Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ‘Bed, throne’ is usually seen to derive from surūr ‘joy, happiness, pleasure, tranquility of the mind’ (↗sarra).
▪ However, the primary meaning may have been ‘the part where the head rests upon the neck’ (Freytag1833, Kazimirski1860, SED) so that one could imagine a semantic development along the line *‘neck > neck-rest > place to rest > bed; throne’. For this ‘part where the head rests upon the neck’, SED #253 tentatively assumes a Sem *š/sar- or *s/car- ‘vertebral column, backbone’ as the common source of the Ar and some EthSem forms. However, such an assumption rests only of scarce attestations. A relation of this complex to modSAr forms meaning ‘behind’ is rejected by Kogan2015.
▪ One could also think of the ‘base of the head, neck’ as a value having arisen from the interpretation of [v1] the navel (↗surraẗ) as ‘centre, innermost part’, hence ‘base’.

hist

▪ Lane iv (1872) has ‘the part where the head rests upon the neck’, »said to be derived from surūr [joy, pleasure, tranquility of the mind] because it generally belongs to persons of ease and affluence and of authority, and to kings« (> ‘dominion, sovereignty, rule, authority; ease, comfort, affluence’). – Hence, and as an appellation of good omen, ‘bier, before the corpse is carried upon it’
▪ Kazimirski1860 not only gives ‘bed’ and ‘throne’, but also (from the former) ‘brancard (avant qu’on y ait mis le cadavre)’ and ‘base de la tête, endroit où elle est jointe au cou’ (= Freytag1833: ‘radix capitis, qua cohaeret cum collo’), as well as (from the latter) ‘dignité royale, royauté’ and ‘bien-être’
▪ HDAL: 555 ‘place where the head rests upon the neck’, 569 ‘bier’, 575 ‘throne’, 590 ‘middle (of a valley)’, 621 ‘place to sit or sleep on’, 791 ‘well-off, affluent’

cogn

▪ Zammit2002: lists sarīr, but without cognates in Sem.

disc

▪ ClassAr lexicographers tend to relate derive sarīr ‘bed, throne’ from surūr ‘joy, happiness, pleasure, tranquility of the mind’ (↗sarra) because »it [sc. a sarīr] generally belongs to persons of ease and affluence and of authority, and to kings« (hence also the values ^†‘throne; dominion, sovereignty, rule, authority | dignité royale, royauté; ease, comfort, affluence | bien-être’, as well as the expr. ^†zāla ʕan sarīrih ‘déchu de son bien-être’, and, as an appellation of good omen, ‘bier, before the corpse is carried upon it’ – Lane iv (1872) | Kazimirski1860). However, it may be the other way round, i.e., ‘bed, throne’ > ‘ease, happiness, peace of mind’.
▪ According to SED and Kogan2015, the original meaning of sarīr is ^†‘the part where the head rests upon the neck’ (value given also by Freytag1833 and Kazimirski1860), which, actually, also is the value first attested in the sources (555 CE, according to HDAL). So one could think of a development *‘neck > neck-rest > place to rest > bed; throne’. Given another early attestation of sarīr (590 CE – HDAL) as ‘middle (of a valley)’, the assumption made by BAH2008 that one should connect the ‘base of the head, neck’ to ↗surraẗ ‘centre, innermost part’ (originally ‘navel’), may be correct. In contrast, SED #253 tentatively assumes a Sem *š/sar- or *s/car- ‘vertebral column, backbone’ as the common source of the Ar and some EthSem forms. However, the authors are aware of the fact that such an assumption is based on »[s]carce attestation in Ar and MEth only; neither of these languages distinguishes between *š and *s. Note doubling of the second radical and annexation of -w as a third radical in Ar and a full stem reduplication in Eth. See a derived term in Eth and Gur (Sel, Cha, Enn, End, Gye) särsär ‘instrument made of the ribs of a cow and used for leveling the floor’.« The idea, put forward in SED, that this complex is »likely related«, »with a meaning shift«, to modSAr forms meaning ‘behind’ is rejected by Kogan2015: 569 #97: »The origin of prot-modSAr *sar [> Mhr sār, Jib ser, Soq sɛr] ‘behind’ is uncertain. Contra W. Leslau and M. Bittner (1914:15), any connection with protSem *ʔaṯar- ‘trace’ can be safely excluded for phonological reasons. Quite far-fetched is the comparison between the modSAr terms and Ar sarīr ‘the part where the head rests upon the neck’ (Lane 1339), sarāt- ‘back’ (ibid. 1353), Amh säräsär ‘vertebra, spinal cord’ (AED 487) suggested in SED I #253. Shall one rather compare Hbr swr ‘to turn aside’ (HALOT 748), assuming a semantic development from the more original meaning ‘to turn back’?«

west

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deriv

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