PC

*ˁīr- - city, town (Kogan 2015: 285)

basic term in Hbr, marginal in Pho and Ugr The only possible cognates are Sab. ˁr (pl. ˀˁrr) ‘mountain; citadel, hill-town’, Qat. ˁr ‘hill fortress, citadeľ. Comparison between Hbr. ˁīr and Tgr. ˁerä ‘to come home, to turn in, to come’ suggested in WTS 480 is rather far-fetched. For a critical assessment of the possible relationship between Hbr. ˁīr and Sumerian uru v. Sommerfeld 2006:52‒53

Ugaritic
ˁr - city (DUL 178)
Phoenician
ˁr - town (DNWSI 883)
Hebrew
ˁīr - city, town (HALOT 821)
geminated root presumably underlies the plural form ˁārīm (cf. the Samaritan pronunciation ˁarrəm, Ben-Ḥayyim 2000:248)