Bibliotheca Polyglotta

1 utmost part, outermost point, extremity, end, tip, point, edge, fringe, limit, border; 2 side; 3 region, area, section; 4 ~ min, a part of, a bit of, some; 5 party (as, to a dispute, of a contract, etc.); 6 ~a…, prep., with, at, on the part or side of; 7 pl. ʔaṭrāf, limbs, extremities; 8 (with foll. gen.) sections of, parts of – WehrCowan1979.

conc

▪ DRS finds cognates of Ar ṭaraf only in modSAr, keeping it separate from other values of Sem *ṬRP. In contrast, Nişanyan23Oct2014 (s.v. Tu taraf) derives ṭaraf ‘direction, side’ from Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to look, cast an eye on’, from Ar ↗ṭarf ‘eye’. Yet another etymology is given by Klein1987 and Zammit2002: they see Ar ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ together with Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’, Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’ (and derivates), i.e., with the value that lies at the basis also of the obsolete Ar vb. ^†ṭarafa ‘to seize, carry off by force’, preserved in ClassAr ^†sibāʕ ṭawārifᵘ (sg. ^†ṭārifaẗ, f. of *ṭārif, PA I) ‘animals that seize, or carry off by force, the objects of the chase’, which with all likelihood is the “purest”, least “contaminated” descendant of an original CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ (cf. ṬRF_12 in root entry ↗ṬRF). The link between ‘edge, extremity’ and ‘to tear, pluck’ here would be the obsolete vb. Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘to graze, depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage (said of a camel)’. This would give us the semantic chain *‘to tear, pluck, seize > to graze, depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage > utmost part, edge, extremity’—which, however, would contradict Kogan2015’s assumption that the vb. »almost certainly« is denom. from ṭaraf, not the other way round.
▪ If the affiliation of Ar ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’ to CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ is correct, then ṭaraf is indeed a relative of many other values of ↗ṬRF, like ‘novelty’ (*freshly plucked, cf. ↗ṭurfaẗ) (cf. Klein1987’s grouping in section COGN below) and perh. also ‘tamarisk’ (↗ṭarfāʔᵘ). There are also theories that ultimately connect CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ with ↗ṭarf ‘eye’; if these can be substantiated then there would also be a relation, however indirect, between ṭarf and ṭaraf. – For the whole picture, cf. root entry ↗ṬRF.

hist

▪ eC7 (edge, border; part; group) Q 3:127 li-yaqṭaʕa ṭarafan min-a ’llaḏīna kafarū ‘and that He might cut off a part of the disbelievers’ [army]’; (dual: two ends) 11:114 ṭarafay-i ’l-nahāri ‘two ends of the day, morning and evening’; [pl. ʔaṭrāf : edges, borders; notables; good things] 13:41 ʔa-wa-lam yaraw ʔannā naʔtī ’l-ʔarḍa nanquṣu-hā min ʔaṭrāfi-hā ‘do they not see how We visit the land, curtailing it from its borders (variously interpreted as: causing districts belonging to the disbelievers to fall one after the other to the Muslims, reducing its vegetation, curtailing it from its learned people’ (‘Scientific interpreters’ of the Q see in this verse reference to the fact that Earth’s sphere looks as if it had been clipped at the edges); 20:130 ʔaṭrāfa ’l-nahāri ‘the [two] ends/extremities of the day [lit., edges of the day]’
▪ ClassAr ^†ṭarif, f. ^†ṭarifaẗ, ‘male / she-camel that removes from one pasturage to another, not keeping constantly to one pasturage; that depastures the extremities, or sides, of the pasturage’; ^†ṭarifa a (ṭaraf), vb. I, ‘to depasture the lateral parts of the pasturage’; ^†ṭarrafa, vb. II, ‘to fight around the army (charging upon or assaulting those who form the side or flank or extreme portion of it), drive back, fight (those who formed the side or flank of an army)’; cf. also the description ḫayru ’l-kalāmi mā ṭurrifat maʕānī-hi wa-šurrifat mabānī-hi ‘the best of language is that of which the meanings are pointed, and of which the constructions are crowned with embellishments as though they were adorned with šuraf (pl. of šurfaẗ ‘balcony’)’; cf. also the expression, involving a vb. X, ^†ĭstaṭrafa, used for a woman who does not keep constantly to a husband: tastaṭrifu ’l-riǧāl ‘she takes, or chooses, new ones of the men’, she who does thus being likened to the she-camel termed ṭarifaẗ that depastures the extremities of the pasturage and/or tastes, and does not keep constantly to one pasturage – Lane.

