Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Probably from *‘best part, choice’, from *‘middle, centre’, from ‘navel’ (↗surraẗ), from ‘navel string’ (↗surr), from WSem (?CSem) *šurr- ‘umbilical cord’, ultimately perh. from a hypothetical Nostr *säR˹U˺ (= *säRo?) ‘sinew, fibre’.
▪ Another etymology is considered by DelOlmoLeteSanmartín2003, where Ar sarar ‘last night of the lunar month’ is seen as cognate to Ug srr ‘to set, sink, hide’, in its turn allegedly cognate to Hbr swr, srr. Tropper2008, however, is not sure about the reading of the underlying Ug phrase b srr špš as ‘at the setting of the Sun’ (as the phrase is rendered in DelOlmoLeteSanmartín2003); he also leaves it open where the vn. srr should be derived from: from sw/yr ‘to leave’ (Hbr √swr) or its »Wurzelvariante« √srr.

hist

▪ …

cogn

▪ If dependent on Ar ↗surraẗ ‘navel’, cf. there for cognates.
▪ If from another etymon, then cf. perh. DelOlmoLeteSanmartín2003, who translate the Ug b srr špš as ‘at the setting of the Sun’, seeing Ar the Ug √srr ‘to set, sink, hide’ (Hbr swr, srr) as cognate forms.

disc

▪ The meaning ‘last night of the lunar month’ is probably secondary, the result of regarding the last night as the most important, or best, or essential, one. In ClassAr texts, one equally finds sarār (and also sirr) al-šahr in the sense of ^†‘commencement\first night of the month’, or its ‘middle’, and sarār (or sirr) al-layl meaning ‘the middle of the the night’ – Lane iv (1872). Given the overall picture, ‘middle’ or ‘best part of’ seems to be the primary meaning.
▪ In contrast, DelOlmoLeteSanmartín2003 postulate a connection with an Ug word meaning ‘sunset’ (see section CONC, above); but this rendering seems doubtful to Tropper2008.
▪ For semantic development and relation to other items in the root, cf. ↗√SRː (SRR).

west

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deriv

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