Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ The item is believed to be a loan from Aram zep̄ṯā, which in turn (according to DRS) is from a (W?)Sem *zipt‑ ‘pitch, pine-resin’.
▪ »Resin was extracted by tapping conifers. The liquid collected was solidified or heated in order to obtain a tar-like product. However, it could also be used in its fresh and unprocessed state. Wood tar was manufactured through dry distillation of wood. Theophrastus describes the method used in Macedonia. Similar to the production of charcoal, a round wood pile was stacked up that was covered almost completely with earth to control the inflow of air. Only a small opening remained through which the smouldering fire was lit; the fire could be kept burning for up to two days. The tar (pítta) flowed slowly from a trough under the kiln through a channel and into a catch pit (Theophr. Hist. pl. 9,3,1-4). Pliny mentions kilns out of which, after an aqueous preliminary discharge, a more viscous wood tar flowed that was further processed through boiling into actual pitch or refined through the addition of asphalt (bitumen) or vinegar (Plin. HN 16,52-5). By re-boiling it, palimpissa (Plin. HN 24,40) was obtained. Zṓpissa (Grk ζώπισσα; zṓpissa) was pitch drenched in salt water that was scraped off old ship timber (Plin. HN 16,56).« – art. »Pitch« (R.-B. Wartke, A. Burford-Cooper), in Brill’s New Pauly.¹
▪ Are Aram zep̄ṯā, or WSem *zipt‑, in any way related to this Grk zṓpissa (Attic zṓpitta) ‘pitch drenched in salt water that was scraped off old ship timber’? Phonologically not very likely (how should one explain the loss of long stressed ṓ in the first syllable?), but the meaning ‘diluer le moût de la bière’ of Gz zafata, which is akin to the Sem words for ‘pine-resin, pitch’, could be conspicuously reminding of the drenching of pitch in salt water to produce zṓpissa.
▪ Does zift possibly belong to ↗ZFT_2 ^†zafata ‘to fill (a vessel)’, pitch and resin dripping into a vessel when the conifers (or the kiln) are tapped?

1. Brill Online, 2016. Reference.

hist

▪ In addition to the value ‘pitch, pine-resin’, ClassAr attaches some more values to the root (cf. ZFT_2-7 in entry ↗ZFT), cf., e.g., (Lat) Freytag1830 / (Ge) Wahrmund1887 / (Engl) Hava1899: ^†zafata, u (zaft), 1 implevit / anfüllen / to fill (a vessel); 2 impulit (iumentum) / (das Thier) antreiben / to rouse s.o.; 3 repulit, removit, impedivit / zurücktreiben, abweisen, hindern / to expel, to hinder; 4 ira exarsit / in Zorn gegen jn. entbrennen / to anger; 5 molestia affecit / belästigen, fatigavit / ermüden / to weary s.o.; 6 evacuavit (totam traditionem in aures ei dixit) / jdm. etwas ins Ohr flüstern / Ø.

cogn

▪ DRS 8 (1999)#ZPT-1 Akk zibt-, Hbr zépet, JP ziptā, zē(y)pā, Syr zeptā, zebtā, Ar zift ‘résine, poix’, zaffata ‘poisser’, Gz Te Amh zəft ‘goudron’, Amh zäffätä ‘enduire de goudron’; Gz zafata ‘diluer le moût de la bière’, Tña zäfta ‘sédiment, dépôt’. -2 Ar zafata ‘remplir (un vase); se mettre en colère; repousser, écarter; fatiguer, causer de la peine’, ẒofAr zfet ‘arracher’, SudAr zaffāt : chameau excité qui pousse des cris. -3 Mhr zaftét ‘aller spontanément avec qn’, Jib zotfet ‘flâner, papoter’.

disc

▪ According to DRS, Nişanyan_18Dec2014, and earlier studies, the Akk (lBab) and Ar words are both from Aram zep̄ṯā, and the EthSem forms are dependent on Ar.
▪ On account of the Hbr and Aram evidence, DRS dares to reconstruct (W?)Sem *zipt- ‘poix, résine de pin ou de sapin’.
▪ With the values ‘diluer le moût de la bière’ (Gz zafata) and ‘sédiment, dépôt’ (Tña zäfta), EthSem shows interesting deviation from the standard value ‘pitch, pine-resin’. Does this point, against DRS, to an independence of EthSem from Ar and, hence, also to a more general meaning of √ZPT in protSem times?
▪ The value ‘sediment, depot’ in the cognate Tña zäfta evokes the process of producing ‘pine-resin, pitch’, so that at least the early meaning ‘pine-resin’ could be understood as the liquid/resin that *‘sediments, forms depots’ when trees are tapped (perh. also ‘… when pitch kilns are tapped’). From here, at least the meaning of the obsol. vb. I ^†zafata ‘to fill (a vessel)’ (ZFT_2 in ↗ZFT), could have developed.
▪ For a speculation about a Grk connection cf. above, section CONC.

west

▪ Tu zift (1387 İrşādü’l-Mülūk ve’s-Selāṭīn), from Ar/Pers zift ‘tar, asphalt’; ziftlenmek ‘to have a drink, drink alcohol’ (*to smear) (1926 H.R. Gürpınar, Tutuşmuş Gönüller) – Nişanyan_18Dec2014.
▪ If Ar zift should, in one way or another, be akin to Grk zṓpissa, var. zṓpitta (cf. above, section CONC), then also many Eur words for ‘pitch’ are also related, cf., e.g., Engl pitch »‘resinous substance, wood tar’, lC12, pich, from oEngl pic ‘pitch’, from a Germ borrowing (oSax and oFris pik, mDu pik, Du pek, oHGe pek, German Pech, oNor bik) of Latin pix (genitive picis) ‘pitch’, which according to Watkins is from a protIE root *pik- ‘pitch’ (cognates: Grk pissa, Lith pikis, oChSlav piklu ‘pitch’), but according to Pokorny this is from the same protIE root as pine « – EtymOnline .

deriv

► zift wa-qaṭrān, (lit. pitch and tar), expr., 1 unpleasant, annoying, awkward; 2 damned (bad luck): expr.

► zaffata, vb. II, 1 to smear with pitch, to pitch; 2 to asphalt (a road): applicative, denom.
► mizfataẗ, pl. mazāfitᵘ, n.f., asphalting machine (tech.): n.instr.
► tazfīt, n., asphalting: vn. II

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