إصبع

From Proto-Semitic *ʔiṣbaʕ-. Akin to Hebrew אצבע, Aramaic אֶצְבְּעָא (ʾeṣbəʿā), Classical Syriac ܨܒܥܐ (ṣeḇʿā), Tigrinya ኣጻብዕ (ʾaṣabʿ), Coptic ⲧⲏⲃ (tēb), Ugaritic 𐎜𐎕𐎁𐎓 (ủṣbʿ), Egyptian ḏbꜥ.

• IPA^(key): /ʔisˤ.baʕ/

• Audio:

  (file)

إِصْبَع • (ʔiṣbaʕ) f or m (plural أَصَابِع (ʔaṣābiʕ))

1. finger, toe
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 2:19:

     أَوْ كَصَيِّبٍ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فِيهِ ظُلُمَاتٌ وَرَعْدٌ وَبَرْقٌ يَجْعَلُونَ أَصَابِعَهُمْ فِي آذَانِهِم مِنَ الصَّوَاعِقِ حَذَرَ الْمَوْتِ

     ʔaw kaṣayyibin mina s-samāʔi fīhi ẓulumātun waraʕdun wabarqun yajʕalūna ʔaṣābiʕahum fī ʔāḏānihim mina ṣ-ṣawāʕiqi ḥaḏara l-mawti

     Or like a rainstorm from the sky, wherein is darkness, thunder and the flash of lightning. They thrust their fingers in their ears by reason of the thunder-claps, for fear of death.

   • 2018, وَجْدِيّ الْأَهْدَل, أرض المؤامرات السعيدة, Bayrūt: Nawfal / Hachette Antoine, →ISBN, page 47:

     كان هناك ولد صغير يتكلّم ويحاول أن يشبّ على أصابعه لينظر من النافذة.

     There was a small boy talking and trying to rear on his toes to look through the window.

2. piano key
3. popsicle
4. lollipop

Generally feminine.

• صَبَعَ (ṣabaʕa, “to point with the finger”)
• صَبَّعَ (ṣabbaʕa, “to finger”)
• صَبِيع (ṣabīʕ, “carbuncle”)
• تَصَبَّعَ (taṣabbaʕa, “to digitate, to form finger-like structures or carbuncles”)

• Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne (1881) “صبع”, in Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes‎ (in French), volume 1, Leiden: E. J. Brill, pages 815–816
• Kogan, Leonid (2011) “Proto-Semitic Lexicon”, in Weninger, Stefan, editor, The Semitic Languages. An International Handbook (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft – Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science; 36), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 224
• Lane, Edward William (1863) “صبع”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, pages 1646–1647
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “صبع”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 586