The only immediate cognate of PArm. *šūr- ‘walľ is Arb. sūr- with the same meaning (Lane 1464). The Arabic term has often been considered an Aramaism (Fraenkel 1886:237‒238), which becomes less evident in view of Sab. ms₁wrt (pl.) ‘wall,’ h-s₁r ‘to build a walľ (SD 129), Qat. s₁wr ‘to build a wall around’ (LIQ 159) and Tgr. sor ‘wall, partition walľ (WTS 193, unless an Arabism). Hbr. šūr, although probably autochthonous in such passages as Ps 18:30 = 2S 22:30 and Gn 49:22, is a rare poetic synonym of the standard Hebrew terms for wall, such as ḳīr, ḥōmā and gādēr (Wagner 1966:112). No fully persuasive verbal origin for *šūr- is at hand, but an ultimate connection with Gez. sawwara ‘to hide, conceal, shield, screen, protect’ (CDG 520, with cognates in
other ES) and Mhr. sər ‘to cover’ (ML 351), Jib. serr id. (JL 231) cannot be excluded (cf. Marrassini 1971:76‒79).