رف

Disputed etymology:

• Natively from the root ر ف ف (r-f-f) in the sense of an outstretched wing being symbolic of protection, a coverlet; hence originally an awning or covering; semantically becoming a story or tier of a building as each window would feature such a cloth shelf above it. Parallel semantic conception found with Hebrew רפפות (“window shutters; a collection of layered thin strips”) and Western Neo-Aramaic ܪܦ (rap, “level, story; room, chamber”).
• Natively from the root ر ف ف (r-f-f) in the sense of stretching elbows out on a pillow or cushion, stemming from an outstretched wing; hence a place to place things, a place to spread things out on.
• From Aramaic found in its descendant Western Neo-Aramaic ܪܦ (rap, “level, story; room, chamber”) of uncertain etymology, but considered likely foreign or possibly even borrowed from Arabic; as for a foreign source possibly connected to Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ-.

• IPA^(key): /raff/

• Audio:

  (file)

رَفّ • (raff) m (plural رُفُوف (rufūf) or أَرْفُف (ʔarfuf) or رِفَاف (rifāf))

1. sill; shelf; whatnot
   • p. 2000, كَرِيم مَعْتُوق (karīm maʕtūq)‎^[1]:

     مَا مَرَّ شَذَاهَا بِخُطُوطِ الْوَرَقِ الْمُلْقَى عَلَى الْأَرْفُفِ

     mā marra šaḏāhā biḵuṭūṭi l-waraqi l-mulqā ʕalā l-ʔarfufi

     Her scent has not yet passed from the lines of the papers deposed on the shelves.

• → Azerbaijani: rəf
• → Catalan: ràfec (“eaves”)
• → Persian: رف (raf)
• → Ottoman Turkish: راف (raf)
  • Turkish: raf
  • → Albanian: raft
  • → Armenian: ըռաֆ (əṙaf), ռաֆ (ṙaf)
  • → Bulgarian: рафт (raft)
  • → Greek: ράφι (ráfi)
  • → Romanian: raft
  • → Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ра̏ф

    Latin script: rȁf

• → Swahili: rafu

رَفَّ • (raffa) I (non-past يَرِفُّ (yariffu), verbal noun رَفّ (raff) or رَفِيف (rafīf))

1. to gleam

رَفَّ • (raffa) I (non-past يَرُفُّ (yaruffu) or يَرِفُّ (yariffu), verbal noun رَفّ (raff))

1. to tremble, to flutter, to twitch
2. to flicker, to glint

رَفَّ • (raffa) I (non-past يَرُفُّ (yaruffu) or يَرِفُّ (yariffu), verbal noun رُفُوف (rufūf) or رَفِيف (rafīf))

1. to serve diligently (لِ (li) someone)

رَفّ • (raff) m

1. verbal noun of رَفَّ (raffa) (form I)

• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 13
• Freytag, Georg (1833) “رف”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎^[2] (in Latin), volume 2, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 170
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “رف”, 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^[3] (in French), volume 1, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 892
• Lane, Edward William (1863) “رف”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎^[4], London: Williams & Norgate, pages 1115–1116
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “رف”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 403
• Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “رف”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart‎^[5] (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 483

Borrowed from Arabic رَفّ (raff).

رف • (raf)

1. shelf, ledge, rack