From: tgpedersen
Message: 53670
Date: 2008-02-18
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Part of a series of investigations reexamining aspects of the
> relationship between IE and Semitic, by considering in detail
> derivations of areas where inferences were made about words which
> were common to the homeland of the Indo-European-speaking people
> before the period of migrations took them to the different
> localities.
>
> Best viewed (including the various dictionary entries) by clicking
> the following URL:
> or copying and pasting the URL in your browser.
>
> http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/SAB.html
>
>
>Møller: Vergleichendes indogermanisch-semitisches Wörterbuch:
> THE CASE OF "SAP" (PIE FROM BASE *SAB- ) & CLASSICAL ARABIC "SAB"
>
>
>
> In this segment the focus is on the term "sap", a generic word which
> means: "The watery fluid that circulates through a plant, carrying
> food and other substances to the various tissues. A watery solution
> of sugars, salts, and minerals that circulates through the vascular
> system of a plant. The fluid contents of a plant cell vacuole."
>
> IE etymologists have conjectured a connection with Latin sapere to
> taste, sapor.
>
>
> SAP (n.1) "liquid in a plant," O.E. sæp c. 900 AD., from P.Gmc.
> *sapom (cf. M.L.G., M.Du., Du. sap, O.H.G. saf, Ger. Saft "juice"
> Fr.: sève , Norw.: sevje, Port.: seiva, Sp.: saba, Sw.: sav,
> Icel.: safi , from PIE *sapon- (cf. L. sapere "to taste"), from
> base *sab- "juice, fluid" (cf. Sanskrit: SABAR (milk , nectar, only
> in comp. and prob. connected with Germ. {saf} , {Saft} Angl.Sax.
> {soep} ; Eng. {sap} ; perhaps also with Lat. {sapio} , {sapor}).
>
>
> While French dictionaries like "Centre National de Ressources
> Textualles et Lexicales" quoting Pliny have explicitly stated that
> the term "sap" is from the Latin sapa ( Du lat. class. sapa « vin
> cuit (jusqu'à réduction de la moitié, selon Varron, ou des deux
> tiers, selon Pline) »; devait signifier propr. « suc, sève ».)
>
> In this respect, the classical sources describes sapa as new wine
> boiled down to a proportion of its original volume" (vin cuit).
> However, the Latin term refers to the defrutum, a reduction of must
> used by cooks and others in ancient Rome. It was made by boiling
> down grape juice or must (freshly squeezed grapes) in large kettles
> until it had been reduced by at least half, which then was used to
> provide the necessary sugar for the fermentation of weaker wines or
> to make others sweeter still. The sweetest defrutum was further
> boiled down into an even stronger concentrate called sapa.
>
> This explanation hardly translates to "sap" (the watery fluid that
> circulates through a plant). The OED concurs with the objection to
> this suggestion:
>
> "the hypothesis that the W. Ger. word was adopted from Latin sapa is
> improbable in view of its relation to the Scandinavian synonym;
> besides , the assumed development of meaning in popular Latin ( of
> which the Rom. words afford the only evidence) appears unlikely
> unless as a result of extraneous influence)"
>
> In my opinion, it would not be a surprise that the Latin sapa was a
> loan word from the Ancient Egyptian "sf" which also means to boil,
> to cook, macerate i.e. in short a term describing the same process
> of the reduction of must used by cooks in ancient Rome.
>
> Instead of the Latin sapa, a more suitable cognate term for "sap"
> would be the following examples in Sanskrit which have never been
> advanced:
>
> SAVA: pressing out the juice of the Soma plant pouring it out, the
> juice or honey of flowers savalat : the plant yielding Soma-juice.
> savana: 1 n. ) the act of pressing out the Soma-juice (performed
> at the three periods of the day) the pressed out Soma-juice and its
> libation, a Soma festival, any oblation or sacrificial rite.
>
> Moreover, the Skrt. SAVA would appear to be compatible with Old
> French: SÈVE, subst. fém.: Étymol. et Hist. 1. 1er quart xiiie s.
> [ms.] « suc nourricier des plantes » , O.E séaw sap, juice,
> moisture, humor. and Sw: sav. sap.
