Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ʕBR_1 ‘the other/opposite side; to cross, traverse, pass over’ ↗ʕabara
▪ ʕBR_2 ‘contemplation; lesson’ ↗ʕibraẗ
▪ ʕBR_3 ‘expression, to express (a feeling, an opinion, etc.)’ ↗ʕibāraẗ
▪ ʕBR_4 ‘to interpret a dream’ ↗ʕabbara
▪ ʕBR_5 ‘tear, to shed tears’ ↗ʕabraẗ
▪ ʕBR_6 ‘(compound) perfume’ ↗ʕabīr
▪ ʕBR_7 ‘Hebrew’ ↗ʕibrī
Other values, now obsolete, include:

ʕBR_8 ‘great number, crowd’ : ^†ʕubr (Hava1899)
ʕBR_9 ‘sturdy, strong’ : ^†ʕ˅br (Hava1899)
ʕBR_10 ‘ewe or goat one year old’ : ^†ʕabūr, pl. ʕabāʔirᵘ (Hava1899)
ʕBR_11 ‘thick-woolled (sheep)’ : ^†muʕbar (Hava1899)

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1 one side of the valley, to traverse, passer-by; 2 to interpret a dream; 3 contemplation, a lesson; 4 tear; 5 plenty, group of people; 6 mixture of perfumes’

▪ Several of the values that the root ʕBR can take in Ar seem to be based, in one way or another, on ʕBR_1 (cf. entry ↗ʕabara). They are distinguished here only for the sake of structuring the semantic diversity within the root.
▪ ʕBR_1 : Following Dolgopolsky whose presentation looks convincing, the etyma proper seem to be ^†ʕibr ~ ʕabr (preserved in MSA in the prep. ʕabrᵃ ‘across’) ~ ^†ʕubr ‘shore, bank, margin’, from Sem *ʕib(˅)r- ‘region beyond/across a body of water (river, lake, sea), (further) bank/shore’, and the (prob. denom.) vb. Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- (> Ar ʕabara) ‘to cross (a body of water), pass over’ > *‘to pass over a stream to the other side’. (According to Dolgopolsky, these items may even be related to words for ‘shore, river bank; mainland’ in some IE langs, like Grk ḗpeiros, or Ge Ufer). – From ‘crossing’ seem to have branched off, through figurative use, several other ideas, notably ʕBR_2-4, perh. also ʕBR_5 and ʕBR_7.
▪ ʕBR_2 : based on ʕBR_1 ‘to cross’, interpreted as *‘to cross, traverse mentally, ponder about, wander through a world of ideas or possibilities’, hence ‘to contemplate’ (> ‘to draw a lesson from’), and hence also ‘to examine, test’.
▪ ʕBR_3 : based on ʕBR_1 ‘to cross’, interpreted as *‘to make s.th. pass from the tongue of the speaker to the ear of the hearer’ or *‘…from the inner world of feelings and thought to the outer world of words, i.e., to articulate s.th.’, hence ‘to express (a feeling, an opinion, etc.)’; cf. Engl express < Lat ex-primere, lit., *‘to squeeze, make come out’.
▪ ʕBR_4 : based on ʕBR_1 ‘to cross’, interpreted as *‘to translate the symbolic meaning of a dream into a concrete meaning’, hence ‘to interpret a dream’.
▪ ʕBR_5 : Perh. based on ʕBR_1 ‘to cross’, interpreted as *‘to cross a border, reach a limit, a brim, overflow’ (esp. feelings, emotion), hence ‘tear, to shed tears’.
▪ ʕBR_6 : ʕabīr ‘(compound) perfume’ is hardly akin to ʕBR_1 ‘to cross’; etymology obscure.
▪ ʕBR_7 : Ar ʕibrī ‘Hebrew’, which is the same as the Hbr term ʕiḇrī, has been linked by earlier research to ʕBR_1 ‘to pass by, go beyond, cross’, interpreting the Biblical ʕiḇrīm either as ‘Bedouins’, i.e., a group of people who *‘cross, or wander around in, the desert’, or, more convincingly (because paying attention to the nisba form), as *‘those who come from, or inhabit, the other side of the river, the region beyond (Hbr ʕēḇär; sc. either the Jordan or the Euphrates)’. The ‘Hebrews’ seem to be identical with the ḫabiru (Akk ḫāpiru) of the Tell el-Amarna tablets (-C14), a term that is believed to have been applied to »displaced persons who leave their homeland and seek their fortunes in neighboring countries«; the word seems to have a social connotation here, while its use as a n.gent. obviously is post-exilic – Hoch1994. – For a similar idea, cf. also ↗ʕarab.
▪ ʕBR_8-11 : etymology unclear/obscure.