cogn

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#ṬRP-4 Ar ṭarifa ‘dévorer les bords, les extrémités d’un pré (chameau, etc.)’, ṭaraf ‘extrémité, côté, partie, portion, morceau’, Mhr Ḥrs ṭərēf, Jib ṭerä́f ‘côté’, Soq ṭaraf ‘zone’, Mhr ṭərūf, Jib ṭorof ‘mettre de côté pour une occasion meilleure’.
▪ Zammit2002: Hbr ṭārap ‘to tear, rend, pluck’, Aram ṭarpā ‘a piece torn off, fragment’, ṭᵉrap ‘to tear’, Syr ṭarpā (d-ednā) ‘the lobe (of the ear)’, ṭᵉrap ‘to smite’, Ar ṭaraf ‘extremity; border’.
▪ Klein1987: Hbr ṭārap̄ ‘to tear to pieces, rend; to pluck’, Aram ṭᵊrap̄ ‘to tear, seize’, ṭᵊrêp̄â ‘torn animal, torn flesh’, Ar ṭarafa ‘to graze (said of a camel)’, ṭarufa ‘to be freshly plucked’; Hbr ṭārāp̄ ‘fresh-plucked’, hence also ‘fresh leaf’ and nHbr ‘leaf, blade’, Aram Syr ṭarpâ ‘fresh leaf’.

disc

▪ For the general traits, see section CONC above.
▪ This value of ṬRF is without doubt one of the oldest ones in Ar, and quite a number of the other values may with some probability be derived from it (cf. root entry ↗ṬRF). One line of semantic development seems to be: ‘utmost part, edge, extremity > to depasture the lateral parts of a pasturage > to make a choice (for more, better, more delicate food) > to choose, anything chosen, choice’ (ṬRF_8, now obsol.). Another branch (unless dependent on ṬRF_1 ‘eye’) seems to identify the preference of the lateral parts of a pasturage with a looking for alternatives, hence: ‘…pasturage > to appreciate a novelty > novelty’ (ṬRF_3; however, another theory derives ‘novelty’ from CSem *ṬRP ‘to tear, pluck, seize’ in the sense of ‘fresh-plucked’, cf. also ṬRF_5 ‘tamarisk’.) – The value ‘to drive away, repel’ (ṬRF_6), too, could be explained—in theory—as a derivation from ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, the act of repelling being a driving away “to the utmost parts”; cf., however, DRS (and also Klein1987) where Ar ^†ṭarafa ‘éloigner qn de qc; repousser’ is grouped differently on account of the wider Sem evidence; but the D-stem may still be denom. from ṭaraf. – In contrast, there is almost no doubt that ↗miṭraf ‘shawl’ (ṬRF_4) depends on ṭaraf ‘edge, side’ because, in ClassAr use, it is a ‘garment […] having ornamental or coloured or figured borders’ (Lane). – ^†ṭirāf ‘leather tent, tent of skin’ (ṬRF_9), too, seems to be somehow connected to ṭaraf ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, but the relation is not really clear and its exact nature will need further explanation.
▪ ṭaraf was, and is still, used in many expressions with a specialized or figurative meaning, particularly also in the pl. ʔaṭrāf. For instance, the latter can also mean ‘fingers’ (i.e., the extremities of the hand), if not ‘extremities’ in general. The construct ʔaṭrāf al-nahār signifies the *‘extremities of a day’, i.e., ‘morning and afternoon, daybreak and sunset’. And the *‘extremities of the people’, ʔaṭrāf al-nās , mean ‘the lower orders of society’. Furthermore, ʔaṭrāf can mean (in ClassAr) ‘a man’s father and mother and brothers and paternal uncles and any relations whom it is unlawful for him to marry’.
▪ Ar lexicographers also tend to regard ‘noble, of high breed; generous’ as a derivation from ṭaraf : as also ^†ṭarīf, ^†ṭaraf can mean ‘having many ancestors, up to the greatest (i.e. most remote [= “extreme”]) forefather, of long descent’ (Lane), and ^†ṭarf ‘man generous, noble’ is likewise explained as ‘…in respect of ancestry, up to the greatest [i.e. most remote] forefather’ (ibid.). – In addition, with the notion of ‘generosity’ and the plentitude of ancestors we are already in close neighbourhood of the value ‘to be numerous, abound with’ (ṬRF_11).
▪ For still other (obsolete) values that may be dependent on, or derived from, ‘utmost part, edge, extremity’, like ‘to lose the teeth’, cf. root entry ↗ṬRF.

