صف

Arabic

Etymology 1

Of the root ص ف ف (ṣ-f-f). Potentially an Aramaic borrowing, doublet of ضَفَّ (ḍaffa, “to push, to throng, to jam, to collect together”), the cognate of which is attested in the passive participle as Jewish Babylonian Aramaic צְפִיפ (ṣəp̄īp̄, “crowded, pushed into”), while the noun is also found as Jewish Babylonian Aramaic צַפָּא (ṣappā, “row”), a relative of which would be Jewish Palestinian Aramaic צפד (ṣfd, “to weave”), as this meaning is present in Arabic in an extended root Arabic ضَفَرَ (ḍafara, “to weave, to plait”), though the example of عَصًا (ʕaṣan) shows that rarely Proto-Semitic *ṣ́ inherited as Arabic ص (ṣ) is possible. Compare the suspicious term صَفَد (ṣafad, “fetter, shackle”), as well as رَفّ (raff, “shelf, a part of furniture where one rows things into”), and صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “bench”) is also a borrowing and possibly related to the root.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sˤaff/

Noun

صَفّ • (ṣaff) m (plural صُفُوف (ṣufūf))

1. row, line (sequence of people or objects)
2. battle order (arrangement of soldiers in battle)
3. setting in type
4. year, grade, form
5. class

Declension

Descendants

• → Azerbaijani: səff
• → Persian: صف
  • → Dhivehi: ސަފު (safu)
• → Ottoman Turkish: صف
  • → Turkish: saf
• → Swahili: safu
• → Uzbek: saf

Verb

صَفَّ • (ṣaffa) I, non-past يَصُفُّ‎ (yaṣuffu)

1. to line up, align
2. to compose, classify
3. to park (a car)

Conjugation

Etymology 2

Verb

صِفْ • (ṣif) (form I)

1. second-person masculine singular active imperative of وَصَفَ (waṣafa)

References

• “ṣpp²”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• “ṣpd”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• “ṣp²”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• Steingass, Francis Joseph (1884) “صف”, in The Student's Arabic–English Dictionary‎, London: W.H. Allen
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “صف”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 603

South Levantine Arabic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sˤaff/,

• Audio (al-Lidd)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Arabic صَفَّ (ṣaffa).

Verb

صفّ • (ṣaff) I (present بصفّ (biṣoff))

1. to get in line
2. to park (a vehicle)

   Synonym: ركن (rakan)

Conjugation

Etymology 2

From Arabic صَفّ (ṣaff).

Noun

صفّ • (ṣaff) m (plural صفوف (ṣfūf))

1. line, rank
2. class