Reconstructions Search

Akk pīštu - ‘insult’ -- could be related

etymology is uncertain, derivation from PS *wrṯ ‘to inherit, to possess’ tentatively accepted in both HALOT and DUL is semantically weak.

may be related to Arb. sibb- ‘turban,’ sabab- ‘cord, rope,’ sabīb- ‘a lock of hair’, Tgr. šäbašäbä ‘to put in folds (garment)’, Tna. säbsäbä ‘to tuck up, to roll up’, Amh. šäbäššäbä ‘to wrinkle, to pleat’, although Akk. šibbu ‘belt, girdle’ compared in CDG 483 makes this identification problematic (Akk. š does not regularly correspond to Hbr. s). Sab. s₃bb ‘to surround an enemy’ would provide a more direct cognate, but the meaning of this military term is rather obscure. Whether Gez. ˀasbāb ‘guards, sentinels’ goes back to this root is, contra CDG 483 and LLA 359, completely uncertain (hapax legomenon in Ja 631:32‒34) is quite obscure (Kogan 2015: 304-305)

Contra HALOT 765‒766 is to be strictly separated from the widely attested lexemes with the prototypes *sipr- ‘writing, inscription, document’ and *sāpir- ‘scribe,’ which are not autochthonous West Semititc, but ultimately go back to Akk. šipru and šāpiru. Likely related to Gez. safara ‘to measure’ and its cognates throughout EthS (note especially Amh. säffärä ‘to measure, to count’.

Comparison with Arb. šnṣ ‘to be attached to something’ suggested in Yahuda 1903:711 is semantically attractive, but implies two phonological irregularities - but compare Arm forms for -ṣ

The origin is uncertain