–

ʕBR_1
▪ Zammit2002, Tropper2008, CAD: Akk ebēru (var. epēru, ḫabāru) ‘to cross (water); to extend beyond (s.th.)’, ebar (prep.) ‘beyond’, ¹ebertu (var. abartu) ‘the other bank/side’, ²ebertu ‘pace; step (of a staircase)’,¹ Ug ʕbr ‘to pass by/through/over; to cross’, Phoen ʕbr ‘to pass’, Hbr ʕābar ‘to pass over, through, by’, Aram (sf) ʕbr ‘to pass on, by’, BiblAram ʕᵃbar ‘region across, beyond’, Syr ʕᵉbar ‘to pass on, by’, (af.) ‘to translate’, SAr ʕbr ‘to pass, cross’, Ar ʕabara ‘to interpret’, ʕābir ‘one who passes over’. – Not in EthSem.
▪ LandbergZetterstéen1942: DaṯAr ʕabr ‘canal’, cf. Sab ʕbr ‘bank, side’ [Müller2010: ‘(Ufer)seite (eines Wadis)’, ʕbr-n (prep.) ‘opposite of’, ʕbrt ‘littoral (of a wadi)’], like ʕubr ~ʕibr in the luġaẗ; Sab ʕbr = Hbr ʕēḇär ‘river bank, opposite side, region beyond; field, [prob.] littoral field irrigated by water or close to the water course’; accord. to Rossi ‘terreno a terazzi coltivato (nel Yemen occidentale’ = Stein2012: ʕbrt ‘(lit., seitlich gelegene?) Felder, die an den Seitenrändern der Wadis gelegenen, terrassenförmigen Felder’.
▪ Militarev2006 (in StarLing)#1641: Akk ebēru ‘to cross (water); to extend beyond s.th.’, Ug ʕbr ‘to cross’, Hbr ʕbr ‘to move through, pass over, pass by, travel (along a road)’, ʕäbär ‘(river) bank’, Syr ʕbr ‘to cross; to inundate, invade’, Ar ʕbr [-u- ] ‘to cross; to move through, pass over, pass by, travel (along a road)’; ʕubr ‘(river) bank’, SAr ʕbr, Mhr ʔābōr ‘to cross’, Jib ʕɔ̄r ‘to cross; to go far away’ (caus. aʕbér). – Outside Sem: (Berb) Sokna ta-barutt, pl. burâw, Fojaha ta-bārû-t, Ayr Taw abǝr, pl. abǝr-ăn ‘road, way’; (3 WCh langs show the forms) var, vǝ̀rǝ ‘to go out’, and bār ‘to escape’; (2 ECh langs have:) bìre ‘to go by’, bĩrré ‘to go for a walk’; and in Dahalo (Sanye) we find ḅariy - ‘to go out, depart’.
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#141: BiblHbr ʕēḇär ‘opposite side (of a river, lake etc.); side, edge, bank’, SamHbr ʕēbā̊r ‘id.’, JudAram ʕiḇrā ~ ʕäḇrā ‘opposite side’, Syr ʕeḇrā ‘crossing (a river), further bank’, Mand ʕbra ‘coastland, foreshore’, Ar ʕibr ~ ʕabr ~ ʕubr ‘shore’, Akk eber-nāri (lit. ‘the region beyond the river’) (< WSem), Ebl a-bar-rí-iš = ʕabar-iš (/ʕabāriš/) loc. ‘on the other bank’; Akk ebēru ‘to cross (water)’, Ebl a-ba-rí-im = ʕabār-im inf. gen. ‘id.’, Hbr Phoen Pun Ug oAram EmpAram JudAram Syr Ar Sab √ʕBR G ‘to cross over (water etc.), pass’. – Outside Sem: (Can >) Eg (in syllabic script) ʕá-bí-ya ‘ford, crossing’ (Eg NK y < *r); (IE:) Grk (Att) ḗpeiros, (Dor) ápeiros (long ā), (Aeol) áperros (with ā) ‘mainland’ (< *āper-yo-), oEngl ōfer, Du oever, mHGe uover > nHGe Ufer ‘shore’ (< *āper-o-), mLGe ō̈ver ‘id.’ (< *āper-yo-).
▪ ʕBR_2 : As ʕBR_1.
▪ ʕBR_3 : As ʕBR_1. – A similar semantic development is also found in Syr.
▪ ʕBR_4 : As ʕBR_1. – Closest to the value ‘to interpret a dream’, attached in ClassAr not only to the D-stem ʕabbara but also to the G-stem ʕabara, comes prob. the Syr (likewise caus.) Š-stem, ʔaʕbar, in the sense of ‘to transfer, translate’.
▪ ʕBR_5 Probably related to Hbr ʕäḇrāʰ ‘overflow, excess outburst; arrogance; overflowing rage, fury’, (Št-stem, denom.) hiṯʕabbar ‘to be arrogant, infuriate o.s.’ (BDB1906), and Syr ʕbar ‘…; to surpass, exceed, be beyond, overcome’ (e.g., bᵊ-šūp̱rāh lᵊ-šemšā ʕābrā hᵊwāt ‘she surpassed the sun in fairness’), (eṯp) ‘…; to neglect, fail (of accomplishment), to transgress, sin’, (aph) ‘…; to go beyond, exceed’ (PayneSmith1903). – ? Cf. also Akk ebirtu (var. abirtu, ḫibirtu), name of a month? According to CAD, this word is »possibly to be connected with [Akk] ebēru, in the meaning ‘to overflow’, attested in WSem (Hbr, Aram), hence ‘the month of overflowing of the rivers’«. – Furthermore, it is not clear whether WSem ‘to overflow’ is or is not related to Sem ʕBR ‘to cross’.
▪ ʕBR_6 : No obvious cognates found so far. – Is there any connection between ʕabīr ‘(mixed) perfume’ and the word ↗ʕanbar ‘ambergris’ that Lane lists both under √ʕNBR and √ʕBR?
▪ ʕBR_7 : Probably related to ʕBR_1 – see discussion above in section CONC.
▪ ʕBR_8-11 : ?

▪ In addition to the values mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, Sem ʕBR has also

BDB1906, CAD, Militarev2006 (in StarLing)#1662: Akk ebūru ‘harvest; crop, produce, grain; harvest time; summer’, Hbr ʕāḇûr ‘produce, yield’, JudAram Syr ʕăbūrā ‘produce, grain, corn’. < Sem *ʕabūr- ‘harvest; produce; grain’, derived from Sem *ḥ˅b˅r- ‘to gather’.
PayneSmith1903: Syr ʕābartā, ʕābārtā ‘dysentery’.

1. Cf. perh. also Akk ebirtu, var. abirtu, ḫibirtu, name of a month, »possibly to be connected with ebēru, in the meaning ‘to overflow’, attested in WSem (Hbr, Aram), hence ‘the month of overflowing of the rivers.’«

