Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Traditional etymologists tend to derive ʕabīr ‘(compound) perfume’ from ↗ʕabara ‘to cross, pass over’ in the sense of *‘to cross the air, evaporate’, but this explanation looks rather far-fetched.
▪ A relation to WSem *ʕBR ‘to overflow’ (as is sometimes assumed for ↗ʕabraẗ ‘tear’) seems to be suggested by Hoch1994#68 when he does not exclude the possibility that the Eg loanword ʕbyr */ʕabīr/ (of uncertain meaning) perh. should be associated with BiblHbr (Song of Songs, 5:5) môr ʕōḇēr ‘liquid myrrh’ where ʕōḇēr most probably is a PA of the Hbr vb. ʕāḇar ‘to overflow’, which some scholars put to Sem *ʕ˅b˅r- ‘to cross’ while others regard it as a homonymous root that should be separated from ‘to cross’.
▪ Another connection is insinuated, though only implicitly, by Lane when he lists not only ʕabīr but also ↗ʕanbar ‘ambergris’ under √ʕBR. What may look rather unlikely at first sight can gain some plausibility when attention is paid to the fact that ʕabīr and ʕanbar both are associated, and sometimes even identified, with ‘saffron’. Phonologically, however, it would be difficult to derive ʕabīr directly from ʕanbar.
▪ From the above it is evident that, for the moment, the etymology of ʕabīr remains rather obscure and that the item therefore better should be kept apart from ʕabara.

hist

▪ In ClassAr ‘a mixture of perfumes, compounded with saffron’ or even used as a synonym for ‘saffron’ – Lane.

cogn

▪ ? – If related, cf. perh. ↗ʕabara.

disc

▪ See above, section CONC.

west

–

deriv

–

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʕabara, ↗ʕabbara, ↗ʕibrī, ↗ʕabraẗ, ↗ʕibraẗ, ↗ʕibāraẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕBR.

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