# صفة
## Arabic
### Etymology 1

Compare وَصَفَ (waṣafa, “to describe, to characterize”).

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sˤi.fa/

#### Noun

صِفَة • (ṣifa) f (plural صِفَات (ṣifāt))
* verbal noun of وَصَفَ (waṣafa) (form I)
* quality, feature, characteristic
* (grammar) adjective (morphological category)
    Synonym: وَصْف (waṣf)
    Hyponyms: صِفَة مُشَبَّهَة (ṣifa(t) mušabbaha), اِسْم فَاعِل (ism fāʕil), اِسْم مَفْعُول (ism mafʕūl), اِسْم تَفْضِيل (ism tafḍīl)
* (grammar) a word or phrase that modifies a noun
    Synonym: نَعْت (naʕt)
* attribute

##### Descendants

* → Armenian: սֆաթ (sfatʻ), սփաթ (spʻatʻ)
* → Classical Persian: صِفَت (sifat)
** Persian: صِفَت (sefat)
** Tajik: сифат (sifat)
** → Azerbaijani: sifət
** → Chagatai:
*** Uyghur:
    Arabic script: سۈپەت (süpet)
    Cyrillic script: сүпәт (süpet)
*** Uzbek:
    Cyrillic script: сифат (sifat)
    Latin script: sifat
** → Kazakh:
    Arabic script: سيپات
    Cyrillic script: сипат (sipat)
** → Ottoman Turkish: صفت (sıfat)
*** Turkish: sıfat
** → Turkmen: sypat
** → Punjabi: ਸਿਫ਼ਤ (sifat)
** → Urdu: صفت (sifat)
** → Zazaki: sıfet
* → Georgian: სიფათი (sipati)
* → Malay: sifat
** Indonesian: sifat
* → Swahili: sifa

#### Further reading

* Carter, Michael George (2017) “The Seven Deadly Sins of Arabic Studies”, in Manuel Sartori, Manuela E. B. Giolfo, Philippe Cassuto, editors, Approaches to the History and Dialectology of Arabic in Honor of Pierre Larcher (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics; 88), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 521–522, 527–531

### Etymology 2

From Aramaic צִפָּא / צִיפָּא (ṣippā), צִפְּתָא / צִיפְּתָא (sippəṯā) / ܨܝܦܬܐ / ܨܶܦ݁ܬ݂ܳܐ (ṣeppəṯā, “mat”), suspected to be from Akkadian 𒍦𒉺𒀀𒌅 (ṣip-pa-a-tu /⁠ṣippatu⁠/, “a type of reed”), or instead סִפָּא / סִיפָּא (sippā) / ܣܷܦܴ݁ܐ (seppā, “threshold, doorpost”), alleged to be from Akkadian 𒈨𒁍 (sip-pu /⁠sippu⁠/, “doorsill”) but possibly cognate to it.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sˤuf.fa/

#### Noun

صُفَّة • (ṣuffa) f (plural صُفَف (ṣufaf) or صِفَاف (ṣifāf))
* bench, stone bench
* sofa, sill, shelf, console
* vestibule, anteroom, entrance-room, portico, an elevated room over or before an edifice including a mosque and even over a sepulchre
    أَهْلُ الصُّفَّةِ ― ʔahlu ṣ-ṣuffati ― the companions of the prophet Mohammed
** a. 1000, المقدسي, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم [ʾaḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifa al-ʾaqālīm] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 3)‎, Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1877, 1906, page 322 line 9:
** a. 1000, المقدسي, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم [ʾaḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifa al-ʾaqālīm] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 3)‎, Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1877, 1906, page 169 line 9 seq.:
** a. 1000, المقدسي, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم [ʾaḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifa al-ʾaqālīm] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 3)‎, Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1877, 1906, page 84 line 6:
** a. 1000, المقدسي, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم [ʾaḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifa al-ʾaqālīm] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 3)‎, Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1877, 1906, page 94 line 6:
** a. 1000, المقدسي, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم [ʾaḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifa al-ʾaqālīm] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 3)‎, Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1877, 1906, page 449 line 12:
** a. 1000, المقدسي, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم [ʾaḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifa al-ʾaqālīm] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 3)‎, Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1877, 1906, page 130 line 8:
* seat of a saddle
* a small part, a little of
* a short while, a trice

##### Descendants

* → Ottoman Turkish: صفه (suffa, sofa)
** Turkish: sofa
** → French: sofa (see there for further descendants)

#### References

* Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, pages 287–288
* Freytag, Georg (1833) “صفة”, 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 502a
* Michael Jan de Goeje, editor (1879), Indices, glossarium et addenda et emendanda ad part. I–III (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 7)‎ (in Latin), Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1879, page 281
* Kaufman, Stephen A. (1974) The Akkadian Influences on Aramaic (The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Assyriological Studies; 19)‎, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 92
* Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “صفة”, 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 1343b
* Lane, Edward William (1863) “صفة”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, pages 1693c–1694

### References

* Steingass, Francis Joseph (1884) “صفة”, in The Student's Arabic–English Dictionary‎, London: W.H. Allen, page 583b