🔼The name Sarid: Summary
- Meaning
- Refugee Camp
- Etymology
- From the noun שריד (sarid), survivor or escapee.
🔼The name Sarid in the Bible
The name Sarid belongs to a place that marked the outer reach of the territory of Zebulun. It's mentioned in Joshua 19:10 only. Where exactly Sarid was located is no longer clear but it bears a suspicious resemblance to the name Sardis, on or just over the far western border of the Hittite empire. The name Sarid is also tellingly similar to (and perhaps tellingly different from) the name סרד (sered), Sered, of the son of Zebulun.
🔼Etymology of the name Sarid
The name Sarid is identical to the noun שריד (sarid), meaning survivor or escapee:
סרר
The verb סרר (sarar) means to be stubborn or rebellious, particularly of attitude (rather than active revolt). Adjective סר (sar) means stubborn or rebellious. Noun סרה (sara) means rebellion.
The verb סור (sur) means to turn aside. It may simply describe taking an exit off a road, but it may also speak of removal or even a coming to an existential end. This verb's sole derivation is the noun סרה (sara), meaning a turning aside or deviation. It's identical to the previous noun meaning rebellion.
Root שרד (sarad) describes a dashing off in blind fear, to run away terrified. Noun שריד (sarid) is commonly translated as survivor, but it rather describes someone who is still racing around trying to get away from whatever is trying to capture or kill him.
An identical second root שרד (sarad) may actually simply be the same as the previous, and has to do with braiding or plaiting. Noun שרד (serad) describes some coarse textile. Noun סרד (sarad) describes a net-maker, סרדא (serada) means network, web or grate, and סרדותא (sarduta) describes a hunter's net.
This latter root שרד (sarad) or סרד (sarad) comes via the process of transposition from the root סדר (sadar), which describes the formation of any ordered arrangement of rows of lines. Noun סדר (seder) describes a general order or organization (the absence of which typifies the realm of the dead). Noun שדרה (sedera) describes any sort of lineal order of elements such as beams or pillars or soldiers standing guard. Noun מסדרון (misderon) means "place of שדרה (sedera)" and describes a colonnade or pillar-supported porch.
🔼Sarid meaning
The name Sarid may simply mean Survivor or Refugee Camp and describe a settlement of refugees from some long forgotten war. But it may also refer to a state of pre-modern lawlessness or even pre-speech muteness, of people who lived in some tribal settlement but had very little standardized speech or formal law to guide them. In that sense, our name would mean Outlaw but without the modern romantic connotation. More accurate would be Suffering From Lawlessness or Without A Shepherding Law.