مسح

Compare Ugaritic 𐎎𐎌𐎈 (mšḥ) and Hebrew מָשַׁח (mašáḥ, “to anoint”).

مَسَحَ • (masaḥa) I, non-past يَمْسَحُ‎ (yamsaḥu)

1. to stroke with the hand or similar, to wipe off, to sweep
2. to anoint
3. to smooth, to polish
4. to wipe off, to wipe out, to cross off, to erase, to scrub, to flush
5. (obsolete) to wear, to fatigate, to emaciate

مَسَحَ • (masaḥa) I, non-past يَمْسَحُ‎ (yamsaḥu)

1. to survey, to scan for proportions by going over, to clear through, to peragrate

مَسَّحَ • (massaḥa) II, non-past يُمَسِّحُ‎ (yumassiḥu)

1. (transitive) to wipe off, to anoint
2. (transitive) to Christianize

مَسْح • (masḥ) m (plural مُسُوح (musūḥ))

1. verbal noun of مَسَحَ (masaḥa)
2. a survey

مِسْح • (misḥ) m (plural مُسُوح (musūḥ))

1. main route

This could be taken as from the root م س ح (m-s-ḥ) above as for a wiping rag, however the cloths denoted by this word do not seem to have been adapted for such an employment, and their property of coarseness makes the term adverse to that root’s meanings for smoothness. Therefore a connection to Coptic ⲙⲟϫϩ (močh, “girdle of a soldier or monk”) or a related word is suggested.

مِسْح • (misḥ) m (plural مُسُوح (musūḥ))

1. a coarse cloth, sackcloth, gunny, haircloth
   • 7th century CE, Sunan Abī Dāwud, 35:55:

     وَأَوَّلُ مَنْ يَدْخُلُ عَلَيْهَا إِذَا قَدِمَ فَاطِمَةَ فَقَدِمَ مِنْ غَزَاةٍ لَهُ وَقَدْ عَلَّقَتْ مِسْحًا أَوْ سِتْرًا عَلَى بَابِهَا وَحَلَّتِ الْحَسَنَ وَالْحُسَيْنَ قُلْبَيْنِ مِنْ فِضَّةٍ فَقَدِمَ فَلَمْ يَدْخُلْ فَظَنَّتْ أَنَّ مَا مَنَعَهُ أَنْ يَدْخُلَ مَا رَأَى فَهَتَكَتِ السِّتْرَ وَفَكَّكَتِ الْقُلْبَيْنِ عَنِ الصَّبِيَّيْنِ وَقَطَعَتْهُ بَيْنَهُمَا

     wa-ʔawwalu man yadḵulu ʕalay-hā ʔiḏā qadima fāṭimata fa-qadima min ḡazātin la-hū wa-qad ʕallaqat misḥan ʔaw sitran ʕalā bābi-hā wa-ḥallati l-ḥasana wa-l-ḥusayna qulbayni min fiḍḍatin fa-qadima fa-lam yadḵul fa-ẓannat ʔanna mā manaʕa-hū ʔan yadḵula mā raʔā fa-hatakati s-sitra wa-fakkakati l-qulbayni ʕani ṣ-ṣabiyyayni wa-qaṭaʕathū bayna-humā

     The first he visited on his return was Fāṭima, and he retourned from a raid and she had hung up a gunny or some drapery at her door, and bedecked al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn by using silver bracelets. So, when he arrived, he entered not. And she believed he was barred from entering by what he had seen, so she tore down the drapery, unfastened the bracelets from the boys and cut them off.

2. cilice, haircloth

• 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 1199
• Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne (1845) Dictionnaire détaillé des noms des vêtements chez les arabes‎ (in French), Amsterdam: Jean Müller, pages 405–407

From Arabic مَسَحَ (masaḥa).

• IPA^(key): /ma.saħ/, [ˈma.saħ]

• Audio (al-Lidd)

  (file)

مسح • (masaḥ) I (present بمسح (bimsaḥ))

1. to wipe, to mop