ʕBR_1
▪ If Dolgopolsky’s assumption of a priority of the n. over the vb. is correct, then the only direct reflex of the etymon proper in MSA is the prep. ʕabrᵃ , originally a acc. of place/time from the now obsolete n. ^†ʕabr, in ClassAr more often appearing as ^†ʕibr (which is perh. the more original form), or also ^†ʕubr ‘shore, bank, margin’, from which we also find the adj. ^†ʕubrī ‘(species of lote-tree) that grows on the banks of rivers, and becomes large’ (Lane).
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#141: Sem *ʕib˻˅˼r- ‘the region beyond/across a body of water (river, lake, sea), (further) bank/shore’ (> denom. vb. Sem *ʕBR ‘to cross (a body of water), pass over’ > *‘to pass over a stream to the other side’), IE *āper-o-, *āper-yo- ‘shore, river bank; mainland’ (> [Kluge2002:] WGerm *ōbera-), both from Nostr *ʕ˅P˅R˅ ‘(river-)bank’.
▪ Militarev2008 (in StarLing): Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘1 to cross; 2 to extend beyond (s.th.); 3 to move through, pass over, pass by, travel (along a road); 4 to inundate, invade; 5 (river) bank; 6 to go far away’, Berb *Habar- ‘road, way’, WCh *H˅bar- ‘to escape; to go out’, ECh *birr- ‘to go by; to go for a walk’, Dahalo (Sanye) ḅariy- (<*H˅bar- ?) ‘to go out, depart’, all from AfrAs *ʕabir- ‘traveling (along a road), passing by, crossing (rivers)’.
▪ ʕBR_2 : see above, section CONC.
▪ ʕBR_3 : ʕibāraẗ ‘speech that passes from the tongue of the speaker to the ear of the hearer; hence: passage in a book or writing; and hence also: word, expression, phrase; and: explanation, interpretation’ (Lane).
▪ ʕBR_4 : A notion that is close to that of interpreting a dream, namely that of ‘translating’, is also found in the Syr caus., here expressed not (as in Ar) in the D-, but in the Š-stem (aph) ʔaʕbar which, in addition to the lit. meaning ‘to cause/allow to pass; to allow to depart; to transfer, remove, transport, transplant’ and several other figurative usages (e.g., ‘to pass over, remit, sc. a transgression, a sin; to convert, turn, e.g., from paganism to the faith; [logic ] to pass over, e.g., from a part to the whole, from detail to generality; to go beyond, exceed; etc.)’ also shows the value ‘to transfer, translate’, e.g., men lešānā ʕebrānā lᵊ-yūnānā ‘from Hebrew to Greek’ – PayneSmith1903.
▪ ʕBR_5 : Cf. also ClassAr (G-stem) ^†ʕabara (ʕabr) and ^†ʕabira a (ʕabar) ‘to shed tears; to grieve, mourn, be sorrowful, sad, unhappy’, ^†ʕabrà (pl. ʕubr) ‘weeping (eye), hence: grieving (woman), bereft of her child’ – Lane/Hava1899. – If ʕabraẗ ‘tear’ is related to WSem *ʕBR ‘to overflow’, its original meaning would be *‘what overflows’ or *‘result of an overflow (of emotion, rage, fury, etc.)’. Gesenius1915 thinks it is obvious that WSem *ʕBR ‘to overflow’ has to be treated as a root in its own right, different from Sem *ʕBR ‘to cross’; but why should ‘to overflow’ not go back to an earlier ‘reaching/crossing a border, go beyond, pass over’ and thus probably have developed from the Sem etymon of ʕBR_1?
▪ ʕBR_6 : Hoch1994#68 thinks that Eg ʕbyr */ʕabīr/, which is of uncertain meaning but seems to be a loanword from Sem—»[cf.] Ar ʕabīr ‘fragrance; perfume’«—, perh. can be associated with BiblHbr (Song of Songs, 5:5) môr ʕōḇēr ‘liquid myrrh’ (cf. Ar ↗murr), where ʕōḇēr seems to be a PA (prop. ʕôḇēr) of ʕāḇar in the sense of *‘to overflow’. – The fact that Lane also lists ↗ʕanbar ‘ambergris’ under √ʕBR (though referring from there to √ʕNBR), prompts one to think of the possibility of an etymological relation between ʕabīr and ʕanbar, all the more so since ClassAr dictionaries render ʕabīr as ‘a mixture of perfumes, compounded with saffron [!]’ or sometimes even as a synonym for ‘saffron’ (Lane), while ʕanbar, too, often seems to take the meaning ‘saffron’ (Lane, Hava1899). However, even if there was some kind of relation between the two, it would still be difficult, phonologically speaking, to derive ʕabīr directly from ʕanbar.
▪ ʕBR_7 : The origin of the term Hbr ʕiḇrî (Ar ʕibrī) ‘Hebrew’ is, as Hopkins summarizes the state of affairs in etymological research about the word, still »a moot point, much discussed yet unresolved. None of the many etymologies proposed is satisfactory and so the origin of ‘Hebrew’ must be accounted unclear. Eccentricities apart, there are three main avenues of approach: (i) ʕiḇrî is an eponymous gentilic adjective, derived from the proper name ʕēḇär ‘Eber’, the great-grandson of Shem (Gen. 10.24; 11.14); (ii) ʕiḇrî is a geographical term, derived from ʕēḇär ‘across, beyond’, more particularly ʕēḇär han-nāhār ‘beyond the river’ (see especially Josh. 24.2). Depending upon the identity of the river in question, ʕiḇrî is to be understood as ‘trans-Euphrates’ or ‘trans-Jordan’; (iii) As opposed to (i) and (ii), which represent traditional views found in rabbinical sources, especially since the discovery of the Tel el-Amarna letters in the late 19th century it has been not uncommon in Biblical scholarship to find a connection between ‘Hebrew’ and the ḫabiru, groups of roving marauders mentioned in the Tel el-Amarna (and other) documents as having attacked Palestine in the mid-2nd millennium B.C.E.« – »Names of the Hebrew Language« (S. Hopkins), in Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics.
▪ ʕBR_8 : Cf. also ^†maǧlis ʕabr/ʕibr ‘numerous gathering’ – Hava1899. – Etymology obscure.
▪ ʕBR_9 ▪ Cf. also ^†ʕ˅br li-kull ʕamal ‘fit to every work’, ʕ˅br ʔasfār ‘bold traveller; strong to journey (camel)’ – Hava1899. – Etymology obscure.
▪ ʕBR_10-11 : Can ʕBR_10 ^†ʕabūr ‘ewe or goat one year old’ and ʕBR_11 ^†muʕbar ‘thick-woolled (sheep)’ be put together?

–

ʕabar‑ عَبَرَ , u (ʕabr , ʕubūr)

ID 562 • Sw – • BP 3333 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʕBR

vb., I

1 to cross, traverse; 2 to ford, wade (DO through s.th.); 3 to swim (across s.th.); 4 to pass (over s.th.); 5 to ferry (a river, and the like); 6 to carry (bi‑ s.o., across or over s.th.); 7 to make cross over or go forward, lead (bi‑ s.o., ʔilà to, e.g., to a new life); 8 to pass, elapse (time), fade, dwindle; 9 to pass away, die, depart – WehrCowan1979.

▪ From Sem *ʕBR ‘to cross (a body of water), pass over’. According to Dolgopolsky whose presentation looks convincing and whom we therefore follow here, the vb. is denom. from Sem *ʕib(˅)r- ‘region beyond/across a body of water (river, lake, sea), (further) bank/shore’. While this n. still forms part of the ClassAr vocabulary (Ar ^†ʕibr ~ ʕabr ~ ^†ʕubr ‘shore, bank, margin’), the only direct reflex of it in MSA seems to be the prep. ʕabrᵃ ‘across’.
▪ If Dolgopolsky is right, then these items may even be related to words for ‘shore, river bank; mainland’ in some IE langs, like Grk ḗpeiros, or Ge Ufer.
▪ From the idea of ‘crossing’ seem to have branched off, through fig. use, several other themes:

*‘to cross or wander through s.th. mentally ’, hence: ‘contemplation; lesson’ ↗ʕibraẗ
*‘to make s.th. (a feeling, an opinion, etc.) cross one’s lips’, hence: ‘expression, to express’ ↗ʕibāraẗ
*‘to make the meaning of s.th., esp. dreams, cross from the realm of symbols into that of concrete meaning, translate the symbolic language into s.th. meaningful’, hence: ‘to interpret a dream’ ↗ʕabbara
perh. also *‘to cross a brim > to overflow’, hence: ‘tear, to shed tears’ ↗ʕabraẗ (but this item is held apart from ʕabara by some scholars)
traditionally, also *‘to cross the air, evaporate’, hence: ‘(compound) perfume’ ↗ʕabīr (but this explanation is rather far-fetched and the item should probably better kept apart from ʕabara)
possibly even *‘people who cross (sc. the desert), hence: ‘Hebrew’ ↗ʕibrī (but there are a number of other etymologies for this n.gent.).
For the whole picture cf. ↗ʕBR.

▪ eC7 ʕabara (I, tr., to traverse; to interpret [a dream]) Q 12:43 ʔin kuntum lil-ruʔyā taʕburūna ‘if you are [ones who] interpret dreams’. – ʕābir (PA, one who passes by or through, one who traverses) Q 4:43 ʔillā ʕābirī sabīlin ‘unless you are passing through [the mosque]’.
▪ Hava1899, too, has ʕabara still in the meanings ‘(vn. ʕabr, ʕubūr) to cross, pass over (a river); ^† to read (a book) mentally; to try (money); (vn. ʕibāraẗ, ʕabr) ^†to interpret (a dream)’; ^†ʕibr ‘shore, bank, margin’ (cf. also ^†banāt ʕibr ‘trifles, falsehood, vanity’).

