رصاص

Arabic

Etymology

From رَصَّ (raṣṣa, “to stick firmly, to join compactly, to make even or level, to file, to pile, to close”). Apparently extended its meaning in a semantic loan from Parthian *arčīč cognate to Middle Armenian արճիճ (arčič, “lead”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ra.sˤaːsˤ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

رَصَاص • (raṣāṣ) m (collective, singulative رَصَاصَة f (raṣāṣa))

1. lead

   Synonyms: رَصَاص أَسْوَد (raṣāṣ ʔaswad), أُسْرُب (ʔusrub), آنُك (ʔānuk), أَبَار (ʔabār)

2. (obsolete) tin

   Synonyms: رَصَاص أَبْيَض (raṣāṣ ʔabyaḍ), رَصَاص قَلَعِيّ (raṣāṣ qalaʕiyy), قَصْدِير (qaṣdīr)

   • a. 1283, Abū Yahyā Zakariyāʾ ibn Muhammad al-Qazwīnīy, edited by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات ‎, Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, published 1849, page 208:

     الأسرب يتولد كالرصاص وهو صنف ردئٌ منه

     Lead comes about like tin but is a worse kind thereof.

3. bullets, shots, dots

   Synonyms: گُلَل (gulal), بُنْدُق (bunduq)

4. (obsolete) stones heaped together to surround a grave or well

   Alternative form: رَصْرَاص (raṣrāṣ)

Declension

Descendants

• → Acholi: ràcáàc
• → Alur: risasi
• → Middle Armenian: ռիսաս (ṙisas)
• → Bari: rasas
• → Bende: iisaáse
• → Dinka: rasas
• → Lingala: masási
• → Lotuko: arryas
• → Luba-Katanga: disashi
• → Luo: racac
• → Matengo: lisâsi
• → Rukiga: rusasi
• → Rwanda-Rundi: isâsu
• → Sango: lichasi
• → Swahili: risasi
  • → Digo: risasi
  • → Jita: ri-saási
  • → Kikuyu: rĩthathi
  • → Luganda: `ssasì
  • → Nyakyusa: ilísasí
  • → Nyankole: iːsási, amasási, kisási
• → Zande: lisasi

References

• Asbaghi, Asya (1988) Persische Lehnwörter im Arabischen‎ (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN, page 136
• Baldi, Sergio (2020 November 30) Dictionary of Arabic Loanwords in the Languages of Central and East Africa (Handbuch der Orientalistik; Erste Abteilung: Der Nahe und der Mittlere Osten; 145), Leiden • Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 121–122 Nr. 1083
• Corriente, F. (1997) A Dictionary of Andalusi Arabic (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East; 29)‎, Leiden, New York, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 209b
• Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017), Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 537
• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 152
• Freytag, Georg (1833) “رصاص”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 2, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 154a
• Lane, Edward William (1863) “رصاص”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, page 1092
• Siddiqi, Abdussattar (1919) Studien über die Persischen Fremdwörter im klassischen Arabisch (in German), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pages 38–39
• Steingass, Francis Joseph (1884) “رصاص”, in The Student's Arabic–English Dictionary‎, London: W.H. Allen, page 416
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “رصاص”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 396

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic رَصَاص (raṣāṣ).

Noun

رصاص • (rṣāṣ) m (collective, singulative رصاصة f (rṣāṣe), paucal رصاصات (rṣāṣāt))

1. (uncountable) lead
2. (uncountable) bullets