>
> Finally, it would be instructive to find out that the term "sap" is
> not exclusively an IE word since it is equally found in Classical
> Arabic, where sab (sad+'Alif+ba') refers to the expressed juice
> (sap) of a kind of a bitter tree and/or the sap of the Sabir (the
> much coveted aloe plant, which is native of the Socotra island).
> Compare with PIE from base *sab-
>
> The base meaning of the root of the Arabic sab is pouring out, forth
> or down. (1) Hence, in addition to sap, it refers to what was poured
> forth, of sweat, and of blood. The expressed juice of dragon's blood
> mentioned in the Eldest Lady's tale of the Arabian nights (2). The
> sap of the leaves of sesame or some other plant. Finally a certain
> red dye which is a match for the term sapo, a red dye (3).
>
> The first occurrence of the word "sap" is found in OE. in Cynewulf
> Crist c. 900 A.D.
>
> As for the Sanskrit "sabar", the word is found in Ancient Egyptian.
> The well-known oldest description of aloe "Sabar " is found in the
> Egyptian papyrus of Ebers in 1,500 BC. The papyrus detailed more
> than 12 remedies with "Sabar". These Egyptian documents declare that
> the curative values of the Sabar were known many centuries ago
> extensively. In fact the AE Sabar (aloe) is said to relieve
> headaches, soothes chest pains, burns, ulcers and for skin disease
> and allergies. While the Assyrian Herbal prescribes "sibaru" for
> the stomach and difficult breathing .
>
>
> See JPEG of the entry of the Ancient Egyptian word.
>
> http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/SAB.html
>
> The Egyptian queens, and the well known beauties Nefertiti and
> Cleopatra, used it as part of their regular beauty regimes.
>
> History tells that Aristotle advised Alexander (356-323 BC) before
> initiating the Eastern campaign, to conquer the island of Socotra to
> provide itself with Aloe with which to cure the wounds of its troops
> in combat.
>
> In century I AD, the Greek physician Dioscórides, while accompanying
> Nero´s army, extensively described Aloe's medicinal and cosmetic
> uses and its qualities. In Chapter 23 of his book III, it makes
> reference to the aloe and defines the main characteristics.
>
> The Arabs, enthusiastic propagators of the medicinal use of the
> Sabbar /sabir (aloe) and great consumers of it, took it to their
> campaigns in Europe in early medieval times where they grew it on
> extensive plantations in Malaga, Andalusia and Sicily. Today Sabar
> or aloes are frequently planted in Muslim cemeteries (4) . In
> Hebrew, the word Sabra is a slang term used to describe a
> native-born Israeli Jew. (5)
>
>
> CONCLUSION:
>
> History teaches us that past civilizations emerged separately. At
> times, through interaction, these civilizations converged,
> effectively leading to an amalgamation forming a new hybrid
> civilization, and then eventually diverged again. This process,
> which is continuing in a perpetual sequence of convergence and
> divergence, is reflected in languages. Case in point is the
> recurrent similarities of the term "sap" and its derivatives in
> different languages. These similarities not only attest to the
> antiquity of the term, but also points to its wide distribution
> across IE and AA (including Semitic) languages. The only
> dissimilarity is how linguists of each language group view it as its
> own proto word.
>
>
>
> Ishinan
> February 17th , 2008
>
>
>
> =-------------------------------------------------------=
> FOOTNOTES:
>
> (1) & (2) see below:
>
> http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/SAB.html
>
> (3) saponem, acc. de sapo, saponis, saponarius « mélange de suif et
> de cendre utilisé par les Gaulois pour rougir les cheveux » (cf.
> Pline, Naturalis historia, 28, 191 ds OLD). see JEPG attached
>
> http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/SAB.html
>
>
> (4) "un cimetière arabe offre l'aspect presque riant de ses tombes
> blanches; entre elles, quantité d'une sorte de petits aloès que je
> ne connaissais pas encore, chacun dresse une ou plusieurs hampes de
> fines fleurs tubulaires jaune pâle, qui semblent des hampes de
> tritomes. A. Gide, Carnets d'Égypte, 1939, p. 1075."
>
>
> (5) The word is derived from the Hebrew word tzabar (cf. Arabic
> Sabbar), the name of the "prickly pear" cactus allusion is to a
> tenacious, thorny desert plant.
>