ID … • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 5Feb2023
√ṮRW/Y
1 Pleiades; 2 (also ṯariyyaẗ), pl. ṯurayyāt, chandelier – WehrCowan1976
▪ (following BK1860:) ṯurayyā as a term for the cluster of stars in the constellation of Taurus known as the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters, is a dimin. of ṯarwà, f. of ṯarwān ‘opulent’, ints. formation in ‑ān, from ṯarīy ‘numerous (troops, property, etc.); rich, wealthy (man)’, from ↗ṯarā ‘to be numerous’. Thus, the literal meaning is *‘the little cluster, the small group of the many (stars)’.
▪ In the Persian-speaking world, the Ar word was, and is still, used as a personal name. In the transliterated spelling, Soraya, the name has become popular also in the West (see below, section WEST).
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▪ ↗ṯariya.
▪ (Gz tərəyā ‘constellation of stars’ and ṭarāw ‘constellation’ are from Ar ṯurayyā – Leslau2006.)
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▪ Another indigenous Ar explanation of the term ṯurayyā would be the beneficial ‘riches’, ṯarāʔ, brought about by the rain that often accompanies the rising of the Pleiades above the horizon at morning dawn – J. Ruska, art. »Süreyyâ / al-S̱urayyā«, in ¹EIᵀᵘ.
▪ The Ar name for the Pleiades can help to clarify the etymology of the Grk term Pleiádes. While this term is often explained as deriving from pleîn (1sg.prs plé-ō) ‘to sail’ (because of the cluster’s importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean), it is more likely (given the evidence of Ar ṯurayyā being based on the notion of ‘plentitude’) that Pleiádes is coined from Grk pleîos ~ pléos ‘full’1
– J. Ruska, art. »Süreyyâ / al-S̱urayyā«, in ¹EIᵀᵘ.
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▪ Tu süreyya: [Şeyhoğlu, Marzubānnāme terc., 1380] bir ulu ağaç varıdı, sanadıŋ kökleri taḥte 's̠-s̠erāye [toprağın altına] irmiş ve budakları s̠üreyyāya ağmışdı; [Ahterî-i Kebir, 1545] s̱üreyyā = Ülker dedikleri altı yıldız ki ikişer ikişer birbiriniñ muḳābelesinde olur – Nişanyan_3Jul2021
▪ As a personal name, Soraya is also popular in Europe due to its association with Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, the second wife of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran (en.wiki/Soraya; for prominent holders of the name, cf. ibid.).
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For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ṯariya (incl. ↗ṯarwaẗ), as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√ṮRW/Y. – Cf. also ↗ṯaràⁿ (↗√ṮRY)
ID … • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 5Feb2023
√ṮRY
▪ ṮRY_1 ‘moist earth; ground, soil’ ↗ṯaràⁿ
▪ ṮRY_2 see also ↗√ṮRW/Y
▪ ṮRY_ ‘…’ ↗… ♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘(somewhat overlapping with ṯ-r-w) moisture, to moisten; soil, wet soil; goodness’
▪ A root that expresses the general notion of *‘immersing, soaking, steeping’ and *‘moist earth, moisture’ is fairly well attested in NWSem (Hbr, Aram, Ar) so that it seems safe to reconstruct a corresponding root NWSem *√ṮRY ‘moist earth, moisture; to soak, etc.’.
▪ See also below, section DISC.
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▪ BDB1906, Gesenius1915, Klein1987, Zammit2002: Hbr šārāʰ ‘to immerse, soak, steep, saturate’ (Klein1987), mišrāʰ ‘juice’, nHbr šārâ ‘to soften, dissolve’, JudAram tᵊrâ ʻwässern, einweichen’, ChrPal trʔ ‘to dissolve; be soaked, be damp’, Syr täryānâ ‘grape juice’, Ar ṯariya ʻto be moist’, ṯarāⁿ ‘the Earth (beneath the soil)’; most prob. also Akk šerū ‘to grow luxuriantly’ (not in CAD), (CAD, AHw) šarû ‘rich, prosperous; copious, luxuriant | reich sein/werden’, mašrū ‘growth, (CAD) wealth, prosperity, riches’
▪ Hoch1994 #207: Outside Sem, one has perh. to compare lEg *mēšaru ‘plain; wetland’, a »place with productive agricultural soil«, though »the NWSem evidence all points to a meaning of extreme wetness, not appropriate for land producing cereal crops[; therefore] the connection is somewhat questionable«.1
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1.
Accord. to Hoch, an alternative etymology of the lEg term could be the Sem YŠR/WṮR ‘to be level’, as in BiblHbr yāšar ‘to be level, straight, just’, Phoen yšr ‘just’, Ug yšr ‘rightness’, TargAram yᵊšar ‘to be firm, straight’, mêšārâ ‘garden bed; plain’, SAr ʔwṯr ‘plains, lowlands’.
▪ According to some scholars (see above, section COGN), there are perh. also (distant) Akk cognates meaning *‘(opulent) growth’. Akk šarū or šerū is not registered in CAD with such an alleged value and can therefore not be confirmed. If valid nevertheless, it may connect √ṮRY with ↗√ṮRW/Y *‘plentitude, richness’, and one may assume a hypothetical development along the line *‘moist earth > fertile ground > growth > opulence, copiousness > richness, wealth’. Given the doubtfulness of such a hypothesis one should prob. better treat the two values separately (as is done here in EtymArab)…
▪ … all the more so as √ṮRY ‘to soak, moisten’ etc. may also point in another direction: cf. perh. ↗√ṬRW ‘to be fresh, juicy, moist’ (< protWSem *√ṬRY ‘to be fresh, raw’).
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