Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ The item belongs to a root that has the two basic connotations of ‘dim-sightedness’ and ‘(actions performed, or to be performed in the) evening, at nightfall’. Given that neither Sem nor AfrAs give any clue as to semantic development within the root, the author of the present entry assumes the etymon proper of both to be s.th. like the *‘time of the day when it gets dark and it becomes difficult to see’. ʕišāʔ has been chosen as the main entry to treat the whole ʕŠW/Y complex because it is one out of three MSA items whose semantic value comes closest to the hypothetical etymon’s value (‘the time of nightfall, i. e. the first, or beginnng, of the darkness of night’ – Lane) and among the three displays the simplest morphological pattern.
▪ The semantic development suggested here is:

a) ‘time of beginning darkness’ > actions performed at this time of the day: ^†pasture of cattle; dinner, supper; evening prayer
b) ‘time of beginning darkness’ > ‘dim-sightedness’ > ‘to act blindly, overlook, veer away from’ > ‘at random, haphazardly’ > ‘informal settlements, slum’

hist

▪ eC7 ʕišāʔ (the first part of the night marked by the disappearing of the twilight, evening) 12:16 wa-ǧāʔū ʔabā-hum ʕišāʔan yabkūna ‘and they came to their father after nightfall weeping’, (night prayer) 24:58 ṣalāẗi ’l-ʕišāʔi ‘the night prayer’. – ʕašiyy (evening) 38:18 yusabbiḥna bi’l-ʕašiyyi wa-bi’l-ʔišrāqi ‘to sing the praises at evening and sunrise’. – ʕašiyyaẗ (one evening) 79:46 lam yalbaṯū ʔillā ʕašiyyaẗan ʔaw ḍuḥā-hā ‘they had not tarried but an evening or the mid-morning following’. – ʕašā (to fail to see, be blinded to) Q 43:36 wa-man yaʕšu ʕan ḏikri ’l-raḥmāni ‘and whoever is blind to the remembrance of the Lord of Mercy’.

cogn

–

disc

Of obscure etymology.

west

–

deriv

► ʕašā u (ʕašw) and ʕašiya a (ʕašan, det. ʕašā), vb. I, to be dim-sighted; to be night-blind: denominative from the assumed etymon *‘time of the day when it gets dark and it becomes difficult to see’.
► ʕaššà, vb. II, 1 to make dim-sighted, make night-blind: caus. of I. – 2 to give a dinner (DO for s.o.): denom., from ʕišāʔ or ʕašāʔ.
► ʔaʕšà, vb. IV, to make dim-sighted: caus. of vb. I.
► taʕaššà, vb. V, to have dinner (or supper), to dine, to sup: t-stem of vb. II [v2], autobenefactive.
► ʕašan, det. ʕašā, n., dim-sightedness; nightblindness, nyctalopia: vn. I.
► ʕašan, det. ʕašà, n., nightblindness, nyctalopia: vn. I.
► ʕašiyy, n., evening: orig. a quasi-PP with ints.-adjectival meaning?
► ^BP#2239ʕašāʔ, pl. ʔaʕšiyaẗ, n., dinner, supper:… | al-~ al-sirrī, n., the Lord’s supper, the Eucharist (Chr.) ► ʕašwaẗ, n.f., 1 darkness, dark, gloom: could also have served as main entry. – 2 dinner, supper: transfer of meaning from [v1] to the meal that is (to be) taken at this time of the day. – ^†3 (also ʕišwaẗ, ʕušwaẗ) defectus prudentiae in re tractanda [absence of prudence in doing s.th.] (Freytag1830): fig. use of ‘dim-sightedness, night-blindness’.
► ʕašāwaẗ, n.f., dim-sightedness; nightblindness, nyctalopia: ints. n., quasi-vn. I.
► ^BP#2850ʕašiyyaẗ, pl. ʕašāyā, n., 1 evening; nightfall: could also have served as main entry. – 2 eve, day before a feast: extended meaning of [v1] | ~a ʔamsi, adv., last night, yesterday in the evening; bayna ~ wa-ḍuḥā-hā, adv., from one day to the other, overnight, all of a sudden.
► ʕašwāʔᵘ, n., darkness, dark, gloom: nominalized f. of ʔaʕšà.
► ʔaʕšà, f. ʕašwāʔᵘ, adj., dim-sighted; night-blind, nyctalopic; blind, aimless, haphazard, desultory, senseless: ʔafʕalᵘ formation (for physical handicaps), from the (secondary?) value of the root, ‘dim-sightedness’. | yaḫbiṭu ḫabṭatan ʕašwāʔa, expr., he acts blindly, thoughtlessly, at random, haphazardly.
► ^BP#3282ʕašwāʔī, adj., random, happening at random, without plan: lit., *‘blindly, as in the dark (ʕašwāʔ)’.
► ʕašwāʔiyyāt, n., haphazard communities, informal settlements, ‘mushroom city’, slums: nominalized nsb-adj., f.pl., from ʕašwāʔ, lit. *‘the haphazard(ly built) ones (sc., settlements)’.

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