▪ Dolgopolsky2012#141: BiblHbr ʕēḇär ‘opposite side (of a river, lake etc.); side, edge, bank’, SamHbr ʕēbā̊r ‘id.’, JudAram ʕiḇrā ~ ʕäḇrā ‘opposite side’, Syr ʕeḇrā ‘crossing (a river), further bank’, Mand ʕbra ‘coastland, foreshore’, Ar ʕibr ~ ʕabr ~ ʕubr ‘shore’, Akk eber-nāri (lit. ‘the region beyond the river’) (< WSem), Ebl a-bar-rí-iš = ʕabar-iš (/ʕabāriš/) loc. ‘on the other bank’; Akk ebēru ‘to cross (water)’, Ebl a-ba-rí-im = ʕabār-im inf. gen. ‘id.’, Hbr Phoen Pun Ug oAram EmpAram JudAram Syr Ar Sab √ʕBR G ‘to cross over (water etc.), pass’. – Outside Sem: (Can >) Eg (in syllabic script) ʕá-bí-ya ‘ford, crossing’ (Eg NK y < *r); (IE:) Grk (Att) ḗpeiros, (Dor) ápeiros (long ā), (Aeol) áperros (with ā) ‘mainland’ (< *āper-yo-), oEngl ōfer, Du oever, mHGe uover > nHGe Ufer ‘shore’ (< *āper-o-), mLGe ō̈ver ‘id.’ (< *āper-yo-).
▪ Zammit2002, Tropper2008, CAD: Akk ebēru (var. epēru, ḫabāru) ‘to cross (water); to extend beyond (s.th.)’, ebar (prep.) ‘beyond’, ¹ebertu (var. abartu) ‘the other bank/side’, ²ebertu ‘pace; step (of a staircase)’,² Ug ʕbr ‘to pass by/through/over; to cross’, Phoen ʕbr ‘to pass’, Hbr ʕābar ‘to pass over, through, by’, Aram (sf) ʕbr ‘to pass on, by’, BiblAram ʕᵃbar ‘region across, beyond’, Syr ʕᵉbar ‘to pass on, by’, (af.) ‘to translate’, SAr ʕbr ‘to pass, cross’, Ar ʕabara ‘to interpret’, ʕābir ‘one who passes over’. – Not in EthSem.
▪ LandbergZetterstéen1942: DaṯAr ʕabr ‘canal’, cf. Sab ʕbr ‘bank, side’ [Müller2010: ‘(Ufer)seite (eines Wadis)’, ʕbr-n (prep.) ‘opposite of’, ʕbrt ‘littoral (of a wadi)’], like ʕubr ~ʕibr in the luġaẗ; Sab ʕbr = Hbr ʕēḇär ‘river bank, opposite side, region beyond; field, [prob.] littoral field irrigated by water or close to the water course’; accord. to Rossi ‘terreno a terazzi coltivato (nel Yemen occidentale’ = Stein2012: ʕbrt ‘(lit., seitlich gelegene?) Felder, die an den Seitenrändern der Wadis gelegenen, terrassenförmigen Felder’.
▪ Militarev2006 (in StarLing)#1641: Akk ebēru ‘to cross (water); to extend beyond s.th.’, Ug ʕbr ‘to cross’, Hbr ʕbr ‘to move through, pass over, pass by, travel (along a road)’, ʕäbär ‘(river) bank’, Syr ʕbr ‘to cross; to inundate, invade’, Ar ʕbr [-u- ] ‘to cross; to move through, pass over, pass by, travel (along a road)’; ʕubr ‘(river) bank’, SAr ʕbr, Mhr ʔābōr ‘to cross’, Jib ʕɔ̄r ‘to cross; to go far away’ (caus. aʕbér). – Outside Sem: (Berb) Sokna ta-barutt, pl. burâw, Fojaha ta-bārû-t, Ayr Taw abǝr, pl. abǝr-ăn ‘road, way’; (3 WCh langs show the forms) var, vǝ̀rǝ ‘to go out’, and bār ‘to escape’; (2 ECh langs have:) bìre ‘to go by’, bĩrré ‘to go for a walk’; and in Dahalo (Sanye) we find ḅariy ‘to go out, depart’.

2. Cf. perh. also Akk ebirtu, var. abirtu, ḫibirtu, name of a month, »possibly to be connected with ebēru, in the meaning ‘to overflow’, attested in WSem (Hbr, Aram), hence ‘the month of overflowing of the rivers.’«

▪ If Dolgopolsky’s assumption of a priority of the n. over the vb. is correct, then the only direct reflex of the etymon proper in MSA seems to be the prep. ʕabrᵃ , originally an acc. of place/time from the now obsolete n. ^†ʕabr, in ClassAr more often appearing as ^†ʕibr (which is perh. the more original form), or also ^†ʕubr ‘shore, bank, margin’, from which we also find the adj. ^†ʕubrī ‘(species of lote-tree) that grows on the banks of rivers, and becomes large’ (Lane).
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#141: Sem *ʕib(˅)r- ‘the region beyond/across a body of water (river, lake, sea), (further) bank/shore’ (> denom. vb. Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘to cross (a body of water), pass over’ > *‘to pass over a stream to the other side’), IE *āper-o-, *āper-yo- ‘shore, river bank; mainland’ (> [Kluge2002:] WGerm *ōbera-, Ge Ufer), both from Nostr *ʕ˅P˅R˅ ‘(river-)bank’.
▪ Militarev2008 (in StarLing): Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘1 to cross; 2 to extend beyond (s.th.); 3 to move through, pass over, pass by, travel (along a road); 4 to inundate, invade; 5 (river) bank; 6 to go far away’, Berb *Habar- ‘road, way’, WCh *H˅bar- ‘to escape; to go out’, ECh *birr- ‘to go by; to go for a walk’, Dahalo (Sanye) ḅariy- (<*H˅bar- ?) ‘to go out, depart’, all from AfrAs *ʕabir- ‘traveling (along a road), passing by, crossing (rivers)’.

–

► ^BP#1168ʕabbara, vb. II, 1 to interpret (a dream); 2 to explain, illustrate, expound; 3 to state clearly, declare, assert, utter, express, voice (ʕan s.th.), give expression (ʕan to a feeling); 4 to designate (ʕan s.th., bi with or by); 5 to determine the weight of a coin, weigh (a coin): D-stem, caus., fig. use, lit. *‘to make cross’; see own entry ↗ʕabbara.
► ^BP#341ĭʕtabara, vb. VIII, 1 to be taught a lesson, be warned; 2 to learn a lesson, take warning, learn, take an example (bi from); 3 to consider, weigh, take into account or consideration (s.th.), allow, make allowances (DO for s.th.); 4 to acknowledge (DO a quality, li‑ in s.o.); 5 to deem, regard, take (2xDO s.o., s.th. as), look (DO at s.th., DO as); 6 to esteem, honour, revere, value, respect, hold in esteem (s.o.), have regard (DO for s.o.): tG-stem, either denom. from ʕibraẗ (see below and ↗s.v.) or self-referential in the sense of *‘to cross or wander around [for o.s., mentally] in a book, or in the realm of possible explanations, meanings, choices, etc.’

