Though gilšu is given as the first variant in both dictionaries, it is giššu which is found in the majority of contexts; one wonders whether -l- in gilšu may be explained by the scribes' effort to render laterality

    s instead of the expected *ŝ is not infrequent in late Biblical and postbiblical texts

    Cf. ETH GUR: CHA ENN END GYE g'išä 'back of body' [LGur 310] related by Leslau to SOD g'inžä etc., with the same meaning, assuming all these forms are from CUSH [ibid.]. That GUR *ginžä <*ginz- is not a Cushitism, but an inherited SEM stem, see in *gin(ā)z-at-, No. ); whether GUR forms in -š- are really related to those in -nž- (cf. [LGur LXXI]) or should be separated from the latter and compared to the present root, is difficult to say.

    Likely related to W. CHAD: DIRI ngèŝè, GEJI ngeŝì 'chest' [Stolb 121] (<*n-geĉi < *nV-gayĉi ? [ibid.]), POLCHI gwǝŝ 'shoulder' (differently interpreted in [Stolb 119]); the AFRASIAN proto-form would rather be *gay/wĉ-.

    Cf. probably related (with suffixed -r?) forms in ARB and MSA: MHR gǝŝōr 'side of chest' and perhaps 'chest cavity' [JM 126], SOQ QALAN-B gíš^šhǝr, QADHUB gīŝor 'poitrine' [SSL LS 1458], QALAN-V gī́ŝ^hǝr do. [SSL 4 95]; cf. also ARB ǧušr-at- 'aspérité de la voix, enrouement et toux' [BK 1 296], ǧašar- 'dureté, aspérité de la voix, provenant de l'enrouement, du rhume' [ibid.] (semantically evolved from the original meaning 'chest'?).

    On another form possibly to compare, with unexplained -f, see MSA: JIB gɛŝf 'rib' [JJ 80], SOQ geŝf 'côte' [LS 118].

    [Kauf 52]: AKK, ARM (regarding ARM as an AKK loan); [DRS 195]: HBR, ARM, ARB, MSA; [Brock 126]: SYR, ARM