سوس

Borrowed from Aramaic שׁוּשָׁא / ܫܽܘܫܳܐ (šūšā, “licorice”), from Akkadian 𒄑𒊺𒆕𒀀 (šūšum, “licorice”).

• IPA^(key): /suːs/

سُوس • (sūs) m

1. licorice
   • 2016 November 24, “شراب عرق السوس”, in ʾuḥibbu Dimašq‎, archived from the original on 15-08-2019:

     يعتبر نبات السوس الدمشقي من أفضل الأنواع في العالم، ويسمى الشراب الذي يقطر يدويا من جذوره شراب عرق السوس وهو مفضل لدى الدمشقيين.‏

     The Damascene liquorice plant is esteemed to be of the most excellent sorts of the world, and the drink which is dropped by hand from its roots is called liquorice stem and the Damascenes are fond of it.

• →⇒ Portuguese: alcaçuz
• →⇒ Spanish: alcazuz, orozuz

Typically declared as inherited from Proto-Semitic *sūs- (“moth; insect especially one that bites or chews up materials”), from Proto-Afroasiatic *suʔw- (“a kind of insect”), cognates with Akkadian 𒌨𒈨 (sāsum, “moth; biting insect”), Jewish Babylonian Aramaic ססא (sāsā), Hebrew סָס (sās), Classical Syriac ܣܣܐ (sāsā), and often also Ge'ez ፃፄ (ṣ́aṣ́e, “moth, worm”), ጻጹት (ṣaṣut, “gnat; red ant”), akin to Amharic ጭጫት (č̣əč̣at), ጨጫት (č̣äč̣at), ጬጫ (č̣eč̣a), ጭጫን (č̣əč̣an), ጬጫን (č̣eč̣an, “ant or a type of ant”), Tigrinya ሺሾ (šišo, “colony of ants or termites; large black ant with painful bite”), Tigre ሻሽንቴ (šašənte, “ants”).

Aramaic borrowing into Arabic is at least possible if one espouses a phonologic value /ɔː/ for ā in ancient Ḥijāzi dialects of Arabic, that later merged into /uː/ in the standard, as assumed for قَيُّوم (qayyūm) and جَار (jār). The proposed Proto-Semitic shape, whether it be *sūs-, or *sās-, two identical consonants connected by a long vowel forming the noun’s stem, strains credibility, and the same authors imagine legitimate ancestry of نُون (nūn, unknown meaning) and تُوت (tūt, “mulberry”). In comparison, the moth term also appears loaned in Ancient Greek σής (sḗs) and Old Armenian ցեց (cʻecʻ).

• Noun: IPA^(key): /suːs/
• Verb: IPA^(key): /sa.wi.sa/

سُوس • (sūs) m (collective, singulative سُوسَة f (sūsa), plural سِيسَان (sīsān))

1. maggot, moth-worm, woodworm, curculio, weevil
2. mite
3. rot, decay
   • c. 1200, يحيى بن محمد بن أحمد بن العوام [yaḥyā ibn muḥammad ibn ʔaḥmad ibn al-ʕawwām], edited by José Antonio Banqueri, كتاب الفلاحة [Book on Agriculture], volume 1, Madrid: Imprenta Real, published 1802^IA, Cap. 9, Art. 1, page 508:

     الإجاص قال غ وهو عبقر إذا أشرف وقدم فلا يتعرض عليه بالحديد فإن دعت ضرورة لقطع أعلاه فينظر شجرته فإن ظهر فيها السوس فتحامى بالقطع ولا تقرب بالحديد بوجه وتنقى ما دام أملس الساق والأغصان محدثا.

     About the prune, that is the plum, says Ibn Ḥajjāj that when it is high and old it should not meet the iron, but if necessity calls then the top can be cut and the tree cleaned, and if rot appears on it then it can be warded off by cutting, and the iron should not approach it as long as the stem is smooth and the branches new.

4. often used when referring to bacteria gnawing the teeth
   • 2018 June 12, “5 أسباب وراء الاضطرار لخلع الأسنان”, in Al-Bawwāba News‎:

     قال باسم سمير، استشاري الأسنان، أن البكتيريا النافعة المتواجدة في الفم، تعمل على تكسير مكونات الطعام وبالتالى الإسراع من هضمه، لكن إن زادت عن حدها تحولت إلى سوس يأكل في الأسنان.‏

     Bāsim Samīr, a teeth consultant, said that useful bacteria found in the mouth work towards the decomposition of food components and hence towards speeding up their digestion, but when they grow about their limit they become a caries that eats from the teeth.

• سَوِسَ (sawisa, “to be affected by worms”)
• تَسَوَّسَ (tasawwasa, “to be affected by worms”)
• تَسَوُّس (tasawwus, “mouth cavities”)

• → Amharic: ሹሽ (šuš, šušš)
• → Harari: ሱስ (sūs)
• → Mehri: sust

سَوِسَ • (sawisa) I, non-past يَسْوَسُ‎ (yaswasu)

1. (intransitive) to be gnawed, to be eaten away, to be rotten (especially by moth-worms or weevils)

• IPA^(key): /saw.wa.sa/

سَوَّسَ • (sawwasa) II, non-past يُسَوِّسُ‎ (yusawwisu)

1. (ditransitive) to give someone regimen over, to let govern [+ لِ (object) = who shall govern] [+accusative = what shall be governed]

• Freytag, Georg (1833) “سوس”, 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 375
• Lane, Edward William (1863) “سوس”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, pages 1465–1466
• Löw, Immanuel (1924) Die Flora der Juden‎ (in German), volume 2, Wien und Leipzig: R. Löwit, pages 435–437
• Löw, Immanuel (1881) Aramæische Pflanzennamen‎ (in German), Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, pages 378–379
• Militarev, Alexander, Kogan, Leonid (2005) “*sā/ūs- ~ *cā/ūc-”, in Semitic Etymological Dictionary, volume II: Animal Names, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 259–261
• Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “سوس”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart‎ (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, pages 612–613
• Zimmern, Heinrich (1915) Akkadische Fremdwörter als Beweis für babylonischen Kultureinfluss (in German), Leipzig: A. Edelmann, page 52
• Zimmern, Heinrich (1915) Akkadische Fremdwörter als Beweis für babylonischen Kultureinfluss (in German), Leipzig: A. Edelmann, page 58

Borrowed from French sauce.

سوس • (sos)

1. sauce