ዝባን

Tigre

Etymology

Unknown. In Ge'ez ዘባን (zäban, “back, dorsum”).

Noun

ዝባን • (zəban)

back, dorsum

References

Leslau, Wolf (1982) North Ethiopic and Amharic cognates in Tigre (Supplemento n. 31 al Vol. 42 fasc. 2 (Annali))‎^[1], Napoli: Istituto universitario Orientale, page 85
Littmann, Enno, Höfner, Maria (1962) “ዝባን”, in Wörterbuch der Tigrē-Sprache. Tigrē—Deutsch—Englisch (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur; XI)‎^[2], Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, page 499a
Militarev, Alexander, Kogan, Leonid (2000) “*ḏ/zVb(b)-(ān)- ~ *ʒ̆/ʒVb(b)-(ān)-”, in Semitic Etymological Dictionary, volumes I: Anatomy of Man and Animals, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 58–59 Nr. 62, compares to obscure Arabic ذُبَابَة (ḏubāba, “tail”) and obscure زَبُّونَة (zabbūna, “tail”), itself admitting it as problematic; another “not quite reliable” entry that could have been combined is *zubb- ~ *ʒubb- at pages 264–265 Nr. 293 ܙܘܽܠܒܳܢܳܐ (zulbānā), ܙܠܽܘܒܳܢܳܐ (zəlūbānā) and Mishnaic Hebrew זוּבָּן (zubbān, “the bag that contains a male animal's member”) compared with زُبّ (zubb, “penis”); consistent with such meaning developments back ←→ tail Militarev, Alexander, Kogan, Leonid (2000) “*ṯ̣Vhr-, *č̣Vhr-”, in Semitic Etymological Dictionary, volumes I: Anatomy of Man and Animals, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 253–255 Nr. 284 they compare Akkadian 𒂔𒈾 (ṣērum, “tail”), Arabic ظَهْر (ẓahr, “back”) with Amharic ጭራ (č̣əra) etc. meaning “tail” which is more like a Cushitic loan that replaced ዘነብ (zänäb, “tail”) (see it too) only retained in Classical Ethiopic and Tigre.

Tigrinya

Etymology

Unknown. In Ge'ez ዘባን (zäban, “back, dorsum”).

Noun

ዝባን • (zəban)

back, dorsum