# سفر
## Arabic
### Etymology 1.1

Compare Akkadian 𒊭𒉺𒀸 (šapārum, “to send”).

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sa.far/

#### Noun

سَفَر • (safar) m (plural أَسْفَار (ʔasfār))
* departure, journey, travel
* campaign, military expedition

##### Descendants

* Gulf Arabic: سفر (sifar)
* → Armenian: սափար (sapʻar), սաֆար (safar)
* → Azerbaijani: səfər
* → Kazakh: сапар (sapar)
* → Ottoman Turkish: سفر
** Turkish: sefer
* → Persian: سفر
* → Swahili: safari
** → Arabic: سَفَارِي (safārī)
** → Catalan: safari
** → English: safari
** → Finnish: safari
** → French: safari
*** → Romanian: safari
*** →? Turkish: safari
** → German: Safari
** → Hungarian: szafari
** → Italian: safari
** → Japanese: サファリ
** → Portuguese: safári
** → Russian: сафа́ри (safári)
** → Spanish: safari
** → Swedish: safari
* → Hindustani:
    Hindi: सफ़र (safar)
    Urdu: سفر
* → Punjabi: ਸਫ਼ਰ (safar)
* → Chagatai:
    Uyghur: سەپەر (seper)
    Uzbek: safar

### Etymology 1.2
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /saf.fa.ra/

#### Verb

سَفَّرَ • (saffara) II (non-past يُسَفِّرُ (yusaffiru), verbal noun تَسْفِير (tasfīr))
* to cause to journey, to put on board

##### Conjugation
### Etymology 1.3
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sa.fa.ra/

#### Verb

سَفَرَ • (safara) I (non-past يَسْفِرُ (yasfiru), verbal noun سَفْر (safr)) (archaic)
* to strip, to remove, to sweep away, to carry off in every direction

##### Conjugation
### Etymology 1.4
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /safr/

#### Noun

سَفْر • (safr) m
* verbal noun of سَفَرَ (safara) (form I)

##### Declension
### Etymology 2
#### Verb

سَفَرَ • (safara) I (non-past يَسْفِرُ (yasfiru), verbal noun سُفُور (sufūr))
* (intransitive) to unveil, to put away one's shroud
** a. 1113, Al-Abīwardīy, وَسِربِ عَذارى مِن رَبيعَةِ عامِرٍ‎:وَقَد سَفَرَتْ عَنْ وَجْهِهَا فَتَمَزَّقَتْwaqad safarat ʕan wajhihā fatamazzaqatShe removed her veil and got torn.

##### Conjugation
### Etymology 3.1

Terminology of the religious sphere, borrowed from Aramaic סִפְרָא (sip̱rā, “writing, book”) / ܣܷܦܪܴܐ (sep̱rā, “writing, book”); compare Biblical Hebrew סֵפֶר (sḗp̄er, “writing, book”). Ultimately from Akkadian 𒅆𒅁𒀸 (šiprum).

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sifr/

#### Noun

سِفْر • (sifr) m (plural أَسْفَار (ʔasfār))
* verbal noun of سَفَرَ (safara, “to copy, to write”) (form I)
* written book
    Synonym: كِتَاب (kitāb)
** 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 62:5:مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ حُمِّلُوا التَّوْرَاةَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًاmaṯalu llaḏīna ḥummilū t-tawrāta ṯumma lam yaḥmilūhā kamaṯali l-ḥimāri yaḥmilu ʔasfāranThe example of those who were entrusted with the Torah and then did not take it on is like that of a donkey who carries volumes of books.
** 1924, أمين الريحاني [ʔAmīn ar-Rīḥānī], “السيد الإدريسي – (٦) أديان وأشجان”, in ملوك العرب‎, Windsor, United Kingdom: مؤسسة هنداوي [Hindawi Foundation], published 2021, →ISBN, page 185:وَجَدْتُهُ صَبَاحَ ٱلْعِيدِ جَالِسًا عَلَى ٱلْعَرْشِ مُعْتَمَّا بِعِمَامَةٍ هِنْدِيَّةٍ وَافِرَةٍ، طَوِيلَةِ ٱلذُّؤَابَةِ، بَاهِرَةِ ٱلْأَلْوَانِ، وَبِيَدِهِ سِفْرٌ إِنْكِلِيزِيٌّ فِي ٱلْفُطْرِيَّاتِ كَانَ يُتَرْجِمُهُ إِلَى ٱللُّغَةِ ٱلْهِنْدِسْتَانِيَّةِ.wajadtuhu ṣabāḥa l-ʕīdi jālisan ʕalā l-ʕarši muʕtammā biʕimāmatin hindiyyatin wāfiratin, ṭawīlati ḏ-ḏuʔābati, bāhirati l-ʔalwāni, wabiyadihi sifrun ʔinkilīziyyun fī l-fuṭriyyāti kāna yutarjimuhu ʔilā l-luḡati l-hindistāniyyati.On the feast in the morning I found him sitting on a throne in an opulent Indian turban, long in lappets, brilliant in colours, and in his hand an English book about the natural sciences he translated into Hindustani.
* (Christianity, Judaism) a book of the Bible
    سِفْرُ ٱلْمُلُوكِ ٱلْأَوَّلُ ― sifru l-mulūki l-ʔawwalu ― the First Book of Kings
* (archaic) trace, mark, writing

