שָׂפָהsaphah
Sign in to saveAncient Hebrew
Root
Rusapa (stem -sapa)
flap, loose fold, the drooping edge of skin or hide
Hebrew safa descends from Shona sapa, the drooping fold or edge
- Confidence
- 44/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- שָׂפָה (śāpâ)Hebrew
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative Semitics derives שָׂפָה from Proto-Semitic *šapt- "lip, rim", with cognates in Akkadian šaptu, Arabic šafah and Ugaritic špt, and a disputed Egyptian and Proto-Afroasiatic comparison below that. No relationship to Shona or any Bantu language is recognised.
The working behind this.
The full descent — 6 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.
An account opens 10 entries in full, free.
Elsewhere in the corpus
- בראbara (kubara)to beget, to bring forth, to give birth; in Karanga and Ndau craft use also to pare or hollow out
- Edenhudendeabundance, plenty, superfluity; from -dende, gourd or large calabash
- Nekevahnengovenotch, grooved cut; one bearing a notched or bored thing (variant nhengove)
- ZakhárZikirato know thoroughly, to recognise, to be acquainted with, to hold in mind (applicative of -zika / -ziva, to know)
- Pesachpesato pass, to pass by, to go past, to swerve aside; kupesana, to pass one another without meeting
- Megiddogudurato knock off, to break off, to dislodge a piece