Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ From WSem (or CSem?) (Kogan2011: protSem, best attested in CSem) *šurr‑ ‘navel (string)’.
▪ Zetterstéen1942 postulated (for the whole root √SRR) a »sense primitif« of *‘lier, serrer’ [? based on ‘umbilical cord’]. In the light of the Sem evidence, this assumption seems hardly tenable; cf., however, Dolgopolsky2012 #2106 who puts Sem *šurr- ‘navel string’ together with Berb *√sr˻w˼ ‘to bind, weave’ and NatIndEur *ser- ‘thread, string’ [cf. etymonline: IE *ser- ‘to line up’], all going back to a hypothetical Nostr *säR˹U˺ (= *säRo?) ‘sinew, fibre’. Regarding the navel string, not the navel itself as the primary value makes sense in the light of the fact that in Ar, the n.f. surraẗ ‘navel’ appears to be formed from the n.m. surr ‘umbilical cord’, not the other way round. All other values in the root, however, seem to be derived from ‘navel’ rather than from ‘navel string’ which continued to live a rather isolated life while ‘navel’ began to develop several new meanings.

hist

▪ HDAL: no attestation given yet

cogn

▪ Cf. ↗surraẗ, n.f., 1 navel, umbilicus; 2 centre

disc

▪ See ↗surraẗ, and ↗√SRː (SRR) for the general picture.

west

–

deriv

► surrī, adj., umbilical | al-ḥabl al-surrī, n., umbilical cord
► surur and sirar, n., umbilical cord: var. of surr.
► surraẗ, pl. -āt, surar, n.f., 1 navel, umbilicus; 2 centre: derived from surr, or is the latter a back-formation? See ↗surraẗ.

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