▪ Jeffery1938, 79-80: Apart from items belonging to
BŠR_2, there are also many that belong to another theme: »ʻto announce, good tidings’. Thus we have the verb
baššara as above;
bušrā ʻgood news’ (ii, 91; iii, 122; viii, 10, etc.);
bašīr (v, 22; vii, 188, etc.), and
bušr (vii, 55; xxv, 50, etc.) ʻthe bringer of good tidings’: also
mubaššir (ii, 209, etc.) with much the same meaning;
ʔabšara (xli, 30) ʻto receive pleasure from good tidings’: and
mustabšir (lxxx, 39) ʻrejoicing’. This use, however, seems not to be original in Ar but derived from the older religions. Thus Akk
bussuru is ʻto bear a joyful message’: Hbr
BŚR both ʻto bear good tidings’ and ʻto gladden with good tidings’:
hiṯbaśśēr ‘to receive good tidings’.
1
– The SSem use of the word seems to be entirely under the influence of this Jewish usage. In Eth the various forms
basara ʻto bring a joyful message’,
ʔabsara ʻto bring good tidings’,
tabasara ʻto be announced’,
bəsarāt ʻgood news’,
ʔabsār ʻone who announces good tidings’, are all late and doubtless under the influence of the Bible. So the SAr
tbs²r ʻto bring tidings’ and
bs²rn ʻtidings’ (cf.
ZDMG, xxx, 672;
WZKM (1896), p. 290; Rossini,
Glossarium, 119), are to be considered of the same origin, especially when we remember that the use of [SAr]
bs²rn is in the
Raḥmān inscription. The Syr
sbr has suffered metathesis, but in the Christian Palestinian dialect we find
bsr ʻto preach’, used just as
baššara in iii, 20; ix, 34, etc., and so
basūrā = [Grk]
euangélion, where again the influence is undoubtedly Jewish. – The probabilities are that the word was an early borrowing and taken direct from the Jews, though in the sense of to preach the influence was probably Syriac.
2
«
▪
DRS 2 (1994)#BŚR-1: Ar
bišāraẗ < Aram or > nSyr ?
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#361: The NSem forms (from which Ar seems to be borrowed) probably go back to Sem *
b˅ŝir‑ ‘to announce (good news)’, which in turn may have developed from an AfrAs vb. *
b˅ĉir‑ ‘to announce’ as the origin of both the Sem and Berb forms. The reconstruction however is slightly doubtful, the authors add, because available data display an irregular correspondence of affricates.