Proto-Semitic root

*ʾVrVš-

‘ask’ 1, ‘desire, wish’ 2

di Mino’s gloss: to ask, request; desire, wish

In Linear A1 entry

A-RE-SA-NAʾAriš-ān'The Requested One'—votive birth-name from √ʾ-r-š "to request, desire" + hypocoristic -ānCandidateSemitic13D

Notes

HALOT 91 sets Hebrew ʾrś ‘to betroth’ (Middle Hebrew ʾrs pi., Jewish Aramaic ʾrs) with Akkadian ērišu ‘bridegroom’ and erēšu ‘to ask’, in an entry apart from *ʾrš (ʾărešet); its ś and the Aramaic s do not answer the š of ʾărešet. Hajouz 2013, 72 reads VE 234 ì-rí-sa-tum (= Sum. al-du₁₁-ga) as /ʾirišatum/ ‘wish’, where Sanmartín GlOS 1, 41 has /ʾiriSt, ʾirSat/.

Reflexes7 languages

East Semitic2

Akkadianerēšu 1mērešu 2 (CAD M/2 26)gloss withheldAnderson–Moser 2024 root ʾrš
Eblaiticì-rí-sa-tum /ʾiriSt, ʾirSat/ 2 (Sanmartín GlOS 1, 41)gloss withheld

Northwest Semitic5

Punicʾrš ‘ask’Anderson–Moser 2024 root ʾrš
Ugariticʾrširšt /ʾirištu/? (UVST 110)gloss withheldAnderson–Moser 2024 root ʾrš
Phoenicianʾrš (T 33)gloss withheld
Hebrewʾărešet 2 (Ps 21:3; HALOT 91)gloss withheld
Amoriteʾirśu/ʾiriśu, ʾarišu (Buck 2019, 324)ʾ-r-S 2: cf. ḫa-ra-šum (Sanmartín GlOS 1, 41)gloss withheld

† Gloss withheld: the cited dictionary’s licence is closed, so its form and page stand without its gloss.