ܚܫܰܡܺܝܬܳܐ ḥšmytʾ ḥšāmīṯā supper, evening meal
Allotrope: ܐܲܚܫܵܡܝܼܬܵܐ ʾḥšmytʾ aḥšāmīṯā. Verbal derivative: Af. to have supper, to sup
MIr. *xšām, morphologically adapted by means of the Syr. fem. suffix -īṯā (see § 11.6); cf. Av. xšāfniia- evening meal; MP šām [šʾm] evening meal, supper (CPD 79); ManMP and ManParth. šʾm /šām/ evening, dark (Durkin-Meisterernst 2004, 315); NP šām evening, supper (Steingass 724). Very old, pre-Sasanian, loanword, as testified by the preservation of the initial OIr. cluster xš-, which evolved to š- early before the Sasanian period; note also the rendering of Ir. x with Syr. ḥ (see §§ 9; 11.3.3; 11.5) ● Judith 12, 1; Mt 22, 4 C; Afr 106, 14; ES 1, 489D; Ath 13, 20; ES in Bh gr 1, 89, 12; Bh LSt 70u; Af. Pr 23, 1; ES 2, 213C; Ath 6, 13; Bh chr 550, 15; car 137, 15 ◆ LS 263b
The above-mentioned etymon was first proposed by Tedesco 1923, 41, and it is accepted by LS. Previously, Nyberg (1920, 236) put forward a different etymon: he connected Syr. ḥšmytʾ with Arab. ḥašama "to cut", so that the original meaning of the Syr. word would have been "what has been cut", with the same semantic development observed in Lat. cēna < *kert-snā, < IE *(s)ker-t- "to cut".