, hence also ‘fresh leaf’ and nHbr ‘leaf, blade’, Aram Syr ṭarpâ ‘fresh leaf’.

▪ For the general traits, see section CONC above.
▪ This value of ṬRF is without doubt one of the oldest ones in Ar, and quite a number of the other values may with some probability be derived from it (cf. root entry ↗ṬRF). One line of semantic development seems to be: ‘utmost part, edge, extremity > to depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage > to make a choice (for more, better, more delicate food) > to choose, anything chosen, choice’ (ṬRF_8, now obsol.). Another branch (unless dependent on ṬRF_1 ‘eye’) seems to identify the preference of the lateral parts of a pasturage with a looking for alternatives, hence: ‘…pasturage > to appreciate a novelty > novelty’ (ṬRF_3; however, another theory derives ‘novelty’ from CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ in the sense of ‘fresh-plucked’, cf. also ṬRF_5 ‘tamarisk’.) – The value ‘to drive away, repel’ (ṬRF_6), too, could be explained—in theory—as a derivation from ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, the act of repelling being a driving away “to the utmost parts”; cf., however, DRS (and also Klein1987) where Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘éloigner qn de qc; repousser’ is grouped differently on account of the wider Sem evidence; but the D-stem may still be denom. from ṭaraf. – In contrast, there is almost no doubt that ↗miṭraf ‘shawl’ (ṬRF_4) depends on ṭaraf ‘edge, side’ because, in ClassAr use, it is a ‘garment […] having ornamental or coloured or figured borders’ (Lane). – ^†ṭirāf ‘leather tent, tent of skin’ (ṬRF_9), too, seems to be somehow connected to ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, but the relation is not really clear and its exact nature will need further explanation.
▪ ṭaraf was, and is still, used in many expressions with a specialized or figurative meaning, particularly also in the pl. ʔaṭrāf. For instance, the latter can also mean ‘fingers’ (i.e., the extremities of the hand), if not ‘extremities’ in general. The construct ʔaṭrāf al-nahār signifies the *‘extremities of a day’, i.e., ‘morning and afternoon, daybreak and sunset’. And the *‘extremities of the people’, ʔaṭrāf al-nās , mean ‘the lower orders of society’. Furthermore, ʔaṭrāf can mean (in ClassAr) ‘a man’s father and mother and brothers and paternal uncles and any relations whom it is unlawful for him to marry’.
▪ Ar lexicographers also tend to regard ‘noble, of high breed; generous’ as a derivation from ṭaraf : as also ^†ṭarīf, ^†ṭaraf can mean ‘having many ancestors, up to the greatest (i.e. most remote [= “extreme”]) forefather, of long descent’ (Lane), and ^†ṭarf ‘man generous, noble’ is likewise explained as ‘…in respect of ancestry, up to the greatest [i.e. most remote] forefather’ (ibid.). – In addition, with the notion of ‘generosity’ and the plentitude of ancestors we are already in close neighbourhood of the value ‘to be numerous, abound with’ (ṬRF_11).
▪ For still other (obsolete) values that may be dependent on, or derived from, ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, like ‘to lose the teeth’, cf. root entry ↗ṬRF.

–

► ṭaraf al-ġawr, n.prop.loc., Trafalgar (cape, SW Spain). – Cf., however, EtymOnline where Engl Trafalgar (famous sea battle, Oct. 21, 1805!) is said to be from Ar ṭaraf al-ġarb ‘end of the west’, or ṭaraf al-ʔaġar ‘end of the column’ (in reference to the pillars of Hercules).
► ṭaraf al-liḥāf, n., corner or tag of a cover
► ṭaraf al-lisān, n., tip of the tongue
► ṭarafay-i ’l-nahār, adv., in the morning and in the evening, mornings and evenings
► kānū ʕalà ṭarafay naqīḍ, expr., they were at variance, they varied on a feud
► kāna wa-ʔiyyā-hu ʕalà ṭarafay naqīḍ, expr., they held diametrically opposed views or positions
► ʔaṭrāf al-badan, n.pl., the extremities of the body, the limbs
► ʔaṭrāf al-ʔaṣābiʕ, n.pl., fingertips
► ʕalà ʔaṭrāf qadamay-hi, expr., on tiptoe
► ʔaṭrāf al-madīnaẗ, n.pl., the outskirts of the city
► al-ʔaṭrāf al-mutaʕāqidaẗ, n.f., the contracting parties
► ʔaṭrāf al-nizāʕ, n.pl., the contending parties
► bi-ṭaraf…, prep., with, at, on the part or side of
► min ṭaraf…, prep., on the part of
► min ṭaraf ʔilà ṭaraf, adv., from one end to the other
► ʔaḥzāb ṭaraf al-yamīn, n.pl., the right-wing parties
► ǧāḏaba ʔaṭrāfa ’l-ḥadīṯ, vb. I, to talk, converse, have a conversation
► ǧamaʕa ’l-barāʕaẗ min ʔaṭrāfi-hā, vb. I, to be a highly efficient man, be highly qualified
► ǧamaʕa ʔaṭrāf al-šayʔ, vb. I, to give a survey or outline of s.th., summarize, sum up s.th.
► qaṣṣa ʕalay-hi ṭarafan (ʔaṭrāfan) min ḥayāẗi-hī, vb. I, to tell s.o. an episode (episodes) of one’s life
► ʔaṭrāf al-ḥawādiṯ, n.pl., episodic events, experiences at the margin of events
► yanquṣu ’l-ʔarḍ min ʔaṭrāfi-hā, expr., (God) will reduce the country’s boundaries, i.e., will diminish its power

