A new word or phrase from the Hans Wehr dictionary, every Wednesday.
صمصم (ṣamṣama) to persist (في in)
Root: ص-م-ص-م
Page: 612*
Example: “صَمصَمَ الزُّعَماءُ في إجراءِ مُفاوَضاتٍ غَيرِ مُثمِرةٍ، وَأَثاروا الحَيرةَ مِن بَينَ القَوم”
Translation: “the leaders persisted in fruitless negotiations, to the bewilderment of the people”
Notes:
- صَمصَمَ / يُصَمصِمُ is a form I quadriliteral verb—it’s also the reduplicated form of the duplicated root ص-م-م, which gives rise to the form II verb, صَمَّمَ / يُصَمِّمُ, which carries the same meaning as صَمصَمَ (see Arabic Observations: Duplicated Roots with Reduplicated Forms for more on this phenomenon!)
Revise all of the vocab from the series on Quizlet:
- Wehr Wednesdays Vocab (#1-100)
- Wehr Wednesdays Vocab (#101-200)
- Wehr Wednesdays Vocab (#201-300)
- Wehr Wednesdays Vocab (#301-400)
* The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th Edition
The Arabic Pages 