west

–

deriv

► ṭaraf al-ġawr, n.prop.loc., Trafalgar (cape, SW Spain). – Cf., however, EtymOnline where Engl Trafalgar (famous sea battle, Oct. 21, 1805!) is said to be from Ar ṭaraf al-ġarb ‘end of the west’, or ṭaraf al-ʔaġar ‘end of the column’ (in reference to the pillars of Hercules).
► ṭaraf al-liḥāf, n., corner or tag of a cover
► ṭaraf al-lisān, n., tip of the tongue
► ṭarafay-i ’l-nahār, adv., in the morning and in the evening, mornings and evenings
► kānū ʕalà ṭarafay naqīḍ, expr., they were at variance, they varied on a feud
► kāna wa-ʔiyyā-hu ʕalà ṭarafay naqīḍ, expr., they held diametrically opposed views or positions
► ʔaṭrāf al-badan, n.pl., the extremities of the body, the limbs
► ʔaṭrāf al-ʔaṣābiʕ, n.pl., fingertips
► ʕalà ʔaṭrāf qadamay-hi, expr., on tiptoe
► ʔaṭrāf al-madīnaẗ, n.pl., the outskirts of the city
► al-ʔaṭrāf al-mutaʕāqidaẗ, n.f., the contracting parties
► ʔaṭrāf al-nizāʕ, n.pl., the contending parties
► bi-ṭaraf…, prep., with, at, on the part or side of
► min ṭaraf…, prep., on the part of
► min ṭaraf ʔilà ṭaraf, adv., from one end to the other
► ʔaḥzāb ṭaraf al-yamīn, n.pl., the right-wing parties
► ǧāḏaba ʔaṭrāfa ’l-ḥadīṯ, vb. I, to talk, converse, have a conversation
► ǧamaʕa ’l-barāʕaẗ min ʔaṭrāfi-hā, vb. I, to be a highly efficient man, be highly qualified
► ǧamaʕa ʔaṭrāf al-šayʔ, vb. I, to give a survey or outline of s.th., summarize, sum up s.th.
► qaṣṣa ʕalay-hi ṭarafan (ʔaṭrāfan) min ḥayāẗi-hī, vb. I, to tell s.o. an episode (episodes) of one’s life
► ʔaṭrāf al-ḥawādiṯ, n.pl., episodic events, experiences at the margin of events
► yanquṣu ’l-ʔarḍ min ʔaṭrāfi-hā, expr., (God) will reduce the country’s boundaries, i.e., will diminish its power

► taṭarrafa, vb. V, to be on the extreme side, hold an extreme viewpoint or position, go to extremes, be radical, bare radical views: tD-stem, denom., in ClassAr still with the more general literal meaning ‘to become pointed, tapering, dender at the extremity’, but also already in the expr. ~ ʕalà ’l-qawm ‘to make a sudden, unexpected attack upon the territory or dwellings of the people’.

► ṭarafī, adj., being at the outermost extremity, standing out, projecting, prominent: nsb-adj.
► ^BP#2974taṭarruf, n., 1 excess, excessiveness, immoderation, extravagance; 2 extremism, extreme standpoint or position, radical attitude, radicalism: vn. V.
► ^BP#2713mutaṭarrif, adj., 1 utmost, outmost, farthest outward, located at the outermost point; 2 extreme, extremistic; 3 radical: PA V; 4 n., an extremist, a radical: nominalization of the preceding | ǧihaẗ ~aẗ, n.f., outlying district, outskirt(s)

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