بعر

From بَعِير (baʕīr, “camel”), or compare جَعْر (jaʕr, “dung”), جَعَرَ (jaʕara, “to void one’s dung”). The only parallel form in Semitic is Classical Syriac ܒܥܘܿܪܴܐ (bəʿōrā, “dried dung”), while the animal term is widely attested in Semitic, so unlikely the reverse happened that from the name of dung came the animal name – as Hommel suggested –, which is also comparatively a generally less likely direction.

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ba.ʕa.ra/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /baʕr/

بَعَرَ • (baʕara) I (non-past يَبْعَرُ (yabʕaru), verbal noun بَعْر (baʕr))

1. to void dung, to evacuate, to throw out ordure (said of a cloven-hoofed beast)

بَعْر • (baʕr) m (collective, singulative بَعْرَة f (baʕra), plural أَبْعَار (ʔabʕār))

1. dung, ordure (of a cloven-hoofed beast)
   • 7th century CE, Sunan Abī Dāwud, 1:38:

     نَهَانَا رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَنْ نَتَمَسَّحَ بِعَظْمٍ أَوْ بَعْرٍ.

     nahānā rasūli l-lahi ṣallā llāhu ʕalayhi wasallama ʔan natamassaḥa biʕaẓmin ʔaw baʕrin.

     The Prophet (PBUH) forbade us to wipe ourselves with bone or dung.

   • 7th century CE, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Buḵāriyy, 68:81:

     وَقَدْ كَانَتْ إِحْدَاكُنَّ فِي الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ تَرْمِي بِالْبَعَرَةِ عَلَى رَأْسِ الْحَوْلِ.

     waqad kānat ʔiḥdākunna fī l-jāhiliyyati tarmī bi-l-baʕarati ʕalā raʔsi l-ḥawli.

     In the pre-Islamic time one of your kind (a widow) used to cast a globe of dung when a year has elapsed.

   • 7th century CE, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, -1:87:

     فَلَمَّا رَأَيْتُهُ كَانَتْ بَعْرَةٌ أَحَبَّ إِلَىَّ مِنْهُ

     falammā raʔaytuhu kānat baʕratun ʔaḥabba ʔilāāa minhu

     When I saw him a globe of dung would have been more preferred to me than him.

   • 1951 August 20, Šākir Maḥmūd, “السرقين والسماد في الزراعة قديما”, in مجلة الرسالة:

     راجعنا مقالاتهم في أنواع السرقين والمفاضلة بين ذرق الحمام وأرواث الخيل والبغال والحمير، وأخثاء البقر والجواميس وأبعار الغنم والضأن والماعز، […]

     We have reviewed their articles on the types of manure and the differences between pigeon droppings, dung of horses and mules and asses, and sharn of cows and buffalos and sheep and goats,

• Thesaurus – Arabic terms for “feces, excrement, dung, ordure, manure”

• “bˁwr³”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• “bˁwrh”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• Hommel, Fritz (1879) Die Namen der Säugethiere bei den südsemitischen Völkern als Beiträge zur arabischen und äthiopischen Lexicographie, zur semitischen Kulturforschung und Sprachvergleichung und zur Geschichte der Mittelmeerfauna. Mit steter Berücksichtigung auch der assyrischen und hebräischen Thiernamen und geographischen und literaturgeschichtlichen Excursen‎ (in German), Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, pages 143–144
• Militarev, Alexander, Kogan, Leonid (2000–2005) Semitic Etymological Dictionary, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, pages 73–75