► ʕabr, n., 1 crossing, traversing, transit; 2 passage; 3 fording: vn. I; ^BP#3854 ~a…, prep., across, over; through, throughout; by way of, by means of: reflecting Sem *ʕib(V)r‑ ‘region beyond/across a body of water (river, lake, sea), (further) bank/shore’? | ~a ’l-madīnaẗ, adv., across/through the town; ~a ’l-ṣaḥrāʔ, adv., across/through the desert; ~a ’l-biḥār, adv., overseas; ~a ’l-tārīḫ, adv., throughout history; ~a ’l-ʕuṣūr, adv., through the centuries
► ^BP#3482ʕubūr, n., 1 crossing, traversing, transit; 2 passage; fording: vn. I.
► ^BP#3411ʕibraẗ, pl. ʕibar, n.f., 1 admonition, monition, warning; 2 (warning or deterring) example, lesson; 3 advice, rule, precept (to be followed); 4 consideration befitting s.th.; 5 that which has to be considered, be taken into consideration or account, that which is of consequence, of importance, s.th. decisive or consequential: prob. from ‘to cross’, interpreted as *‘to cross, traverse mentally, ponder about, wander through a world of ideas or possibilities’, hence ‘to contemplate’ (> ‘to draw a lesson from’), and hence also ‘to examine, test’. | mawṭin al-~, n., the salient point, the crucial point; lā ~a bi-hī, expr., it deserves no attention, it is of no consequence; al-~ fī/bi , expr., the crucial factor(s) is (are)…, decisive is (are)…; lā ~a li-man…, expr., it is of no consequence if s.o….
► ^BP#904ʕibāraẗ, pl. -āt, n.f., 1 explanation, interpretation; 2 (verbal) expression, utterance; 3 phrase; 4 clause; 5 way of expressing o.s.: quasi-vn. I; 6 term (math.) : prob. a neolog., extens. of [v3] or [v4] following the model of Engl Fr expression which is used for math. expressions too. | bi-~ ʔuḫrà, adv., in other words, expressed otherwise; ~an fa-~an, adv., sentence by sentence, word by word; ~ ʕan, n.f./adj./adv., consisting in; tantamount to, equivalent to, meaning…
► ^BP#3146maʕbar, pl. maʕābirᵘ, n., 1 crossing point, crossing, traverse, passage(way); 2 ford; 3 pass, pass road, defile: n.loc.; 4 means, way, medium (li‑ to): fig. use of n.loc.
► miʕbar, pl. maʕābirᵘ, n., 1 medium for crossing, ferry, ferryboat; 2 bridge: n.instr.
► ^BP#1062taʕbīr, n., 1 interpretation (of a dream); 2 assertion, declaration, expression, utterance (ʕan of a feeling); 3 (pl. -āt) expression (in general, also artistic); 4 (pl. taʕābirᵘ) (linguistic) expression, phrase, term: vn. II; for semantics, see ʕabbara above, and entry ↗ʕabbara. | bi-~ ʔāḫar, adv., in other words, expressed otherwise.
► taʕbīrī, adj., expressional, expressive, emotive: nsb-adj., from taʕbīr, vn. II. | al-ʔadab al-~, n., expressionistic literature; ḥarakāt ~aẗ, n.f.pl., mimic gestures or art; al-raqṣ al-~, n., interpretive dance, expressional dance; al-fann al-~, n., expressionism
► taʕbīriyyaẗ, n.f., expressionism: neolog., abstr. formation in -iyyaẗ, from taʕbīr, vn. II.
► ^BP#758ĭʕtibār, n., 1 respect, regard, esteem; 2 self-esteem, honour; 3 (pl. -āt) consideration, regard; 4 reflection, contemplation; 5 approach, outlook, point of view, view: vb. VIII. | ~an li-/bi-…, bi-~…, prep., with respect to, with regard to, in consideration of, considering…, in view of (s.th.); ~an min, prep., from, as of, beginning…, starting with…, effective from… (with foll. indication of time); bi-~i ʔan…, conj., considering (the fact) that…, with regard to the fact that…, in view of the fact that…; provided that…, with the proviso that…; bi-~i-hī… (+acc.), adv., in terms of, in the capacity of, e.g., wazīr al-ḫāriǧiyyaẗ bi-~i-hī ʔaqdama ’l-wuzarāʔ, the Foreign Minister in his capacity of senior-ranking minister; ʕalà / bi-hāḏā ’l-~, adv., from this standpoint, from this viewpoint; ʕalà ~-i ʔanna…, conj., considering (the fact) that…, with regard to the fact that…, in view of the fact that…; on the assumption that…; fī kull ~, adv., in every respect; ~an ʔaw ḥaqīqaẗan, adv., from a subjective point of view or in reality; ʔamr la-hū ~u-hū, expr., s.th. which one must take into consideration or pay attention to; radd al-~, n., rehabilitation
► ĭʕtibārī, adj., 1 based on a subjective approach or outlook; 2 relative: nsb-adj., from ĭʕtibār, vn. VIII | šaḫṣiyyaẗ ~aẗ, n.f., legal person (jur.)
► ^BP#2647ʕābir, adj., 1 passing; 2 crossing, traversing, etc. (see I); 3 fleeting (smile); 4 transient, transitory, ephemeral; 5 bygone, past, elapsed (time); 6 (pl. -ūn) passer-by : PA I. | ~ al-muḥīṭ, adj., crossing the ocean; ~āt al-muḥīṭ, n.f.pl., ocean liners; ~ al-sabīl, n., way-farer; passer-by, s.o. passing along in the street; ~ al-ṣaḥrāʔ, n., traverser of the Sahara; ṣārūḫ ~ al-qārrāt, n., intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM
^BP#2741muʕabbir, n., 1 interpreter (ʕan of feelings); 2 expressive, significant: PA II. | raqṣ ~, n., interpretative dancing

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕabīr, ↗ʕibrī, ↗ʕabraẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕBR.

ʕabbar‑ عَبَّرَ (taʕbīr)

ID … • Sw – • BP 1168 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʕBR

vb., II

1 to interpret (a dream); 2 to explain, illustrate, expound; 3 to state clearly, declare, assert, utter, express, voice (ʕan s.th.), give expression (ʕan to a feeling); 4 to designate (ʕan s.th., bi with or by); 5 to determine the weight of a coin, weigh (a coin) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ [v1-2] are usually explained as fig. use, lit. *‘to make cross’, caus. D-stem, from ↗ʕabara ‘to cross’, from Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘to cross’, from *ʕib(˅)r- ‘region beyond/across a body of water (river, lake, sea), (further) bank/shore’; cf. also: »taʕbīr ‘the passage of one thing to another, one sense to another’, hence ‘explanation’, like ↗tafsīr, lit. ‘commenting, explaining’. In current usage, ~ is confined to the sense of ‘interpretation of dreams [, oneiromancy]’ (taʕbīr al-ruʔya) while tafsīr is used for commentaries on e.g. the Bible and the Qurʔān« – EI², Glossary and Index of Terms.
▪ [v3] could be regarded as denom. from ↗ʕibāraẗ in the meaning of ‘(verbal) expression, utterance; way of expressing o.s.’; the basic idea is a *‘crossing from the inner world (of feelings, opinions, etc.) to the outer world, hence: verbal articulation’.
▪ [v4] ?
▪ Like [v1-2], [v5] too is traditionally explained as fig. use from ‘to cross’, interpreted as *‘to (make) cross, traverse mentally, ponder about, wander through a world of ideas or possibilities’, hence ‘to contemplate’ (> ‘to draw a lesson from’, cf. ↗ʕibraẗ), and hence also ‘to examine, test’.

