Check Out My New Sutras

The Sanskrit word sutras meaning “threads” is most certainly related to the Latin sutura meaning “a seam, a sewing together” (which is where the English suture is derived from) through their respective words for sew (Skt. sivyati, L. suere).

You might speculate that the Classical Arabic sura which is the term for the different sections of the Quran meaning “step” or “degree” and related to siwwara, “to enclose, to wall in” may have either 1. come from an earlier unattested related cognate of Sanskrit, Latin, and the Semitic family of languages, or 2. the word and its sense was borrowed into Arabic during classical times through trade and cultural exchange. Or perhaps an earlier Semitic term was adopted independently into Sanskrit and Latin.

To quote a favorite, anonymous author everybody loves: “Nobody knows!”

Finally, an awful joke: What did the tailor say to the self-styled, self-sewn jacket? Ok, fine, suture-self!