Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Ar wariʕa has cognates not only in Ug, Hbr, and Aram, as well as in its own yariʕa ‘to be cowardly, faint-hearted’ (↗YRʕ), but prob. also in Sab, modSAr (Mhr, Ḥrs) and EthSem (Te, ?Tña), though DRS is slightly reluctant to see the former together with the latter. It seems legitimate, however, to assume an original (WSem) *WRʕ meaning ‘to shy away from, shrink back’. From this, both *‘cowardness’ and *‘refraining, abstention’ are easily derived (the latter coming close to ↗WRʔ ‘behind; to conceal, hide’ in some cases). In Ar, the sense of being ‘pious and godfearing, hence also: chaste’ is likely a later development. In the latter, however, there is some overlapping with √ʕWR (cf., e.g., ↗ʕawraẗ ‘defectiveness; weakness; pudenda’), √ʕYR (↗ʕār ‘shame, disgrace, dishonor, ignominy’), as well as √ʕRW/Y (↗ʕariya ‘to be naked, nude, be free, be bare’). – In contrast, Nöldeke1910 (NBSS): 206 would regard WRʕ ‘shyness, cowardness’ as abstract fig. use of the concrete ↗¹yarāʕ ‘cane, reed’ (*‘as flexible and “submissive” as reed’).
▪ ClassAr ^†wāraʕa (III) ‘to consult, discuss’ (see section HIST) is prob. not a value in its own right, the L-stem expressing a *‘mutual intimidation and/or shying away’ during an exchange of words. Cf. also the *Š-stem ^†ʔawraʕa (IV) ‘to interpose, intervene (baynᵃ betw.)’ (< * ‘to make abstain, compel to refrain from s.th.’).
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hist

▪ Hava1899 distinguishes (1) wariʕa, ip. yariʕu, yawraʕu (waraʕ, warʕ, warūʕ, wurūʕ, wariʕaẗ, waruʕ, warāʕaẗ) ‘to be pious, godly; to abstain from unlawful things’ and (2) (a) ^†waraʕa, ip. yaraʕu, (b) waruʕa, ip. yaruʕu, both with vn.s. warāʕaẗ, warāʕ, warʕaẗ, wurʕaẗ, wurūʕ, wuruʕ, ‘to be faint-hearted, weak’. – Morevover, he lists ClassAr ^†warraʕa (II) ‘to compel to abstain (ʕan from s.th.)’, ^†ʔawraʕa (IV) ‘to interpose, intervene (baynᵃ betw.), and ^†wāraʕa (III) ‘to consult’.
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cogn

▪ DRS 7 (1997) #WRʔ/ʕ~YRʔ/ʕ-1 Ug *yrʔ, Hbr yārēʔ ‘craindre’, *yāraʕ ‘trembler, manquer de courage’,¹ EmpAram yrʕ ‘faire tort à’, JudPalAram yaraʕ ‘désespérer’, Ar wariʕa ‘être pieux, craignant Dieu, faible, peureux’, waraʕ ‘crainte pieuse, piété’, waraʕa ‘s’abstenir des choses illicites’, warraʕa, ʔawraʕa ‘détourner des choses illicites’, yariʕa ‘être peureux, poltron’, yarāʕ, waraʕ ‘poltron; faible, petit’, HispAr *wāriʕ ‘chaste’.² -?2 Ar waraʔa ‘repousser, pousser violemment’,³ warraʕa ‘ramener (le troupeau) de l’abreuvoir’, wāraʕa ‘discuter’, warraʕa, ʔawraʕa, tawarraʕa ‘repousser, s’interposer’; HispAr warraʕ ‘effrayer’, tawarraʕ ‘craindre’, ʕOmAr warraʕ ‘ramener (bêtes, gens)’, Sab hwrʕ ‘intimider, arrêter, repousser; (faire) revenir’, Mhr həwrā ‘faire revenir, ramener (bêtes, gens); tenir à l’écart (les mauvais esprits)’, Ḥrs awrā ‘ramener (le bétail) au soir’, Te wära ‘menacer, battre’; ? wärʕ ‘eau bénite, magique’, wärʕa ‘asperger (d’eau bénite, magique)’; ? Tña wəruʕ ‘vaniteux’. -3-6 [...].
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1. For the oscillation in Can betw. ‑ʔ and ‑ʕ see below, section DISC. 2. (ad #1 and #2) On trouve aussi en Ar, s. ↗√ʕWR, les valeurs ici relevées s. 1 et 2. – EmpAram: lecture incertaine. – Perh. related to ↗Rʕʕ ‘casser en morceaux’; […] for Ar see esp. Nöldeke NBSS 206 : »Täuschend ist noch die Ähnlichkeit von WRʕ ‘scheu’ in mancherlei Formen und Bedeutungsnuancen mit ↗yarāʕ oder yarāʕaẗ ‘Feigling’ […], denn da haben wir das bekannte Wort, das ‘Rohr’ bedeutet und das als Bild für dem schwachen, feigen Menschen gebraucht wird. […] Wenn das Abstraktum yaraʕ ‘Feigheit’ (Qāmūs) echt ist, so ist es erst von yarāʕ in dieser Bedeutung gebildet.« 3. See also ↗WRʔ~WRY.

disc

▪ Kogan2015 315#76 remarks that »[t]here is no immediate etymological parallel to protCan *yrʔ ‘to be afraid’ [> Ug yrʔ‘to be afraid’, Hbr yrʔ ‘to fear’] which, at least in Hbr, has become the basic verb with this meaning. Hypothetical cognates (DRS 483, 615‒616) involve either metathesis (Ar wʔr ‘to frighten’) or consonantal variation (wrʕ ‘to fear’).
▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ ...

west

–

deriv

►tawarraʕa, vb. V, to pause (ʕan before), be cautious, hesitate (ʕan about), refrain, abstain (ʕan, min from): tD-stem, self-ref.
►waraʕ, n., 1 piety, piousness, godliness, godfearingness; 2 caution, cautiousness, carefulness; 3 timorousness, timidity, shyness, reserve : perh. the etymon proper
►wariʕ, adj., pl. ʔawrāʕ, 1 pious, godly, godfearing; 2 cautious, careful; 3 reticent, reserved: perh. the etymon proper

For other values attached to the root, cf. root entry ↗WRʕ; see also the 2-cons. nucleus ↗*WR‑ as well as ↗WRː (WRR), ↗WRʔ, ↗WRWR and ↗WRY, with partly overlapping or related semantics.

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