Saba

I keep stumbling across "Saba" in Graeco-Latin Christian translations of Syrian saints. Lately it's You Know Who but that one's also been confused with John Dalyatha also honoured as Saba. Another John, of Damascus, lived out his days at a Mar Saba monastery.

E. Mar-Emmanuel suggests a Byzantinism of sawa, meaning "elder". Whether that's as "presbyter", or as "venerable", or as "the older one" (Latin senior) in a series of people of the same name (like in a family): such will depend on context.

As I read about "Sabaeans" in Islamic tradition, as of now I've been thinking of Sheba down in the Yemen. This did exist as a real kingdom, as the Ethiopians also will remind us. And Arabic, like Syriac, and *looks them up* like the South Arabian and Ethiopic scripts: all distinguish/ed W from B.

But one might consider a Palaestinian qârî who lived in a Hellenic region, as didn't. Such would know "saba" as a loanword back into Semitic, like the Copts knew Greek "oasis" (originally Egyptian) as a loanword.