ودع

From Proto-Semitic *wadaʕ- attested in every corner of the Semitic language area with the meaning “to know”, apparently with desert-specific meaning specialization in Arabic of a thing being “left” somewhere being equated with remembering and “knowing” where it is. The sea-shell is also so called due to being “left over” by nature or placed on amulets; supposedly دَعَا (daʕā, “to call”) is from the current imperative usage.

وَدَعَ • (wadaʕa) I, non-past يَدَعُ‎ (yadaʕu) (now only used in the present and imperative)

1. to lay down, to place, to leave
2. to let, to let be, to suffer

وَدَّعَ • (waddaʕa) II, non-past يُوَدِّعُ‎ (yuwaddiʕu)

1. to take leave; to say goodbye; to bid farewell

وَدْع or وَدَع • (wadʕ or wadaʕ) m (collective, singulative وَدْع f (wadʕ) or وَدَعَة (wadaʕa))

1. seashell, cowry
   • 1850, محمد بن عمر التونسي [Muḥammad Ibn-ʿUmar at-Tūnisī ], edited by Humphrey Davies, تشحيذ الأذهان بسيرة بلاد العرب والسودان (Library of Arabic Literature; 15), volume II, New York: NYU Press, published 2018, →ISBN, 3.1.101, page 88:

     ويضعن على رؤوسهنّ تمائم من حبّ نبات يسمّى الشوش وهو حبّ صغير أحمر كالجُلَّنار وفي جانب كلّ حبّة منه نكتة سوداء وهذا الحبّ رؤيته مفرحة جدًّا وودع وفول وهذا الفول عندهم ذو ألوان منه ما هو أحمر ناصع الحمرة ومنه ما هو تِبْنيّ اللون ومنه ما هو أسود ومنه عسليّ فيثقبن الشوش والودع والفول وينظمن الشوش وحده تمائم لكن يجعلن في أسفل كلّ تميمة إمّا جلجلًا أو ودعة ويجعلنها عناقيد هكذا لكن يفصلن بين كلّ تعريجة بخرز أزرق.

     On their heads, the women place amulets made from the seeds of a plant called šūš—the seeds are small and red, like those of the pomegranate flower; each has a black spot on its side and they are very pleasing to the eye—as well as amulets made of shells and of beans. In their country, these beans are colored, some being bright red, some straw-colored, some black, some honey-colored. They bore a hole in the šūš, the shells, or the beans. They also make the šūš into amulets on their own, though they attach to the bottom of each amulet either a little bell or a shell, and make them into clusters, like this: However, they separate each pedicel from the next with a blue bead.

From Arabic وَدَّعَ (waddaʕa).

• IPA^(key): /wad.daʕ/, [ˈwad.daʕ]

• Audio (al-Lidd)

  (file)

ودّع • (waddaʕ) II (present بودّع (biwaddeʕ))

1. to say goodbye