Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ »The root FṢḤ is very ancient and is found in other Sem langs. […] In some Sem langs, FṢḤ is explicitly associated with something clear, or bright: in [Akk] Ass, piṣū signifies ‘pure; bright’; in Aram, paṣṣiḥ signifies ‘pure; radiant’. In C7 Ar the notion refers to s.th. pure, faultless, unaltered (faṣḥ). The vb. ʔafṣaḥa means ‘to become limpid [urine]; to be skimmed of its froth [milk]’; it refers to clearness, to the dazzling morning light (ʔafṣaḥa ’l-ṣubḥu), and to a horse or donkey whose whinnying or braying is clear (ʔafṣaḥa ’l-farasu wa’l-baʕāru). Linguistically, faṣuḥa wa-ʔafṣaḥa ’l-raǧulu refers to an enunciation both pure and clear. This seems to be the best match for classical texts, with the notion of ‘correctness’ added. It is also the meaning retained by Blachère (1952: I,119) when he translates the expression fuṣaḥāʔ al-ʕArab as ‘the Arabs with pure and correct speaking’. According to al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505), the linguistic usage is a metaphor derived from the concrete meaning of the word. In ClassAr, it implies at the same time correctness of language and its aesthetic quality« – art. »faṣāḥa« (Georgine Ayoub), in EALL.
▪ According to Ehret1989, the root is derived from a bi-consonantal *PṢ ‘to take out’ through extension in iterative *-ḥ.

hist

▪ Hava1899 still lists some values of FṢḤ that seem to have become obsolete during C20. Particularly interesting is the differentiation between two G-stems, namely I ^†faṣaḥa, a (faṣḥ), ‘to appear in all its splendour (dawn)’, and II ^†faṣuḥa, u (faṣāḥaẗ), ‘to be pure, without froth (milk); to use good, clear language; to be eloquent’ (cf. also ^†faṣḥ and faṣīḥ, adj., ‘pure, without froth (milk); chaste in speech, eloquent’; ^†tafaṣṣaḥa, vb. V, ‘to speak clearly, eloquently’; ^†tafāṣaḥa fī kalāmi-hī, vb. VI, expr., ‘he made a show of eloquence’). All notions—that of purity of milk, clarity of language, and appearing brightly at dawn—converge in vb. IV, ʔafṣaḥa, which today is used mostly in the meaning ‘to express o.s. in flawless literary Arabic; to speak clearly, distinctly, intelligibly; to express, state clearly, declare outright, speak openly, frankly’, but in Hava1899 still also is listed with the meanings ‘to appear (dawn)’ and ‘to be pure, without froth (milk); to yield pure milk’.

cogn

▪ Zammit2002, CAD: Akk peṣû (paṣiu, paṣû) ‘white, pale, bleached; cleared, emptied (of vegetation, obstructions, etc., said of plots of land)’, peṣû (paṣû) ‘to become white, to pale’, Aram pᵉṣaḥ ‘to sparkle, be bright’, Syr pᵉṣaḥ ‘to rejoice’, (af.) ‘to make bright, serene, [Goschen-Gottstein1970:] glad, happy, (eṯp.) to be happy’, Ar ʔafṣaḥᵘ ‘more eloquent’ (ḫulūṣ fī šayʔ wa-naqāʔ min al-šawb).

disc

▪ Denominative from ^†fiṣḥ ‘milk divested of the froth’ (Lane, following ClassAr authors)? The meaning referring to speech seems to be secondary, as ClassAr authors already suggested – Lane VI (1877). The Sem (Akk, Aram) evidence, however, would rather point to a primary meaning of ‘to be white, pale, clear, bright, dazzling’, the only direct reflex of which in MSA is the PA IV, mufṣiḥ, in the meaning ‘cloudless, sunny, bright (day)’.
▪ Ar ↗fiṣḥ ‘Easter; Passover’ does not seem to be etymologically related, neither to ^†faṣaḥa, a (faṣḥ), ‘to appear in all its splendour (dawn)’, nor to faṣuḥa, u (faṣāḥaẗ), ‘to be pure, without froth (milk); to use good, clear language; to be eloquent’. Any interpretation of fiṣḥ as *‘feast of purity’ is secondary, resulting from the merging of Aram PṢḤ / Ar FṢḤ (from Hbr PSḤ) with an earlier Aram PṢḤ / Ar FṢḤ (from Sem *PṢḤ), due to regressive assimilation after borrowing from Hbr.
▪ According to Ehret1989:177, the root is an extension in iterative *-ḥ from a biconsonantal *PṢ ‘to take out’, originally meaning ‘to break forth and shine in full splendor’. Other derivations from the same *PṢ : faṣṣ ‘to separate, detach, pull out from’ (↗faṣṣ), (iterative) ^†faṣfaṣ ‘to separate, disperse’, (durative) faṣd ‘to bleed’ (↗faṣada), (sunderative) ^†faṣʕ ‘to press the fresh date to make it come out of the shell, so take or scrape off the shell of an almond, put off the turban’, (finitive) faṣl ‘to cut off and separate one thing from another, detach, distinguish between’ (↗faṣala), (fortative) faṣm ‘to cut, break’ (↗faṣama), (inchoative > tr.) faṣy ‘to separate, loosen, dismiss, set free’ (↗tafaṣṣà).

west

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deriv

► faṣṣaḥa, vb. II, to bring (the language) into literary form, make (the language) correct Arabic, purify (the language): D-stem, caus., denom. from faṣīḥ, faṣāḥaẗ, etc.
► ʔafṣaḥa, vb. IV, 1 to express o.s. in flawless literary Arabic; 2 to speak clearly, distinctly, intelligibly; 3 to give expression (ʕan to), express, state clearly, declare outright, make plain, speak openly, frankly (ʕan about); 4 to orient, inform (li‑ s.o. ʕan about); 5 to become clear, plain, distinct: denom., from faṣīḥ, faṣāḥaẗ, etc. — 6 ↗fiṣḥ.
► tafaṣṣaḥa, vb. V, to affect eloquence, affect mastery of the language: tD-stem.
► tafāṣaḥa, vb. VI, = V.

► faṣīḥ pl. fuṣaḥāʔᵘ, fiṣāḥ, fuṣuḥ, adj., 1 pure, good Arabic (language), literary; 2 skillful in using the correct literary language; 3 clear, plain, distinct, intelligible (language, speech); 4 fluent, eloquent: quasi-PP, adj. formation.
► faṣāḥaẗ, n.f., 1 purity of the language; 2 fluency, eloquence: vn. I.
► ʔafṣaḥᵘ, f. fuṣḥà, adj., 1 of purer language; 2 more eloquent: elat. | (al-ʕarabiyyaẗ, al-luġaẗ) al-fuṣḥà, adj./n. f., classical Arabic.
► ʔifṣāḥ, n., 1 flawless literary Arabic style; 2 frank statement, open word (ʕan about), open declaration: vn. IV.
► mufṣiḥ, adj., 1 clear, plain, distinct, intelligible; 2 cloudless, sunny, bright (day): PA IV; [v2] shows the closest affinity to what may be the etymon proper, namely ^†faṣaḥa, a (faṣḥ), ‘to appear in all its splendour (dawn)’.

► fiṣḥ, faṣḥ n., pl. fuṣūḥ, 1 Easter (Chr.); 2 Pesach, Passover (Jud.): interpreted by some as belonging together with faṣuḥa; but this is probably wrong, cf. ↗fiṣḥ, incl. deriv. ʔafṣaḥa, vb. IV, 1 to celebrate Easter (Chr.); 2 to celebrate Passover (Jud.).

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