Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Related to / derived from ‘secret’ (↗sirr) or ‘navel’ (↗surraẗ, from surr ‘umbilical cord’), as *‘woman who shows her secret parts/navel, or to whom a man shows his secrets/navel’, or from ‘to please’ (↗sarra), as *‘woman who gives pleasure’?
▪ Is the ambiguity in the corresponding vb.s between tasarrara and tasarrà (V), or ĭstasarra and ĭstasarrà (X), simply due to phonological reasons, the long vowel in tasarrà / ĭstasarrà compensating the loss of a syllable or facilitating pronunciation, or should one suspect the lexicographers’ explanation and rather assume some other—hitherto obscure—reason, an indication of an origin that is different from both ‘secret’ and ‘to please’? But what could that be?

hist

▪ First attestation, according to HDAL, in a ḥadīṯ (tentatively dated 632 by HDAL) in which the Prophet talks to his wife Ḥafṣaẗ bt. ʕUmar (Sunan al-Bayhaqī) telling her that he will regard a certain surriyyaẗ as taboo.

cogn

▪ ?Leslau2006 (CDG): Gz tasarra ‘to be covered (female animal), be attacked’

disc

▪ Lane iv (1872) reports the controversy among the ClassAr lexicographers around the two versions of vb. V, tasarrara and tasarrà. While some regard the latter simply as a variant owing to the difficulty of pronunciation of forms like tasarrartu (with -rr-r- > rr-y, giving tasarraytu), others thought that tasarrà was not only an alleviating form, but the correct root.
▪ Lane iv (1872) also reports that surriyyaẗ is generally thought to derive from sirr as signifying ^†‘concubitus’ or, alternatively, ‘concealment’ »because a man often conceals and protects her from his wife«, the change of vowel from i to u in the nisba being a phenomenon known also from dahr/duhrī, sahlaẗ/suhlī, etc.; others think it is u »to distinguish it from sirriyyaẗ which is applied to ‘a free woman with whom one has sexual intercourse secretly’, or ‘one who prostitutes herself’; others think it is not from sirr ^†‘concubitus’ but from surr in the sense of surūr ‘joy’ »because her owner rejoices in her«.

west

–

deriv

► tasarrà (and tasarrara), vb. V, to take (bi‑ or -hā a woman) as concubine (surriyyaẗ): denom.?
► ĭstasarra, vb. X, 1 ↗sirr; 2 to take as concubine (-hā a woman): request., denom.?

► tasarrin, det. -ī, n., concubinage: vn. V.
► ĭstisrār, n., concubinage: vn. X.

Permanent link

http://www2.hf.uio.no/common/apps/permlink/permlink.php?app=polyglotta&context=record&uid=d8de566b-06ff-11ee-937a-005056a97067

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages

Choose display