ܙܰܒܢܳܐ zbnʾ zaḇnā 1. time 2. temporality, fragility; 3. t. gramm. tense
Derivatives: ܙܲܒܢܵܝܵܐ zbnyʾ zaḇnāyā 1. temporal, fragile; 2. indicating time; ܙܲܒܢܵܢܵܝܵܐ zbnnyʾ zaḇnānāyā 1. temporal, transitory; χρόνιος, in the sense of χρονιότητος. Reborrowing: ܙܡܵܢܵܐ zmnʾ zmānā, in klh zmnʾ (see below)
OP *jamāna- time (Hinz 1975, 143), probably related to the Indo-Ir. verbal root *gam- to go; MP zamān [zmʾn'] time, hour (CPD 98), and MP ǰamān [ymʾn'] (Nyberg 228); ManMP zmʾn /zamān/ time, hour, moment (Durkin-Meisterernst 2004, 382); NP zamān time, season (Steingass 620); ManParth. jmʾn, jmʾʾn /amān/ time, hour, moment (Durkin-Meisterernst 2004, 198); Arm. LW amanak time, age, occasion, am hour (Bolognesi 1960, 44–45; Hübschmann AG 156, no. 255). — Bibl. Aram., Talm. Aram. zmn, zymnʾ time (Telegdi 242, 68); Md. zban, zebnā (← ManParth. amān: Widengren 1960, 106; Nöldeke MG 152); Arabic zaman, zamān; Ethiopic zaman. The Syr. word is an old loanword from Iranian. However, Leonid Kogan (personal communication) recalls that most Semitists believe that Aram. zman was borrowed from Akkad. simānu: see for example Kaufman 1974, 92, who points out that the recently discovered occurrences of this otherwise late word in Old Babylonian texts would conclusively confirm the Semitic, and not Iranian, origin of the word. However, Kogan holds that such occurrences are not really conclusive, especially because the etymon of the Akkadian word is disputed (note also that Kaufman himself admits that the meaning of the word simānî in the Old Babylonian occurrences is uncertain: cf. Kaufman 1974, 92 n. 310). Syr. zbnʾ and Md. zban, zebnā presuppose a dissimilation m ... n > b ... n (see § 11.3.2). Note also that the Syr. derivative zbnyʾ zaḇnāyā temporal, fragile; indicating time (attested from the 4th century onwards) seems to be a semantic calque on MP zamānīg (which, however, is recorded in CPD 98 with the meaning "prescribed"), NP zamānī temporal, worldly, frail (Steingass 621). Finally, the form without dissimilation zmnʾ appears once in Syriac, not recorded in LS, occurring in the expression klh zmnʾ, lit. "all time", a hapax attested in PsC 207, 6: Budge wrongly translates "his band" (namely, of Pariōg), basing himself on a gloss of a manuscript, but in the footnote suggests that the sequence may be a unique word of Persian origin. In my opinion, klh zmnʾ (lit. "all time") is a hybrid calque on MP ham zamān immediately (Nyberg 228) ● zbnʾ time Gn 2, 25; ES 1, 398F etc.; temporality, fragility ES 155F; am 2, 190, 3 etc.; tense (gramm.) Bh gr passim; zbnyʾ temporal, fragile ES 1, 383F; am 6, 605, 12; indicating time Bh gr 1, 89, 5; 158, 11; 163-166; zbnnyʾ temporal, transitory KwDW 376, 4; Rechtsb. 2, 144, 24; χρόνιος gl herm.; klh zmnʾ PsC 207, 6 ◆ LS 187b; PS Comp. 109 f.; PS Suppl. 106; Nöldeke 1898 § 87