Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ BṢR_1 ‘to be endowed with eyesight, to see clearly’ ↗baṣ˅ra
▪ BṢR_2 ‘a kind of porridge made of green beans’ ↗biṣāraẗ
▪ BṢR_3 ‘Basra’ (port in Iraq) ↗al-Baṣraẗ

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘eyesight, to see; to comprehend, to realize; proof, sign, eye opener; to warn, to guide; to reflect, to ponder’

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▪ DRS 2 (1994)#BṢR–1 nHbr *bāṣar ‘être raccourci, être diminué’, JP Syr bᵉṣar, Mand bṣar, Aysor bāṣir ‘être diminué, petit, peu’; (Ur.) baṣūrā ‘inférieur’; Mand bᵉṣīr ‘peu’; ?Ar baṣara ‘trancher (sabre) (?)’. –2 Ar baṣīr ‘sang frais, sang virginal’. –3 Ug bṣr ‘tester pour pierres (?)’; Hbr ? mᵉbaṣṣēr ‘testeur pour l’or’, beṣer ‘or’, Ar baṣura ‘être doué de la vue’, baṣar ‘vue’. –4 Ug bṣr ‘prende l’essor’; Hbr ? yibbaṣṣēr ‘être inaccessible, impossible’, nHbr beṣer ‘forteresse’. –5 Ar buṣr ‘bord, lisière, frange’. –6 Ar baṣr ‘terrain calcaire’.
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▪ Neither (Eg)Ar biṣāraẗ (BṢR_2) nor the name of the city of Baṣraẗ (BṢR_3) are mentioned in DRS. Apart from these, Lane lists also the items (all now obsolete) ^†baṣara u (baṣr) (al-ʔadīmayn) ‘to put together, sew together’ and ^†buṣr ‘thickness (of s.th.); cotton’.
▪ Out of these many values, only three have survived into MSA. The main complex is BṢR_1 ‘to be endowed with eyesight, to see clearly’, which has many semantic derivatives. Among these one may perhaps also group what in DRS is thought to be a distinct item (#BṢR-2), ^†baṣīr ‘sang frais, sang virginal’; for the f. form, ^†baṣīraẗ, at least, ClassAr lexicographers give (among other values) ‘evidence, testimony, proof, argument’, »and hence« ‘blood by which one is directed to an animal that has been shot,…, blood of a virgin,…, fine for homicide’; ‘witness’; ‘shield’; ‘oblong piece of cloth’ (Lane). Denominative from this are also ^†baṣṣara (arrows) ‘to besmear (with blood, ^†baṣīraẗ)’ or ‘to strengthen and fasten (with glue)’; ‘to hang upon the door of o.’s dwelling a ^†baṣīraẗ, i.e., an oblong piece of cotton or other cloth’.
▪ buṣāraẗ (BṢR_2), if appearing in MSA texts, is taken from EgAr, for which a Copt / Eg etymology has been suggested (see s.v.).
▪ Baṣraẗ belongs perhaps to DRS #BṢR-6 Ar ^†baṣr ‘terrain calcaire’, (Lane:) ^†baṣraẗ ‘soft stones, rugged ground, land that is as though it were a mountain of gypsum’. Popular etymology often derives it from baṣura, interpreting the name as ‘the overlooking one’. Also Pers and Aram etymologies have been suggested (see s.v.).

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