##### Declension
### Etymology 3.2
#### Verb

سَفَرَ • (safara) I (non-past يَسْفِرُ (yasfiru), verbal noun سِفْر (sifr))
* (archaic) to copy, to scribe, to write
    Synonym: كَتَبَ (kataba)

##### Related terms

* سَافِر (sāfir)

### Etymology 3.3
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /safr/

#### Noun

سَفْر • (safr) m
* mark, trace, vestige

##### Declension
### References

* Freytag, Georg (1833) “سفر”, 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 321
* Jeffery, Arthur (1938) “سِفْر”, in The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʾān (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series; 79), Baroda: Oriental Institute, pages 170–171
* Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “سفر”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎ (in French), volume 1, Paris: Maisonneuve et C$^{ie}$, page 1097
* Lane, Edward William (1863) “سفر”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, page 1370
* Steingass, Francis Joseph (1884) “سفر”, in The Student's Arabic–English Dictionary‎, London: W.H. Allen, page 496
* Wehr, Hans (1979) “سفر”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 481

## Central Kurdish
### Etymology

From Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr).

### Numeral

سفر (sifir)
* zero; 0

## Ottoman Turkish
### Etymology

From Arabic سَفَر (safar).

### Noun

سفر • (sefer)
* travel
* campaign

#### Descendants

* Turkish: sefer

## Persian
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Arabic سَفَر (safar). Cognate of English safari.

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Persian) IPA: [sa.ˈfaɾ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [sä.fǽɾ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [sä.fǽɾ]
** (Kabuli) IPA: [sä.fǽɾ]
** (Hazaragi) IPA: [sä.fǽɾ]
* (Iran, formal) IPA: [sæ.fǽɹ]
* (Tajik, formal) IPA: [sä.fǽɾ]
* Homophone: صفر (safar)

#### Noun

سفر • (safar)
* travel
    من سفر هوائی را دوست ندارم.man safar havâ'i-râ dust nadâram.I don't like travelling by air.
* trip
* voyage
* journey
* expedition

##### Related terms

* سفری (safari)
* سفر کردن (safar kardan)

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from Arabic سِفْر (sifr).

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Persian) IPA: [sifɾ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [sɪfɾ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [sɪfɾ]
** (Kabuli) IPA: [sɪfɾ]
** (Hazaragi) IPA: [sifɾ]
* (Iran, formal) IPA: [sefɹ]
* (Tajik, formal) IPA: [sifɾ]
* Homophone: صفر (sefr)

#### Noun

سفر • (sefr)
* book

## South Levantine Arabic
### Etymology

De-emphaticization in urban Palestinian accents.

### Numeral

سفر • (sifr)
* Alternative form of صفر (ṣifr): zero

## Urdu
### Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian سفر (safar), from Arabic سَفَر (safar). Cognate of English safari.

### Pronunciation

* (Standard Urdu) IPA: /sə.fəɾ/
* Rhymes: -əɾ
* Hyphenation: سَ‧فَر

### Noun

سَفَر • (safar) m (Hindi spelling सफ़र)
* travel, trip, journey, voyage

#### See also

* مُسَافِر (musāfir)
* ہَمْسَفَر (hamsafar)

### Further reading

* “سفر”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
* “سفر”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.
* Qureshi, Bashir Ahmad (1971) “سفر”, in Kitabistan's 20th Century Standard Dictionary‎, Lahore: Kitabistan Pub. Co.

## Ushojo
### Etymology

From Urdu سفر (safar).

### Noun

سفر (safar)
* travel, voyage
* trip, journey
* expedition