▪ …

↗ʕabara.

Cf. above, section CONC, as well as ↗ʕabara and ↗ʕBR.

–

► ^BP#1062taʕbīr, n., 1 interpretation (of a dream); 2 assertion, declaration, expression, utterance (ʕan of a feeling); 3 (pl. -āt) expression (in general, also artistic); 4 (pl. taʕābirᵘ) (linguistic) expression, phrase, term: vn. II | bi-~ ʔāḫar, adv., in other words, expressed otherwise.
► taʕbīrī, adj., expressional, expressive, emotive: nsb-adj., from taʕbīr, vn. II. | al-ʔadab al-~, n., expressionistic literature; ḥarakāt ~aẗ, n.f.pl., mimic gestures or art; al-raqṣ al-~, n., interpretive dance, expressional dance; al-fann al-~, n., expressionism
► taʕbīriyyaẗ, n.f., expressionism: abstr. formation in -iyyaẗ, from taʕbīr, vn. II.
► ^BP#2741muʕabbir, n., 1 interpreter (ʕan of feelings); 2 expressive, significant: PA II. | raqṣ ~, n., interpretative dancing.

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕabara, ↗ʕabīr, ↗ʕibrī, ↗ʕabraẗ, ↗ʕibraẗ, ↗ʕibāraẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕBR.

ʕabīr عَبِير

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

√ʕBR

1 fragrance, scent, perfume, aroma; 2 bouquet (of wine) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Traditional etymologists tend to derive ʕabīr ‘(compound) perfume’ from ↗ʕabara ‘to cross, pass over’ in the sense of *‘to cross the air, evaporate’, but this explanation looks rather far-fetched.
▪ A relation to WSem *ʕBR ‘to overflow’ (as is sometimes assumed for ↗ʕabraẗ ‘tear’) seems to be suggested by Hoch1994#68 when he does not exclude the possibility that the Eg loanword ʕbyr */ʕabīr/ (of uncertain meaning) perh. should be associated with BiblHbr (Song of Songs, 5:5) môr ʕōḇēr ‘liquid myrrh’ where ʕōḇēr most probably is a PA of the Hbr vb. ʕāḇar ‘to overflow’, which some scholars put to Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘to cross’ while others regard it as a homonymous root that should be separated from ‘to cross’.
▪ Another connection is insinuated, though only implicitly, by Lane when he lists not only ʕabīr but also ↗ʕanbar ‘ambergris’ under √ʕBR. What may look rather unlikely at first sight can gain some plausibility when attention is paid to the fact that ʕabīr and ʕanbar both are associated, and sometimes even identified, with ‘saffron’. Phonologically, however, it would be difficult to derive ʕabīr directly from ʕanbar.
▪ From the above it is evident that, for the moment, the etymology of ʕabīr remains rather obscure and that the item therefore better should be kept apart from ʕabara.

▪ In ClassAr ‘a mixture of perfumes, compounded with saffron’ or even used as a synonym for ‘saffron’ – Lane.

▪ ? – If related, cf. perh. ↗ʕabara.

▪ See above, section CONC.

–

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʕabara, ↗ʕabbara, ↗ʕibrī, ↗ʕabraẗ, ↗ʕibraẗ, ↗ʕibāraẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕBR.

ʕibrī عِبْرِيّ

ID … • Sw – • BP 3673 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ʕBR

adj., n.gent.

1 Hebrew, Hebraic; 2 (pl. -ūn) a Hebrew; 3 al-~, n., or al-~iyyaẗ, n.f., Hebrew, the Hebrew language – WehrCowan1979.

▪ The origin of the term Hbr ʕiḇrî (Ar ʕibrī) ‘Hebrew’ is, as Hopkins summarizes the state of affairs in etymological research about the word, still »a moot point, much discussed yet unresolved. None of the many etymologies proposed is satisfactory and so the origin of ‘Hebrew’ must be accounted unclear. Eccentricities apart, there are three main avenues of approach: (i) ʕiḇrî is an eponymous gentilic adjective, derived from the proper name ʕēḇär ‘Eber’, the great-grandson of Shem (Gen. 10.24; 11.14); (ii) ʕiḇrî is a geographical term, derived from ʕēḇär ‘across, beyond’, more particularly ʕēḇär han-nāhār ‘beyond the river’ (see especially Josh. 24.2). Depending upon the identity of the river in question, ʕiḇrî is to be understood as ‘trans-Euphrates’ or ‘trans-Jordan’«; while the ultimate etymon here would be Sem *ʕib(˅)r- ‘region beyond’, another geographical reading interpreted the Biblical ʕiḇrīm as ‘Bedouins’, i.e., a group of people who *‘cross, or wander around in, the desert’ (< Sem *ʕ˅b˅R- ‘to pass by, go beyond, cross’); »(iii) As opposed to (i) and (ii), which represent traditional views found in rabbinical sources, especially since the discovery of the Tel el-Amarna letters in the late 19th century it has been not uncommon in Biblical scholarship to find a connection between ‘Hebrew’ and the ḫabiru, groups of roving marauders mentioned in the Tel el-Amarna (and other) documents as having attacked Palestine in the mid-2nd millennium B.C.E.« – »Names of the Hebrew Language« (S. Hopkins), in Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics.
▪ For more details see below, section DISC.

▪ …

▪ If from Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘to cross’ or *ʕib(˅)r- ‘the region beyond/across a body of water (river, lake, sea), (further) bank/shore’, then ʕibrī is cognate to ↗ʕabara.