► taṭarrafa, vb. V, to be on the extreme side, hold an extreme viewpoint or position, go to extremes, be radical, bare radical views: tD-stem, denom., in ClassAr still with the more general literal meaning ‘to become pointed, tapering, dender at the extremity’, but also already in the expr. ~ ʕalà ’l-qawm ‘to make a sudden, unexpected attack upon the territory or dwellings of the people’.

► ṭarafī, adj., being at the outermost extremity, standing out, projecting, prominent: nsb-adj.
► ^BP#2974taṭarruf, n., 1 excess, excessiveness, immoderation, extravagance; 2 extremism, extreme standpoint or position, radical attitude, radicalism: vn. V.
► ^BP#2713mutaṭarrif, adj., 1 utmost, outmost, farthest outward, located at the outermost point; 2 extreme, extremistic; 3 radical: PA V; 4 n., an extremist, a radical: nominalization of the preceding | ǧihaẗ ~aẗ, n.f., outlying district, outskirt(s)

ṭurfaẗ طُرْفة , pl. ṭuraf

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

√ṬRF

n.f.

1 novelty, rarity, curiosity, curio, rare object, choice item; 2 exquisite present; 3 masterpiece, chef-d’œuvre; 4 hit, high light, pièce de résistance – WehrCowan1979.

▪ DRS keeps Ar ṭarufa ‘to be newly acquired, be a recent acquisition’ completely separate from other values of Sem *ṬRP. In contrast, in assigning the slightly different (and more original?) meaning ‘to be freshly plucked’ to the same vb., Klein1987 can group it together with Hbr and Aram words for ‘to seize, pluck’, which in turn go back to a CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’. For the author of the present entry (SG), this gives a rather plausible chain of semantic development: *‘to tear, pluck, seize > to be freshly plucked > to be fresh, new, novelty’. With this, Ar ṭarufa, ṭurfaẗ, etc. would not only be akin to ↗ṭarfāʔᵘ ‘tamarisk’ but also to other items going back to the same ancestor, particularly those based on ↗ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ (which is from *< ‘to depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage < to graze < to pluck’).
▪ In contrast, traditional Ar lexicography tends to relate ‘novelty’ to ↗ṭarf ‘eye’, as *‘s.th. that strikes the eye’.
▪ There seems also to be some overlapping with ↗ẒRF.

▪ ClassAr meanings: ‘newly-acquired property, anything that one has newly acquired, and that pleases, is strange and deemed good’, ‘s.th. newly found, gained, or acquired, hence s.th. strange, extraordinary, approved, deemed good (incl., e.g., information or tidings)’ – Lane.

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬRP-2 Ar ṭarufa ‘être d’acquisition récente; être nouveau, neuf, récent, frais’.
▪ Klein1987: Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’, Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’, ṭᵊrêp̄â ‘torn animal, torn flesh’, Ar ṭarafa ‘to graze (said of a camel)’, ṭarufa ‘to be freshly plucked’; Hbr ṭārāp̄ ‘fresh-plucked’, hence also ‘fresh leaf’ and nHbr ‘leaf, blade’, Aram Syr ṭarpâ ‘fresh leaf’.

▪ Cf. section CONC above.

–

► ṭarufa u (ṭarāfaẗ), vb. I, to be newly acquired, be a recent acquisition: denom.?
► ʔaṭrafa, vb. IV, 1 to feature or tell s.th. new or novel, say s.th. new or original, introduce a novel angle or idea; 2 to present (s.o. bi‑ with s.th. new or novel), give (to s.o. bi‑ s.th. new or novel): Š-stem, denom.
► ĭstaṭrafa, vb. X, to value as rare, original, unusual: Št-stem, denom., evaluative.

