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’. This entry treats only the notion of dim-sightedness and what is derived directly from it. For the broader picture cf. ↗ʕišāʔ , the item 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).
▪ In some of its derivations, ‘dim-sightedness’ gave also the extended value of ‘to act blindly, overlook, veer away from’, hence also figurative use in the sense of ‘(to act) at random, haphazardly’, and from here the modern expression for ‘informal settlements, slum’ has been coined.

hist

▪ eC7 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

See ↗ʕŠW/Y and ↗ʕišāʔ.

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 For another value see ↗ʕišāʔ and/or ↗ʕašāʔ.
► ʔaʕšà, vb. IV, to make dim-sighted: caus. of vb. I.
► ʕašwaẗ, n.f., 1 darkness, dark, gloom: could also have served as main entry. – 2 For another value see ↗ʕišāʔ and/or ↗ʕašāʔ. – ^†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.
► ʔaʕšà, f. ʕašwāʔᵘ, adj., 1 dim-sighted; night-blind, nyctalopic; 2 blind, aimless, haphazard, desultory, senseless: ʔafʕalᵘ formation (for physical handicaps); [v2] is fig. use. | 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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