Bibliotheca Polyglotta

habitual practice, customary procedure or action, norm, usage sanctioned by tradition; al-sunnaẗ, or sunnaẗ al-nabiyy, the Sunna of the Prophet, i.e., his sayings and doings, later established as legally binding precedents (in addition to the Law established by the Koran) – WehrCowan1979.

conc

▪ Deverbative from sanna ‘to sharpen, whet, grind’, hence also ‘to polish’ and ‘to shape, give a form’, from ↗sinn ‘tooth’. The proper meaning of sunnaẗ is thus probably ‘s.th. that has been given a shape, a form, a frame’, understood as the customary rules and norms, established through tradition, that give life a shape and uphold public order.
▪ Nişanyan (02Feb2014) gives the same etymology (sunnaẗ < sanna ‘to sharpen, whet’ < sinn ‘tooth’) but has a specific explanation as to how the new meaning derived from the older ones: »The ultimate source of the Ar word is the old Arab tribes’ habit of filing the teeth of male children who had reached a certain age, in order to sharpen them«. From that specific custom, then, would have emerged the meaning ‘custom, habit’ in general. This explanation provides also a link between the two main values of sinn, namely ‘tooth’ and ‘age’ (cf. ↗sinn).
▪ sunnaẗ is not to be confused with words that have the same rasm, سنة, such as ↗sanaẗ ‘year’ (√SN(W)) or ↗sinaẗ ‘slumber, doze’ (√WSN) and some other ClassAr words.

hist

▪ eC7 Q (modes or manners or customs of life and living, norms, established practices) 3:137 qad ḫalat min qabli-kum sunanun ‘systems have passed away before you’. ▪ (practice, law, way) 33:62 wa-lan taǧida li-sunnaẗi ’ḷḷāhi tabdīlan ‘thou wilt not find for the way of Allah aught of power to change’ – (Badawi2008)
▪ The specific use of sunnaẗ in the sense of ‘the Prophet (Muḥammad)’s tradition’ is attested from early Islamic times. [attestation needed]

cogn

▪ Zammit2002: (for sunnaẗ ‘law; conduct; punishment’): SAr snt ‘rule, code, customary law’, Gz tasnān ‘judicium’.
▪ No immediate cognates in other Sem langs other than those listed by Zammit. But since the word with all probability depends on sanna ‘to sharpen, shape’, which is from sinn ‘tooth’, cf. the cognates given in the entry on ↗sinn.

disc

▪ Huehnergard2011 #snn states that sunnaẗ is (deverb.) from < sanna ‘to sharpen, shape; to prescribe’, which is (denom.) from sinn ‘tooth’ < ComSem *šinn ‘tooth’.
▪ Nişanyan (02Feb2014): sunnaẗ is from Ar sanna ‘1. to bite, nibble, gnaw; to sharpen, whet, grind; 2. to set up a rule or norm’, from Ar sinn ‘tooth’. »The ultimate source of the Ar word is the old Arab tribes’ habit of filing the teeth of male children who had reached a certain age, in order to sharpen them«.¹ .
▪ In ClassAr, a number of additional values are attested for sunnaẗ and related items. Those that with all likelihood belong to the same semantic group are: ▪ ^†sanna, vb. I, ‘to form, fashion, shape, make long; to plaster (pottery with clay)’ (having the idea of ‘shaping, form-giving, fashioning’ in common with sunnaẗ in the sense of ‘norm’); ▪ ^†sunnaẗ ‘nature, natural disposition, temper’ (lit., *o.’s habit?); ▪ ^†sunnaẗ ‘(handsome long) face’ (lit., *the well-formed, beautifully shaped one?). – More doubtful: ▪ ^†sunnaẗ ‘black line, or streak, on the back of the ass’; ▪ ^†sunnaẗ, sinnaẗ ‘sort of Medinan dates’; ▪ ^†sanan ‘(middle part of) way, road’.
▪ In ClassAr, there are not only sanaẗ ‘year’ and sinaẗ ‘slumber, doze’ that have the same rasm سنة as sunnaẗ, but also ^†sannaẗ ‘she-bear’ and ^†sinnaẗ ‘double-edged axe; ploughshare; coin, money’ (values given as in Steingass1884 / Wahrmund1887).

1. Arapça sözcüğün nihai kaynağı eski Arap aşiret töresi uyarınca belli bir yaşa gelen erkek çocukların dişlerinin yontularak keskinleştirilmesidir.

west

▪ Engl Sunna, n., from Ar sunnaẗ; Sunni, n., 1620 s, from Ar sunnī ‘adherent of the Sunnah; Muslim who accepts the orthodox tradition as well as the Quran,’ from sunnaẗ ‘traditional teachings of Muhammad,’ lit. ‘way, custom, course, tradition, usage,’ from sanna ‘to sharpen, shape, prescribe’. – Related: Sunnite. – EtymOnline / Huehnergard2011.
▪ Tu sünnet ‘circumcision’ (Muḳaddimetü’l-ʔEdeb, <1300), from Ar sunnaẗ – Nişanyan (02Feb2014).

deriv

► ʔahl al sunnaẗ, n., the Sunnites, the orthodox Muslims.
► sunnaẗ al-ṭabīʕaẗ, n., law of nature.

► sanna, u (sann), vb. I, to prescribe, introduce, enact, establish (a law, a custom): denom. from sunnaẗ, or is the latter deverb. from sanna ? | ~ qānūnan, vb., to enact, or pass, a law. – For other meanings see ↗sinn [v1].
► ĭstanna, vb. VIII, to take, follow (a course or way); to prescribe, introduce, enact, establish (a law, a custom): t-stem of I, denom. from sann or sunnaẗ. | ~ sunnaẗa Muḥammad, vb., to follow the Sunna of Mohammed. – For other meanings see ↗sinn [v1].

► sann, n., prescription, introduction, enactment, issuance (of laws): vn. I.
► ^BP#1811sunnī, adj., Sunnitic; (pl. ‑ūn), n., Sunnite, Sunni: nsb-adj, from sunnaẗ.
► sanan, n., customary practice, usage, habit, rule.
► masnūn, adj., prescribed (as Sunna), sanctioned by law and custom: PP I. – For other meanings see ↗sinn [v1].

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