▪ LandbergZetterstéen1942: Sur Hbr ʕiḇrī = ‘bédouin’, voyez Spiegelberg, OLZ 1907, col. 618 ss.; sur ʕBR = ʕRB Paul Haupt, “Die Vorfahren der Juden”, OLZ 12 (1909), col. 163 n. 2: »Der Name Hebräer (ʕibr für ʕabĭr) bedeutet (mehr oder weniger unfreiwillig; vgl. JAOS 16: ci) ‘Umherziehender’ (OLZ 10: 620; AJSL 23: 261). ʕArab (eigentlich ‘das Durchzogene, worin man umherzieht’) ist nur eine Umstellung (JBL 19: 66; AJSL 24: 113) dieses Stammes; vgl. äthiop. ʕabra. Die Jordanspalte heisst ʕarabâ, weil sie überschritten werden muss. Kein Nomade würde ein Tal mit einem nie versiegenden Fluss als Wüste bezeichnen.«¹
▪ BDB1906 connects the Hbr n.gent. ʕiḇrī with Sem √ʕBR (Ar ↗ʕabara ‘to cross’, Hbr ʕēḇär ‘region across or beyond, side’): it is »either a. put into the mouth of foreigners (Egypt, and Philist.), or b. used to distinguish Isr. from foreigners (= ‘one from beyond, from the other side’, i.e. prob. [in Hbr trad.] ‘from beyond the Euphrates’ […], but poss. in fact (if name given in Canaan) ‘from beyond the Jordan’«. However, BDB also mentions the »connexion […] with Ḫabiri (Tel Am.)«, cf. next paragraph.
▪ Are the ʕibrîm identical with the Ḫabiru of the Tell Amarna letters? — »The Ḫabiru-Hebrew parallelism was first suggested by F. J. Chabas in 1862. Soon after the discovery of the Amarna letters in 1887, the dispute over the above equation gained momentum. From the outset, scholars were split into two camps: those defending the identification, who endeavored to combine the two groups and to integrate them into the early history of Israel, and those rejecting it. In the course of time, it became clear that Ḫabiru is an appellative for a certain social element, namely displaced persons who leave their homeland and seek their fortunes in neighboring countries. However, whereas the nature of the Ḫabiru was unanimously recognized, the Ḫabiru-Hebrew equation remained as controversial as ever.«²
▪ Hoch1994#70: cf. Eg */ʕapīrū/, */ʕapūra/ ? — »The Eg contexts seem to indicate that the term designated social and not ethnic classification. […] Although the etymology is uncertain, the word is known in Akk texts as ḫabiru, and Ug as ʕprm. The word is also very likely related to the Biblical term/name ʕiḇrî ‘Hebrew’, but the nature of the relationship is not easily determined.« [fn. 33:] »Scholars have variously equated, loosely associated, or rejected any connection between the ʕIbrîm and the ʕApiru. Loretz, although admitting an etymological derivation from ʕprw=ʕprm=ḫabiru, considers that all the occurrences of the word in the Bible are as a gentilic, and not as a social term. This is certainly true of the post-exilic usage, but it is possible that in I Sam. 4-29 the word is used in its original sense, although put in the mouths of the Philistines, perh. with a certain degree of contempt. That ʕApiru groups were still active is shown by the narrative of I Sam. 22-30 where David leads a band of brigands that are all but called ʕApiru. The later usage as a gentilic may have arisen as a re-interpretation of the term, whose original sense had been forgotten, such social groups having long since disappeared. The view that the I Sam. instances are genuine Biblical examples of ʕApiru, but that the other examples are the gentilic was also expressed by N. P. Lemche, “‘Hebrew’ as a National Name for Israel”, Studia Theologica: Scandinavian Journal of Theology, 33 (1979): 1-23.«

1. Translation (omitting references in parathenses in the original German): ‘The Name Hebrews (ʕibr, from ʕabĭr) means ‘(more or less voluntarily) wandering around, nomad’. ʕArab (lit. ‘what is traversed, crossed, where one wanders around in’) is just a metathesis of [the name of] this tribe; cf. Gz ʕabra. The Jordan Valley is called ʕarabâ because it has to be crossed. No nomad would ever call a valley with a river that never runs dry, a desert’. 2. Nadav Naʔaman, review of Ḫabiru–Hebräer: Eine sozio-linguistische Studie über die Herkunft des Gentiliziums ʕibrî vom Appellativum ḫabiru, by Oswald Loretz (Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1984), Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 47.3 (Jul. 1988): 192-194.

▪ Not from Ar ʕibrī, but ultimately from the same source is Engl Hebrew, loEngl, »from oFr Ebreu, from Lat Hebraeus, from Grk Hebraîos, from Aram ʕeḇrāʔī, corresponding to Hbr ʕiḇrî ‘an Israelite’. Traditionally from an ancestral name Eber [ʕēḇär ], but probably literally ‘one from the other side’, perhaps in reference to the River Euphrates, or perhaps simply signifying ‘immigrant’; from ʕēḇär ‘region on the other or opposite side’. The initial H- was restored in Engl from C16. As a noun from c. 1200, ‘the Hebrew language’; lC14 in reference to persons, originally ‘a biblical Jew, Israelite’ – EtymOnline.

► ʕibrānī, adj., 1 Hebrew, Hebraic; 2 a Hebrew; 3 al-~, n., or al-~iyyaẗ, n.f., Hebrew, the Hebrew language.

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕabara, ↗ʕabbara, ↗ʕabīr, ↗ʕabraẗ, ↗ʕibraẗ, ↗ʕibāraẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕBR.

ʕabraẗ عَبْرة , pl. ʕabarāt , ʕibar

√ʕBR

n.f.

tear – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Perh. akin to ↗ʕabara ‘to cross’, from Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘id.’ (denom. of *ʕib(˅)r- ‘opposite side, region beyond’), interpreted as *‘to cross a border, reach a limit, a brim, overflow’ (esp. feelings, emotion), hence ‘tear, to shed tears’, or, in a narrower sense, to WSem *ʕBR ‘to overflow’.

▪ Cf. also ClassAr (G-stem) ^†ʕabara (ʕabr) and ^†ʕabira a (ʕabar) ‘to shed tears; to grieve, mourn, be sorrowful, sad, unhappy’, ^†ʕabrà (pl. ʕubr) ‘weeping (eye), hence: grieving (woman), bereft of her child’ – Lane/Hava1899.

▪ Probably related to Hbr ʕäḇrāʰ ‘overflow, excess, outburst; arrogance; overflowing rage, fury’, (Št-stem, denom.) hiṯʕabbar ‘to be arrogant, infuriate o.s.’ (BDB1906), and Syr ʕbar ‘…; to surpass, exceed, be beyond, overcome’ (e.g., bᵊ-šūp̱rāh lᵊ-šemšā ʕābrā hᵊwāt ‘she surpassed the sun in fairness’), (eṯp) ‘…; to neglect, fail (of accomplishment), to transgress, sin’, (aph) ‘…; to go beyond, exceed’ (PayneSmith1903). – ? Cf. also Akk ebirtu (var. abirtu, ḫibirtu), name of a month? According to CAD, this word is »possibly to be connected with [Akk] ebēru, in the meaning ‘to overflow’, attested in WSem (Hbr, Aram), hence ‘the month of overflowing of the rivers’«. – However, it is still not clear whether WSem ʕBR ‘to overflow’ really is related to Sem ʕBR ‘to cross’ or whether we are dealing with a homonymous root.

▪ If ʕabraẗ ‘tear’ is related to WSem *ʕBR ‘to overflow’, its original meaning would be *‘what overflows’ or *‘result of an overflow (of emotion, rage, fury, etc.)’. Gesenius1915, it is right, thinks that WSem *ʕBR ‘to overflow’ has to be treated as a root in its own right, different from Sem *ʕBR ‘to cross’; but why should ‘to overflow’ not go back to an earlier ‘reaching/crossing a border, go beyond, pass over’ and thus probably have developed from *‘to cross’?

–

► ʕabira, a (ʕabar) to shed tears
► ĭstaʕbara, vb. X, to shed tears, weep

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕabara, ↗ʕabbara, ↗ʕabīr, ↗ʕibrī, ↗ʕibraẗ, ↗ʕibāraẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕBR.

ʕibraẗ عِبْرة, pl. ʕibar

√ʕBR

n.f.

1 admonition, monition, warning; 2 (warning or deterring) example, lesson; 3 advice, rule, precept (to be followed); 4 consideration befitting s.th.; 5 that which has to be considered, be taken into consideration or account, that which is of consequence, of importance, s.th. decisive or consequential… – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Based on ↗ʕabara ‘to cross’ (from Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘id.’, denom. of *ʕib(˅)r- ‘opposite side, region beyond’), interpreted figuratively as *‘to cross, traverse mentally, ponder about, wander through (a world of ideas or possibilities)’, hence ‘to contemplate’ (> ‘to draw a lesson from’), and hence also ‘to examine, test’.

