Number: 2510
Proto-Semitic: *sā/ūs-
Meaning: moth
Akkadian: sāsu (sassu) 'moth' OAkk. on [CAD s 196], [AHw. 1032]. In OAkk. as a personal name only. Later attestations are mostly in omina and lexical lists. The only non-literary passage is OA: ṣubātū warkiūtum sāsam laptū 'the garments which arrived later are touched with moth' TTC 14:39.
Hebrew: sās 'clothes moth' [KB 761], pB. 'moth, worm' [Ja. 1009]. Hapax in Is 51.8: kī kabbägäd yō(ʔ)kǝlēm ʕāš // wǝkaṣṣämär yō(ʔ)kǝlēm sās 'since moth will eat them like a gar- ment // and like wool moth will eat them'.
Aramaic: Anc. ss 'moth' [HJ 795]. Hapax in KAI 222A 31, together with ḳml as a punishment for breaking a treaty (context fragmentary, see [Fitzmyer 88]). Off. ss 'moth' [HJ 795]. In Ahiq 184, 186 (context heavily damaged, see [PY 3 41], [Kott. 221]).
Judaic Aramaic: sāsā 'moth, worm' [Ja. 1009], [Levy WT II 176], 'Klei- dermotte, Holzwurm' [Levy WTM III 559], ss 'moth, worm' [Sok. 384].
Syrian Aramaic: sūsǝtā 'genus vermium vitibus infestium' [Brock. 465], sāsā 'tinea' [Brock. 486], [PS 2681].
Mandaic Aramaic: sasa 'moth, maggot' [DM 313].
Arabic: sūs- 'teigne (de laine), gerce, calandre', sūs-at- (n. d'unite) 'teigne, ver, gerce, calandre qui ronge le blé, etc.' [BK 1 1164], [Fr. II 375], [Lane 1466], [LA VI 108] (also sās-).
Amharic: šuš(š) 'threadworm, intestinal worm' [K 627] (apparently regarded as an Arabism).
Harari: sūs 'moth that eats wood; kind of black ant' [LHar. 143] (considered an Arabism).
Notes: Most of the above forms are unconvincingly regarded as Akka- disms in [Zimmern 52]. Cf. Tna. šišo 'specie di formica grossa e nera, il cui piz- zico è doloroso' [Bass. 226] (for this meaning cf. Har. above), less likely also Tgr. šašǝnte 'ants' [LH 214]. Cf. further Tgr. sosänab 'a kind of ants whose bite is very painful' [LH 180] (a variant of the latter form augmented with -b or a compound word going back to *sos + *nab, for which see No. ...). Сf. Tgr. sǝs (säs) belä 'to scare away (flies)' [LH 180], Tna. sǝss bälä 'scacciar le mosche' [Bass. 180], šuš bälä id. [ibid. 226]. Gr. sḗs 'moth' was often regarded as a Semitic loanword (see [Masson 93-4], [Frisk 698], both sceptical). Gez. ṣ̂āṣ̂e 'moth' is very often compared to the present root ([KB 761], [AHw. 1032], [Brock. 486], among others), which is most unlikely phonologically (rightly rejected in [LGz. 148]). [Brock. 486], [KB 761], [Firmage 1155]: Hbr., Arm., Akk., Arb.
