Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Ar samn ‘melted purified butter’ seems to be a specialisation from a protSem *šamn‑ that denoted ‘oil, fat (as foodstuff)’ in general. Derivatives show the original wider meaning.
▪ TB2007 reconstructs Sem *šam(-an)‑ ‘fat, oil’, from AfrAs *sim-an‑ ~ *sin-am‑ ‘oil, fat, (fat) milk’.

hist

lC6 ʕUrwa b. al-Ward 23,2: wa-faḍlati samnatin ḏahabat ʔilay-hi ‘and the rest of a piece of butter/fat [n.un.] that went to him’ (Polosin 1995)
▪ eC7 samn itself is not in Q, but we find the vb. IV ʔasmana ‘to fatten, to benefit, to nourish’ and the adj. (pseudo-PA) samīn ‘fat, well-fed’: Q 88:6-7 laysa la-hum ṭaʕāmun ʔillā min ḍarīʕin lā yusminu wa-lā yuġnī min ǧūʕin ‘with no food for them except bitter dry thorns that neither nourish nor satisfy hunger’; 12:43 ʔinnī ʔarà sabʕa baqarātin simān in yaʔkulu-hunna sabʕun ʕiǧāfun ‘I see [in my dreams] seven fat cows being eaten by seven lean ones’

cogn

▪ Kogan2011: Akk šamnu, Ug šmn, šmt, Hbr šämän (mostly) ‘vegetable oil’, (rarely also) ‘animal fat or cream’, Aram *šumnā (mostly) ‘(animal) fat, fatness’, Ar samn‑ ‘(clarified) butter’, Jib šẽn ‘fat, fatness (?)’.
▪ For outside Sem, TB2007 gives (Berber) Ghat isim ‘graisse (de tout animal)’, Tahaggart ésim ‘graisse fondu’, Tawllemmet ē-šim ‘liquid fat; broth’, Taqbaylit (Ayt Mangellat) ţa-ssǝm-ţ ‘graisse animal’, Canarian achemen ‘milk’; OEg smy (med.) ‘fat milk, cream’; (WChad) šivena, sinama, sin; (EChad) swāń, swānī, sòn-gò, súwāné, sùwánè, séwén, séwèn, súnu ‘oil’, sùwǝ̀n-gǝ̀, sɔn, síwín ‘oil, fat’, sṓane ‘melted butter/oil’, sɛ́wɛ́ŋ ‘fat’ (n.), súnē ‘fat’ (adj.); (Warazi/Dullay) šiinán-ko, pl. šiinam-aane ‘butter’, šiinan-ko, pl. šinam-aane ‘fat’; perhaps also CChad) s’ǝmǝn ‘thick’, but this is said to be semantically problematic.

disc

▪ Huehnergard 2011: Sem *šamn‑ ‘oil, fat’.
▪ Kogan2011: »The main PS term for ‘fat’ as a foodstuff seems to be *šamn‑, although exact semantics of its reflexes are rather diverse […]. The meaning ‘(clarified) butter’ is typical of Ar […], whereas [the Akk, Ug and Hbr terms] mostly denote ‘vegetable oil’ and are only rarely applied to animal fat or cream. ComAram *šumnā mostly denotes ‘(animal) fat, fatness’ […]. The exact meaning of Jib […] remains to be ascertained.«
▪ Alongside with Sem *šamn‑ ‘fat’ (n.), Fronzaroli#2.35 also reconstructs Sem *šamin‑ ‘fat’ (adj.).
▪ TB2007 reconstruct Sem *šam(-an)‑ ‘fat, oil’, Berb *‑sim(-an)‑ ‘(liquid) fat, milk’, OEg smy (med.) ‘fat milk, cream’, WChad *sin(-am)‑ ‘oil’, ? CChad *s˅m˅n‑ (?) ‘thick’, EChad *siwan‑ (< *siman‑ ?) ‘oil; melted butter/oil; fat (n.); fat (adj.)’, Warazi (Dullay) *šinam‑ ‘butter; fat’. All from AfrAs *sim-an‑ ~ *sin-am‑ ‘oil, fat, (fat) milk’.

west

▪ Although Ar samn is not the origin of Engl sesame, both are relatives nevertheless: According to Huehnergard 2011, the Engl word is »from Grk sēsamē sēsamon ‘sesame’, from a Sem source akin to Ug ššmn, Phoen ššmn, Aram šumšəmā, Ar simsim ‘sesame’, all probably from Akk šamaššammū ‘sesame’, back-formation from *šaman šammī ‘oil of plants’, from šaman, bound form of šamnu ‘oil’ (šammī, gen.pl. of šammu ‘plant’, Sem śmm). It is possible that the Akk form represents a folk etymology for an original form šamšamu, from a root *šmšm.«

deriv

► samina a (siman, samānaẗ), vb. I, to be or become fat, corpulent, obese, stout, plump, fleshy, put on weight: denom.
► sammana, vb. II, and ʔasmana, vb. IV, to make fat or plump, fatten: denom.caus.
► siman, n., and ^BP#4632simnaẗ, n.f., fatness, plumpness, fleshiness, stoutness, corpulence; obesity: vn. I and abstr. in ‑aẗ, respectively.
► summun, n.coll. (n.un. aẗ), pl. samāminᵘ, quail (zool.): *‘the fat one (bird)’ ?.
► samīn, pl. simān, adj., fat; corpulent, plump, fleshy, stout, obese: quasi-PA (or -PP).
► summān, n.coll. (n.un. aẗ), quail (zool.): *the fat one (bird) ?.
► sammān, n., butter merchant: n.prof.
► samānaẗ: ~ al-rijl, n., calf of the leg:.
► sumānà, n.coll. (n.un. sumānāẗ, pl. sumānayāt), quail (zool.): *‘the fat one (bird)’?.
► musamman, adj., fat: PP II.

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