رصاص

According to Arabic lexicographic tradition, derived from رَصَّ (raṣṣa, “to stick firmly, to join compactly, to make even or level, to file, to pile, to close”), “due to the interjoining of its parts”, but the metal meaning has been identified by Scher with Persian ارزیز (arzīz, “tin”), which for formal reasons and chronology would have to be specified as a semantic loan from Parthian *arčīč, cognate to Middle Armenian արճիճ (arčič, “lead”), though Fraenkel contended that “to stick firmly” could have led to the metal meaning via the meaning “to solder”.

• IPA^(key): /ra.sˤaːsˤ/

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

1. lead

   Alternative form: رَزَاز (razāz)

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

2. (obsolete) tin

   Alternative form: رَزَاز (razāz)

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

   • 7th century CE, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 15:523:

     وَلَا يُرِيدُ أَحَدٌ أَهْلَ الْمَدِينَةِ بِسُوءٍ إِلَّا أَذَابَهُ اللَّهُ فِي النَّارِ ذَوْبَ الرَّصَاصِ أَوْ ذَوْبَ الْمِلْحِ فِي الْمَاءِ

     walā yurīdu ʔaḥadun ʔahla l-madīnati bisūʔin ʔillā ʔaḏāba-hū l-lahu fī n-nāri ḏawba ar-raṣāṣi ʔaw ḏawba l-milḥi fī l-māʔi

     None should nurse ill-will towards the people of Medina, or God will melt him in fire like tin or like salt is in water.

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

     اَلْأُسْرُبُ يَتَوَلَّدُ كَٱلرَّصَاصُ وَهُوَ صِنْفٌ رَدِئٌ مِنْهُ

     al-ʔusrubu yatawalladu kar-raṣāṣu wahuwa ṣinfun radiʔun minhu

     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)

• → 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

• Asbaghi, Asya (1988) Persische Lehnwörter im Arabischen‎ (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN, page 136
• Baldi, Sergio (30 November 2020) 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 (1863-1893) “رصاص”, in Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams & Norgate, page 1092.
• S̲h̲er, Addaï (1908) كتاب الالفاظ الفارسية المعرَّبة (in Arabic), Bayrūt: المطبعة الكاثوليكية للاباء اليسوعيين, page 73
• 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

From Arabic رَصَاص (raṣāṣ).

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

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