Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ 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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hist

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cogn

▪ 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’.

disc

▪ 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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west

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deriv

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