Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ With all probability, the item belongs to the complex of ʻharshness, hardship, difficulty, hence also pain, grieve’ attached to the root ʕṢB mostly in Hbr, Aram and EthSem. Closer relatives in Ar may be (among others) the notions, now obsol., of ‘to be(come) difficult’ (^†ĭnʕaṣaba, vb. VII), ʻto dry in the mouth (saliva); to become red (horizon) (< due to dryness)’ (^†ʕaṣaba, ^†ʕaṣiba), ʻred mist seen in a time of drought’ (^†ʕiṣābaẗ), ʻto reduce s.o. to straitness, make (people) starve (dearth)’ (^†ʕaṣṣaba, vb. II). Leslau2006 would not exclude a (metathetical) relation to Ar ↗ṣaʕuba ʻto be(come) difficult, hard’. But the complex may also simply be dependent on the idea of *ʻtension, tightening, contraction’ implied in the vb. ↗ʕaṣaba ʻto bind, tie, wrap’, which, it its turn, may, ultimately, be derived from ↗ʕaṣab ʻnerves, sinews’.
▪ A more direct link (without the “detour” via ʻto bind, tie, wrap’) between ʻnerves, sinews’ and ʻhardship, pain’ can probably be seen in Jib ʕaṣbɛ́t which not only signifies ‘sinew, nerve’ but also ‘headache’.¹ – In a similar vein, BK1860 interprets the obsol. Ar vb. XII, ^†ĭʕṣawṣaba ʻto gather one’s forces, make the highest effort’, as »proprem. tendre tous ses muscles pour aller au plus vite; de là (fig.) devenir très intense, violent«, in this way bringing together ʻsinews’ (muscles) and ʻintensity, violence’; cf. also the ClassAr expressions ^†ĭʕṣawṣaba ’l-šarr ʻle mal, le malheur, la guerre fut à son apogee’ and ^†ĭʕṣawṣaba ’l-yawm ʻla journée (du combat ou de la chaleur) fut dure’. The same relation can be observed in ^†ʔaʕṣaba, vb. IV, ‘to walk at a quick pace (camel)’, »proprem. tendre tous les muscles à cet effet« – BK1860.

1. According to MilitarevKogan2006 (SED I) #16 prob. »a late semantic development«.

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▪ Leslau2006 (CDG): Hbr ʕāṣab ‘to hurt, pain, grieve’ (BDB1906), (Ni) ‘to be grieved’, (Hi) ‘to grieve’, Aram ʕᵃṣaḇ ‘to be grieved’; Ar ʕaṣaba ‘to bind, tighten’, ĭnʕaṣaba ‘to be difficult’; Gz ʕəṣab ‘harshness, rigor, severity, difficulty, trouble, [etc.]’, ʕəṣub, (Y) ʕəḍub ‘hard, harsh, difficult, severe, serious, rough, rugged, harassed, oppressed, troublesome, vehement, grievous, fierce, austere, onerous […]’, Te ʕaṣba ‘to be in distress, suffer from hunger’, Tña ʕaṣäbä ‘to be in misery, be in distress’, Amh aṭṭäbä ‘to be in distress, marvel’, aṣäba ‘poverty, distress’, əṣub ‘distressed, astounding, marvelous’.¹
▪ See perh. also ↗ʕaṣab and ↗ṣaʕb.
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1. Passed into (Cu) Bil aṣab ‘laborious, troublesome’.

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ Leslau2006 (CDG) reports that Buhl and Baumgartner¹ also compared Ar ↗ġaḍiba ‘to be angry’, an idea that Leslau himself does not find convincing.² . To Leslau, a comparison with Ar ↗ṣaʕuba (with metathesis) ‘to be hard, be difficult’ would seem more likely.
▪ …
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1. Frants Buhl, Wilhelm Gesenius’ Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, bearb. v. F.B., 17^th ed., Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel, 1921: 609; Walter Baumgartner, Hebräisches und aramäisches Lexicon zum Alten Testament, von Ludwig Koehler und W.B., 3^rd ed., rev. by W.B., Leiden: Brill, 1967: 818 2. The idea is mentioned also in BDB1906 s.v. ʕṢB ʻpain’, but qualified as a »dubious« by the authors, there too.

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For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʕaṣaba, ↗ʕaṣab, ↗ʕaṣabī, ↗ʕaṣabiyyaẗ, ↗ʕiṣābaẗ, ↗taʕaṣṣub, ↗ĭʕtiṣāb, as well as, for the general picture, ↗√ʕṢB.

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