A Comparative Lexical Study of Qur?anic Arabic

534 CHAPTER FOUR
xxxiv. Arab, sarib — 13: 10 ". . .whether he lie hid by night or
walk forth Freely by day.": Ge. 'asrab: Ge. has restricted the use
of this root to waters, floods, etc. against a wider distribution in
Arab. However, the lack of more lexical attestations from other areas
of Semitic precludes making any claim about which area retained
the primary meaning.
xxxv. Arab, saraqa (cf. also Ge., ESA, Akk.) - 12: 77 ". . . If he
steals, there was a brother of his who did steal before (him). . . .":
NWS: The cognates in Syr., Aram., and Heb. lost the negative sense
of 'stealing' attested in Arab and in the peripheral SS and ES areas. 30
xxxvi. Arab, saqata (cf. also ESA, Akk.) 9: 49 "Have they not
fallen into trial already?": ESA, Aram., Heb.: The various attestations
point towards the following semantic development: 'to fall' >
'to arrive' 51 > 'to settle' > 'to be at ease, quiet, and undisturbed'.
xxxvii. Arab, salafa - 4: 22 "And marry not women whom your
fathers married,—except what is past: it was shameful. . . .": Ge.
salafa: Here the word is restricted to '(battle-)fronts'. In ESA, the
unconfirmed sense refers to an architectural 'front'.
xxxviii. Arab, sayyid (cf. also ESA, Ug.) — 3: 39 ". . . of a Word
from Allah, and (be besides) noble, chaste, and a Prophet. . . ."; 12:
25 ". . . they both found her lord near the door.": Syr., Heb.: The
attestations in SS, Arab., and Ug. suggest that NWS shifted towards
an emphasis on the 'spoken word'.
xxxix. Arab, suhh - 4: 128 ". . . even though men's souls are swayed
by greed.": Syr. sahiha: The meaning in Syr. can be compared to
Arab. 3 ibil sihdh 'camels that yield little milk'. 52
xl. Arab. 3 asrdt (cf. also Syr., Aram., Heb.) - 47: 18 "Do they then
only wait for the Hour, - that it should come on them of a sudden?
But already have come some tokens thereof. . . .": Akk. sardtu.
The primary sense of 'scratching' and 'incising' attested in Arab. 03
and NWS is restricted to 'tearing, ripping up' in Akk.
50
See Brockelmann 1908: 526 and 1928: 501 regarding his argument that saraqa
< safal/safal of RYQ 'to be empty'.
51
Lane 1380.
52
Lane 1511.
53
Lane 1532.