سنكف

• سنغف (alternative spelling)

Unknown. If not a loan, then perhaps from the Arabic verb اِسْتَنْكَفَ (istankafa, “to reject, spurn, disdain”) via a North Levantine Arabic reflex *اسْتَنْكَف (*stankaf) that could have anomalously metathesized to *تْسَنْكَف (*tsankaf). This metathesized form, if reanalyzed as form IIq, would have had a regular verbal noun *تْسِنْكُف (*tsinkuf, literally “rejection, spurning”); see explanation of the form of تْتِرْتُق (ttirtuʔ, “pattering”) for more detail.

The proposed verbal noun *تْسِنْكُف (*tsinkuf) could have then come to be used idiomatically as an interjection before reducing to *سِنْكُف (*sinkuf) and finally سِنْكُف (singuf). Compare the development of تْفِنْگِة (tfinge, “hoax, prank”). For the reduction of the initial *تسـ (*ts-) to a simple سـ (s-), compare سنغري (sangari, “plumber”).

• IPA^(key): /sinɡuf/ [seŋɡof, -uf]
• IPA^(key): /sinɡif/ [seŋɡef, -if]

سِنْكُف or سِنْكِف • (singuf or singif)

1. (childish) announcement of cutting someone off, accompanied by shaking one another's pinkies or by unilaterally wagging one's pinky
   • 2021 February 28, “سنكف… سنكف [singuf… singuf]”, in الفِيِنِيق [The Phoenix]‎^[1] (in Arabic), archived from the original on 8 October 2025:

     كل يوم ألف سبب وسبب للزعل المؤدي إلى القطيعة. نعلنها على رؤوس الإشهاد، والحاضر من الأطفال يعلم الغائب بهذا القرار المصيري: نعقد خنصر يدنا اليمنى بخنصر اليد اليمنى للغريم ونردد معاً: سنكف سنكف عَ التابوت / يللي بيحكيني بيموت / عَ راس بيروت

     kullu yawmin ʔalfu sababin wa sababin liz-zaʕali l-muʔaddī ʔilā l-qaṭiʕa. nuʕlinuhā ʕalā ruʔūsi l-ʔišhādi, wal-ḥāḍiru mina l-ʔaṭfāli yuʕlimu l-ḡāʔiba bi hāḏā l-qarāri l-maṣīriyy: nuʕqidu ḵinṣari yadinā l-yumnā bi ḵinṣari l-yadi l-yumnā lil-ḡarīmi wa nuraddidu maʕan: singuf singuf ʕat-tābūt / yalli byiḥkīni bimūt / ʕa rās bayrūt

     Every day, a thousand and one reasons for the pain that leads to cutting someone off. We announce it before witnesses, and the children present inform those absent of the fateful decision: we interlock our right-hand pinky with the right-hand pinky of our adversary and we repeat together, singuf, singuf on a coffin / whoever speaks to me will die / at Ras Beirut

• Often accompanied by the rhyme in the quotation.

Denominal verb of the above.

• IPA^(key): /sanɡaf/

سَنْكَف • (sangaf) (non-past يْسَنْكِف (ysangif), verbal noun سَنْكَفِة (sangafe) or تْسِنْكُف (tsinguf), active participle مْسَنْكَف (msangaf) or مْسَنْكِف (msangif))

1. to cut off (especially in the manner described above)

   Antonym: تْصَالَح (tṣālaḥ, “to make up”)

   Synonym: تْسَنْكَف (tsangaf)