► ṭarīf, adj., 1 curious, strange, odd; 2 novel, exquisite, singular, rare, uncommon: quasi-PP I.
► ṭarīfaẗ, pl. ṭarāʔifᵘ, n.f., 1 rare, exquisite thing; 2 uncommon object or piece (e.g., of art); 3 pl. ṭarāʔif, curiosities, oddities, uncommon qualities: nominalized f. of ṭarīf
► ṭarāfaẗ, n.f., 1 novelty, uncommonness, peculiarity, oddness, strangeness, curiosity, originality; 2 unusual new manner: vn. I.
► ʔaṭrafᵘ, adj., more curious or peculiar: elat.
► ʔuṭrūfaẗ, n.f., (Syr.) rare, exquisite work of art:… | ~ šiʕriyyaẗ, n.f., a masterpiece of poetry
► ṭārif, adj., newly acquired: quasi-PA I, from ṭarafa in the old (now obsol.) sense of *‘to hit the eye’, see ↗ṭarf.
► mustaṭraf, adj., considered as being unusual, exquisite, unique, prized as a valuable rarity: PP X.

ṭarfāʔᵘ طَرْفاءُ

√ṬRF

n.coll. (n.un. ‑aẗ)

tamarisk (bot.) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Etymology obscure. Zimmern1914: 53 is probably right in assuming that Ar ṭarfāʔ and Akk ṭarpaʔ‑ (var. ṭarpiʔ‑, kind of tamarisk) are somehow related, but it remains unclear how precisely this would be the case, given that the Akk word may be a borrowing from a foreign language.
▪ Militarev&Stolbova2007 see Akk ṭarpaʔu together with Aram words for ‘leaf’. Adding to this juxtaposition that of Klein1987 who relates the Aram ‘leaf’ to the notion of ‘plucking’, one can be tempted to draw a line from CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ to Hbr Aram ṭrp ‘to pluck’, to ‘(freshly plucked) leaf’, to ‘(certain type of tree,) tamarisk’. But the last shift of meaning in this chain would still remain difficult to be made plausible.
▪ In contrast, Kogan2011 reconstructs protSem *ṭarpaʔ‑ ‘kind of tree’.
▪ Any relation to other items of the root ↗ṬRF, such as ↗ṭarf ‘eye’, ↗ṭaraf ‘extremity, outermost part’, or ↗ṭurfaẗ ‘novelty’?

▪ …

▪ DRS 10 (2012) #ṬRP-9: Akk ṭarpaʔ- sorte de tamaris.
▪ (?) Klein1987: Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’, Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’, ṭᵊrêp̄â ‘torn animal, torn flesh’, Ar ṭarafa ‘to graze (said of a camel)’, ṭarufa ‘to be freshly plucked’; Hbr ṭārāp̄ ‘fresh-plucked’, hence also ‘fresh leaf’ and nHbr ‘leaf, blade’, Aram Syr ṭarp̄â ‘fresh leaf’.
▪ Militarev&Stolbova2007 (in StarLing, Sem#1507): Akk ṭarpaʔu ‘a variety of tamarisk’, PalAram ṭrp, ṭrb, Syr ṭarp̄ā, UrmAram ṭarp, Mand a-ṭirp ‘leaf’. Outside Sem: (EChad) Bidiya tìrìp ‘kind of tree’.

▪ Militarev&Stolbova2007 (in StarLing, Sem#1507) reconstruct protSem *ṭarpaʔ- ‘tamarind [sic!]; leaf’ and EChad *tirip- ‘kind of tree’, both from a hypothetical AfrAs *ṭarip- ‘tree’.
▪ For all other aspects see above, section CONC.

–

miṭraf مِطْرَف , var. muṭraf

√ṬRF

shawl – WehrCowan1979.

▪ The explanation, given by ClassAr lexicographers, that miṭraf is a ‘garment, square or four-sided, having ornamental or coloured or figured borders’ (Lane) connects the word with ↗ṭaraf ‘edge, extremity’, which seems plausible.

▪ Hava1899: ‘a square silk gown, adorned with figures’.

↗ṭaraf.

–

taṭarruf تَطَرُّف

√ṬRF

1 excess, excessiveness, immoderation, extravagance; 2 extremism, extreme standpoint or position, radical attitude, radicalism – WehrCowan1979.

Morphologically a vn. V, from taṭarrafa, vb. V, ‘to be on the extreme side, hold an extreme viewpoint or position, go to extremes, be radical, bare radical views’, tD-stem, denom., from ↗ṭaraf ‘utmost part, outermost point, extremity, end, tip, point, edge, fringe, limit, border’.

▪ …

↗ṭaraf.

▪ …
▪ …

–

►

mutaṭarrif مُتَطَرِّف

√ṬRF

¹adj.; ²n.

1 utmost, outmost, farthest outward, located at the outermost point; 2 extreme, extremistic; 3 radical; 4 n., an extremist, a radical: nominalization of the preceding – WehrCowan1979.

Morphologically a PA V, from taṭarrafa, vb. V, ‘to be on the extreme side, hold an extreme viewpoint or position, go to extremes, be radical, bare radical views’, tD-stem, denom., from ↗ṭaraf ‘utmost part, outermost point, extremity, end, tip, point, edge, fringe, limit, border’.

▪ …

↗ṭaraf.

▪ …
▪ …

–

► ǧihaẗ mutaṭarrifaẗ, n.f., outlying district, outskirt(s)

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