Bibliotheca Polyglotta

As ‎most other wine terms, also sakar may have entered Arabic via Syriac (Syr šiḵrā ʻdate ‎wine’). Most probably, however, it is older and goes back to a common Sem n. *šikar‑ ~ *šakar‑ ‘intoxicating/alcoholic drink’ (Kogan2011). In Q 16:67 it is still considered lawful and a generous gift given by God to man. Later in the Q, the attitude towards sakar changes.

hist

▪ eC7 Q 16:67 wa-min ṯamarāti ’l-naḫīli wa’l-ʔaʕnābi tattaḫiḏūna minhu sakaran wa-rizqan ḥasanan ‘And of the fruits of the date-palm, and grapes, whence ye derive strong drink and (also) good nourishment’ (Pickthal) / ‘Und (wir geben euch) von den Früchten der Palmen und Weinstöcke (zu trinken), woraus ihr euch einen Rauschtrank macht, und (außerdem) schönen Unterhalt’ (Paret).

cogn

▪ Bergsträsser1928: (*‘intoxicating drink’) Akk šikaru, Hbr šēḵār, Syr šeḵrā, Gz sekā́r.
▪ BDB1906: cf. also Gz səkār ‘drunkenness’, sakra ‘to drink, get drunk’, sakārī ‘drunkard’.
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#2032: BHbr šēḵār, Akk šikāru, šikru ‘alcoholic drink, beer’, Syr šaḵrā (abs. šəḵar) ‘sicera (alcoholic drink other than wine, esp. a liquor made from dates or from honey)’, JudAram [Trg] šiḵrā ‘alcoholic drink’.

disc

▪ Jeffery1938: 172-173: »With this should be associated all the other forms ‎‎[occurring in the Qurʔān] derived therefrom and connected with drunkenness, e.g. iv, 46; xv, 15, ‎‎72; xxii, 2. – as-Suyūṭī, Itq, 321 (Mutaw, 40), tells us that some early authorities considered it ‎an Ethiopic word. It is possible that the Eth [Gz] sakra is the origin of the Ar word, but the ‎word is widely used in the Semitic languages, e.g. Akk šikaru (cf. [Hbr] ‎šāḵar ‎; [Syr] šəḵar) ‘‎beer’;¹ and Grk, e.g. síkera.¹ Thus while it may have come into Ar from Syr as ‎most other wine terms did, on the other hand it may be a common derivation from early Semitic ‎‎(Guidi, Della Sede, 603).«
▪ Huehnergard2002 reconstructs a Common Sem n. *šikar‑ ‘intoxicating drink’. Similarly Dolgopolsky2012#2032: Sem *šikar‑ ~ *šakar‑ ‘alcoholic drink’.
▪ On account of what he thinks are ‘cognates’ in Korean (MKor sù ͉ìr ~ sù ͉ùr, NKor su˥‑ < proto-Kor *sù ͉ìr ‘wine, alcoholic drink’), Dolgopolsky reconstructs Nostr *s̄2˅˹k˺˅R˅ (or *s̄˅Ḳ˅R˅) ‘intoxicating drink’ ([in descendant languages] ↗‘alcoholic drink’) – Dolgopolsky2012#2032.
▪ Any relation to ↗SKR‑ ‘’?

1. Levy, Fremdw, 81, and ‎Lagarde, Mittheilungen, ii, 357.

west

▪ Sem (Hbr, Aram?) > Grk síkera ‘fermented liquor, strong drink’ – Dolgopolsky2012 #2032. According to Huehnergard2002, the Sem n. is, via Grk síkera, the ancestor of the Engl cider.

deriv

► sakira, a (sakar, sukr). vb. I, to be drunk; to get drunk, become intoxicated: probably denominative.
► ʔaskara, vb. IV, to make drunk, intoxicate, inebriate : causative of I.
► tasākara, vb. VI, to pretend to be drunk : denominative..
► sukr, n., intoxication, inebriety, drunkenness : vn. I..
► sakraẗ, n.f., pl. sakarāt, inebriety, intoxication, drunkenness : | s. al-mawt agony of death..
► sakrānᵘ, adj., f. sakrā, pl. sukārā, sakārā drunk, intoxicated; a drunk: ints.adj. | s. ṭīnaẗ (colloq.) dead drunk; s. bi’l-naṣr drunk with victory.
► sikkīr, adj., drunkard, heavy drinker: ints.adj..
► muskir, n., pl. ‑āt alcoholic beverage, intoxicating liquor: nominalized PA IV.

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