▪ eC7 ʕibraẗ (lesson to be learned) Q 12:111 la-qad kāna fī qaṣaṣi-him ʕibraẗun li-ʔūlī ’l-ʔalbābi ‘in their stories is surely a lesson for those possessed of minds’. – ĭʕtabara (VIII, intr., to take heed, learn a lesson, consider) Q 59:2 fa-’ʕtabirū yā ʔūlī ’l-ʔabṣāri ‘so learn a lesson, you who have eyes’.

▪ As ↗ʕabara.

▪ See above, section CONC.

–

► mawṭin al-ʕibraẗ, n., the salient point, the crucial point
► lā ʕibraẗa bi-hī, expr., it deserves no attention, it is of no consequence
► al-ʕibraẗ fī / bi , expr., the crucial factor(s) is (are)…, decisive is (are)…
► lā ʕibraẗa li-man …, expr., it is of no consequence if s.o….

► ^BP#341ĭʕtabara, vb. VIII, 1 to be taught a lesson, be warned; 2 to learn a lesson, take warning, learn, take an example (bi from); 3 to consider, weigh, take into account or consideration (s.th.), allow, make allowances (DO for s.th.); 4 to acknowledge (DO a quality, li‑ in s.o.); 5 to deem, regard, take (2xDO s.o., s.th. as), look (DO at s.th., DO as); 6 to esteem, honour, revere, value, respect, hold in esteem (s.o.), have regard (DO for s.o.): tG-stem, either denom. from ʕibraẗ or self-referential in the sense of *‘to cross or wander around (for o.s., mentally, in a book, or the realm of possible explanations, meanings, choices, etc.)’.

► ^BP#758ĭʕtibār, n., 1 respect, regard, esteem; 2 self-esteem, honour; 3 (pl. -āt) consideration, regard; 4 reflection, contemplation; 5 approach, outlook, point of view, view: vn. VIII. | ~an li-/bi-…, bi-~…, prep., with respect to, with regard to, in consideration of, considering…, in view of (s.th.); ~an min, prep., from, as of, beginning…, starting with…, effective from… (with foll. indication of time); bi-~i ʔan…, conj., considering (the fact) that…, with regard to the fact that…, in view of the fact that…; provided that…, with the proviso that…; bi-~i-hī… (+acc.), adv., in terms of, in the capacity of, e.g., wazīr al-ḫāriǧiyyaẗ bi-~i-hī ʔaqdama ’l-wuzarāʔ, the Foreign Minister in his capacity of senior-ranking minister; ʕalà / bi-hāḏā ’l-~, adv., from this standpoint, from this viewpoint; ʕalà ~-i ʔanna…, conj., considering (the fact) that…, with regard to the fact that…, in view of the fact that…; on the assumption that…; fī kull ~, adv., in every respect; ~an ʔaw ḥaqīqaẗan, adv., from a subjective point of view or in reality; ʔamr la-hū ~u-hū, expr., s.th. which one must take into consideration or pay attention to; radd al-~, n., rehabilitation
► ĭʕtibārī, adj., 1 based on a subjective approach or outlook; 2 relative: nsb-adj., from ĭʕtibār, vn. VIII | šaḫṣiyyaẗ ~aẗ, n.f., legal person (jur.)

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕabara, ↗ʕabbara, ↗ʕabīr, ↗ʕibrī, ↗ʕabraẗ, ↗ʕibāraẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕBR.

ʕibāraẗ عِبارة , pl. ‑āt

√ʕBR

n.f.

1 explanation, interpretation; 2 (verbal) expression, utterance; 3 phrase; 4 clause; 5 way of expressing o.s.; 6 term (math.) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Quasi-vn. I, based on ↗ʕabara ‘to cross’ (from Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘to cross’, from *ʕib(˅)r- ‘region beyond/across a body of water, opposite bank/shore’), interpreted as *‘to make s.th. pass from the tongue of the speaker to the ear of the hearer’ or *‘…from the inner world of feelings and thought to the outer world of words, i.e., to verbalilze, articulate s.th.’, hence ‘to express (a feeling, an opinion, etc.)’; cf. Engl express < Lat ex-primere, lit., *‘to squeeze, make come out’; cf. also ↗ʕabbara.
▪ In mysticism, ʕibāraẗ means »the ‘literal language’, which is unsuitable for exoteric topics, in contrast to the coded language of ↗ʔišāraẗ « – EI², Glossary and Index of Terms.
▪ [v6] ‘term (math.)’ is prob. a neolog., an extens. of [v3] or [v4], following the model of Engl Fr expression which is likewise used for math. expressions.

▪ …

▪ ↗ʕabara.

ʕibāraẗ ‘speech that passes from the tongue of the speaker to the ear of the hearer; hence: passage in a book or writing; and hence also: word, expression, phrase; and: explanation, interpretation’ (Lane).
▪ A similar semantic development is also found in Syr.

–

► bi-ʕibāraẗ ʔuḫrà, adv., in other words, expressed otherwise
► ʕibāraẗan fa-ʕibāraẗan, adv., sentence by sentence, word by word
► ʕibāraẗ ʕan, n.f./adj./adv., consisting in; tantamount to, equivalent to, meaning

► ^BP#1168ʕabbara, vb. II, 1 to interpret (a dream); 2 to explain, illustrate, expound; 3 to state clearly, declare, assert, utter, express, voice (ʕan s.th.), give expression (ʕan to a feeling); 4 to designate (ʕan s.th., bi with or by); 5 to determine the weight of a coin, weigh (a coin): While [v1-2] are fig. use of the caus. D-stem, lit. *‘to make cross’, [v3] can be regarded as denom. from ʕibāraẗ; [v4] : ?; [v5] : from ↗ʕabara ‘to cross’, in the fig. sense of *‘to go through (the many possibilities), check out, test’, cf. ↗ʕibraẗ.
► ^BP#1062taʕbīr, n., 1 interpretation (of a dream); 2 assertion, declaration, expression, utterance (ʕan of a feeling); 3 (pl. -āt) expression (in general, also artistic); 4 (pl. taʕābirᵘ) (linguistic) expression, phrase, term: vn. II; for semantics, see ʕabbara above, and entry ↗ʕabbara. | bi-~ ʔāḫar, adv., in other words, expressed otherwise.
► taʕbīrī, adj., expressional, expressive, emotive | al-ʔadab al-~, n., expressionistic literature; ḥarakāt ~aẗ, n.f.pl., mimic gestures or art; al-raqṣ al-~, n., interpretive dance, expressional dance; al-fann al-~, n., expressionism
► taʕbīriyyaẗ, n.f., expressionism: neolog., abstr. formation in -iyyaẗ, from taʕbīr, vn. II.
► ^BP#2741muʕabbir, 1 n., interpreter (ʕan of feelings); 2 adj., expressive, significant: PA II. | raqṣ ~, n., interpretative dancing

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕabara, ↗ʕabīr, ↗ʕibrī, ↗ʕabraẗ, ↗ʕibraẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕBR.

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