sebil

English

Etymology 1

From Arabic سبيل (sabīl) or Turkish sebil.

Noun

sebil (plural sebils)

2. A fountain, a small structure in a Muslim area where water is freely dispensed to members of the public.
   • 2014, David J. Roxburgh, Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture: Essays in Honor of Renata Holod, BRILL, →ISBN:

     Her tomb is at the far end of the complex, completed in 1796, which also includes a sebil, soup kitchen, school, large cemetery, […]

   • 2016, The Mediterranean Medina: International Seminar, Gangemi Editore spa, →ISBN, page 260:

     Addition of architectonic elements for public use to these walls, sebil and fountains, also gives them particular volume […]

Alternative forms

• sabil

Etymology 2

Noun

sebil (plural sebils)

1. (possibly obsolete) Alternative form of cebil
   • 1868, Henry Charles Ross-Johnson, A Long Vacation in the Argentine Alps: Or, Where to Settle in the River Plate States..., page 141:

     Don Carlos is supposed to prepare the most and best kid skins in South America, thanks to the bark of the sebil tree, vast forests of which grow on these ranges and in Tucuman. Don Carlos is a capital fellow, speaks French, English, German, ...

   • 1886, Juan Pelleschi, Eight Months on the Gran Chaco of the Argentine Republic, London: S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, page 247:

     Growing with or near the sebil, we find the two cedars, the white and the pink; the lapaccio, that we have remarked likewise in the sub-zone of the urunday, the walnut, the laurel, the tatane, the pacara, the mulberry, the tipa, the male oak, the ...

   • 1897, University of Pennsylvania. University Museum, Bulletin, page 168:

     [...] and as the bark of the curupau tree, which from its name and general description may be a niopo tree, serves, according to Cardus, to tan hides in eastern Bolivia, so in like manner the bark of sebil is used to tan hides ...

Anagrams

• Biles, Bisel, Eblis, Liebs, biles, blies, lesbi

Turkish

Etymology

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish سبیل (sebil), from Arabic سَبِيل (sabīl).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seˈbil/, (definite accusative) /se.biːˈli/
• Hyphenation: se‧bil

Noun

sebil (definite accusative sebili, plural sebiller)

1. free distribution of water on holy days
2. sebil, a building where water is freely distributed to the public

   Synonym: sebilhane

3. (dialectal) free distribution of licorice

Declension

Inflection
Nominative	sebil
Definite accusative	sebili
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	sebil	sebiller
Definite accusative	sebili	sebilleri
Dative	sebile	sebillere
Locative	sebilde	sebillerde
Ablative	sebilden	sebillerden
Genitive	sebilin	sebillerin

Derived terms

• sebil etmek
• sebilci
• sebilhane

 

Related terms

• fisebilillah

 

Further reading

• “sebil”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “sebil”, in Nişanyan Sözlük