وسق

Arabic

Etymology

Akin to Classical Syriac ܘܰܣܩܳܐ (wasqā, “burden; captive, servant”) which shows by its onset that it is a borrowed term, since inherited /w/ in the beginning becomes /j/ in Northwest Semitic. Probably to be put to Old South Arabian 𐩥𐩯𐩤 (ws³q, “to fill”) (present: 𐩺𐩯𐩤 (ys³q)), with the derivative 𐩯𐩤𐩩 (s³qt, “pregnancy”), compare Arabic وَاسِق (wāsiq, “bearing a child (camel)”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wasq/

Noun

وَسْق • (wasq) m (plural وُسُوق (wusūq) or أَوْسَاق (ʔawsāq))

1. a measure of capacity, about a camel’s load
   • a. 660, Labīd, poetized the following two verses according to Yāqūt al-Ḥamawīy (a. 1229) Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, editor, كتاب معجم البلدان ‎ (in Arabic), volume 2, Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, published 1867, pages 266 lines 5–6:

     ويومَ أجازَتْ قُلّةَ الحَزْن منهُمُ … مواكبُ، تعلو ذَا حُسًا، وقنابلُ
     على الصَّرْصَرانيّات، في كل رحلة، … وُسُوقٌ عِدَالٌ، ليس فيهن مائِلُ

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. freight, stowage
3. verbal noun of وَسَقَ (wasaqa) (form I)

Declension

Derived terms

• وَسَقَ (wasaqa, “to load”)
• وَاسِق (wāsiq, “pregnant (camel)”)
• وَاسِقَ (wāsiqa, “to seek to measure oneself with”)
• أَوْسَقَ (ʔawsaqa, “to load”)
• اِتَّسَقَ (ittasaqa, “to be in line with, to be of the right measure for”)
• وَسِيقَة (wasīqa, “group of camels”)
• اِسْتَوْسَقَ (istawsaqa, “to be congregated into one place”)

Verb

وَسَقَ • (wasaqa) I, non-past يَسِقُ‎ (yasiqu)

1. to load, to freight
2. to fill, to overgrow, to envelop
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 84:16-18:

     أُقْسِمُ بِالشَّفَقِ وَاللَّيْلِ وَمَا وَسَقَ وَالْقَمَرِ إِذَا ٱتَّسَقَ

     ʔuqsimu bi-š-šafaqi wa-l-layli wa-mā wasaqa wa-l-qamari ʔiḏā ttasaqa

     I swear by the twilight, and by the night and what it encloses, and by the moon when it becomes full.

Conjugation

References

• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 203
• Freytag, Georg (1837) “وسق”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 4, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, pages 465–466
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “وسق”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎ (in French), volume 2, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, pages 1536–1537
• Sauvaire, Henri (1886) “Matériaux pour servir à l’histoire de la numismatique et de la mythologie musulmanes”, in Journal asiatique (in French), published Part I in 1879 Autumn 455, Part II 1884 Spring 368, Part II continuation 1884 in Autumn 207, Part II end in 1885 Spring 498, Part III in 1886 Spring 124, Part III continuation in 1886 Spring 394, Part III other continuation 1886 Autumn 272, Part IV 1886 Autumn 479, page 273 seqq. of part three other continuation