سوف

Borrowed from Aramaic סוֹף / ܣܘܦ (sōp̄, “limit, end”),^[1] which was used in various adverbial uses such as “after”, “in the end”. Compare the same word pervading the Hebrew language as סוֹף (sōp̄, “end”) in later usage, and Hebrew טֶרֶם (térem, “before; not yet”) cognate to طَرْمَة (ṭarma, “upper lip; edge, protrusion”).

From the Arabic particle, it was natural to form a form II verb “to put off in the future”, said of someone who commits to do something (سَوْفَ أَفْعَلُ (sawfa ʔafʕalu, “I will do”), and less well-known form I سَافَ (sāfa) meaning “to endure” and “to smell” as sensory anticipation, whence ”to hunt”, and form III سَاوِفَ (sāwifa, “to smell; to say in private; to compress, to go in unto”), and notably مَسَافَة (masāfa, “distance, interval”).

سَوْفَ • (sawfa)

1. added to an imperfect (present) verb form to express future tense: will

   يَقْرَأُ كِتَابًا، سَوْفَ يَقْرَأُ كِتَابًا

   yaqraʔu kitāban, sawfa yaqraʔu kitāban

   He is reading a book, he will read a book.

• سَـ (sa-)

• لَنْ (lan)

سَوَّفَ • (sawwafa) II (non-past يُسَوِّفُ (yusawwifu), verbal noun تَسْوِيف (taswīf))

1. to postpone, delay, procrastinate, to put off a person or thing
2. (obsolete) to commission to, to charge