disc▪ 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.