زبور

Meaning

1. psalter, the Psalms
2. a writing, composition

Concepts

Psalms

psalter

Psalter

Translations

Salmi

Psalmen

salterio

Pronounced as (IPA)

/za.buːr/

Etymology

* From the root ز ب ر (z b r), meaning “to be well composed, to be well written”, “to be engraved or written skillfully”, a variant of ذ ب ر (ḏ b r) – ذَبْر (ḏabr, “a writing on palm-leaves, a book”), ذَبَرَ (ḏabara, “to write, to point; to read thoroughly; to understand well”) –, which latter root is declared to be from the Himyaritic dialect and either cognate with Hebrew דִּבּוּר (dibbū́r, “speech”) and Ugaritic 𐎄𐎁𐎗 (dbr, “to speak, to proclaim”) or one of the many descendants of Sumerian 𒁾 (dub, “tablet”) present in words like دِيوَان (dīwān), دَفْتَر (daftar), أَدَب (ʔadab) دَفّ (daff), طُوب (ṭūb), طَابَع (ṭābaʕ), ذَبْر (ḏabr, “a writing on palm-leaves, a book”), ذَبَرَ (ḏabara, “to write, to point; to read thoroughly; to understand well”).
* Less likely a variation of the root ز م ر (z m r), meaning "to play a pipe or reed", "use a musical instrument", "to make music or play a melody"; semantically borrowed from Hebrew זָמַר (zamar, “to make music, sing; to praise, to sing psalms”).