شفنين

Borrowed from Aramaic שַׁפְנִינָא (šap̄nīnā), ܫܘܼܦܢܼܝܢܵܐ (šup̄nīnā, “turtle-dove”).

• IPA^(key): /ʃif.niːn/

شِفْنِين • (šifnīn) m

1. laughing dove

   Synonym: قُمْرِيّ (qumriyy)

   • a. 1283, Abū Yahyā Zakariyāʾ ibn Muhammad al-Qazwīnīy, edited by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات [ʿajāʾib al-maḵlūqāt wa-ḡarāʾib al-mawjūdāt]‎, Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, published 1849, page 416:

     شِفْنِين طَائِرٌ مَعْرُوفٌ قَالَ ٱلْجَاحِظُ مِنْ عَجَائِبِهِ إِنَّهُ لَيُزَاوِجُ إِلَّا أُنْثَاهُ فَإِنْ هَلَكَتْ أُنْثَاهُ لَا يُزَاوِجُ أَبَدًا وَكَذَٰلِكَ ٱلْأُنْثَى إِنْ هَلَكَ ذَكَرُهَا. شَحْمُهُ يُدَافُ بِٱلسِّيرَجِ وَيُقَطَّرُ فِي ٱلْأُذُنِ يُزِيلُ طَرَشَهَا وَكَذَٰلِكَ يُزِيلُ ٱلرَّمَدَ وَجِرَاحَاتِ ٱلْعَيْنِ وَٱلْعَشَى ٱكْتِحَالًا. ذَرْقَهُ يُسْحَقُ وَيُدَافُ بِدَهْنِ ٱلْوَرْدِ وَتَحْتَمِلُهُ ٱلْمَرْأَةُ بِصُوفَةٍ يَنْفَعُ أَوْجَاءَ ٱلرَّحِمِ.

     šifnīn ṭāʔirun maʕrūfun qāla l-jāḥiẓu min ʕajāʔibihi ʔinnahu layuzāwiju ʔillā ʔunṯāhu faʔin halakat ʔunṯāhu lā yuzāwiju ʔabadan wakaḏālika l-ʔunṯā ʔin halaka ḏakaruhā. šaḥmuhu yudāfu bi-s-sīraji wayuqaṭṭaru fī l-ʔuḏuni yuzīlu ṭarašahā wakaḏālika yuzīlu r-ramada wajirāḥāti l-ʕayni wal-ʕašā ktiḥālan. ḏarqahu yusḥaqu wayudāfu bidahni l-wardi wataḥtamiluhu l-marʔatu biṣūfatin yanfaʕu ʔawjāʔa r-raḥimi.

     The laughing dove is a well-known bird about which al-Jāḥiẓ said of its peculiarities that it never takes a fere except its female and when its female perishes it will never form a bond and likewise the female when its male dies. Its fat is mingled with sesame-oil and dribbled into the ear where it does away with its deafness and in the same fashion when kohled it staves off the sores and the wounds of the eye and nightblindness. One crushes its droppings and mixes them with rose oil and a woman wears it with a wool rag as it helps against woes of the womb.

2. ellipsis of شِفْنِين بَحْرِيّ (šifnīn baḥriyy, “ray”).

• “špnyn”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• 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 716
• 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 285b
• Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne (1881) “شفنين”, in Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes‎ (in French), volume 1, Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 771a
• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 148
• Freytag, Georg (1833) “شفنين”, 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 436
• Jacob, Georg (1892) Studien in arabischen Geographen‎ (in German), volume 3, Berlin: Meyer & Müller, page 105