زبور

• From the root ز ب ر‎ (z-b-r), meaning “to be well composed, to be well written”, “to be engraved or written skillfully”, a variant of ذ ب ر‎ (ḏ-b-r) – ذَبْر‎ (ḏabr, “a writing on palm-leaves, a book”), ذَبَرَ‎ (ḏabara, “to write, to point; to read thoroughly; to understand well”) –, which latter root is declared to be from the Himyaritic dialect and either cognate with Hebrew דִּבּוּר‎ (dibbū́r, “speech”) and Ugaritic 𐎄𐎁𐎗 (dbr, “to speak, to proclaim”) or one of the many descendants of Sumerian 𒁾 (dub, “tablet”) present in words like دِيوَان‎ (dīwān), دَفْتَر‎ (daftar), أَدَب‎ (ʔadab) دَفّ‎ (daff), طُوب‎ (ṭūb), طَابَع‎ (ṭābaʕ), ذَبْر‎ (ḏabr, “a writing on palm-leaves, a book”), ذَبَرَ‎ (ḏabara, “to write, to point; to read thoroughly; to understand well”).
• Less likely a variation of the root ز م ر‎ (z-m-r), meaning "to play a pipe or reed", "use a musical instrument", "to make music or play a melody"; semantically borrowed from Hebrew זָמַר‎ (zamar, “to make music, sing; to praise, to sing psalms”).

زَبُور • (zabūr) m (plural زُبُر‎ (zubur))

1. the Psalms
2. a writing, composition
3. psalter

• تَوْرَاة‎ (tawrāh, “the Torah”)
• إِنْجِيل‎ (ʔinjīl, “the Gospel”)
• الْكِتَاب الْمُقَدَّس‎ (al-kitāb al-muqaddas, “the Bible”)
  • الْعَهْد الْقَدِيم‎ (al-ʕahd al-qadīm, “the Old Testament”)
  • الْعَهْد الْجَدِيد‎ (al-ʕahd al-jadīd, “the New Testament”)
• الْقُرْآن‎ (al-qurʔān, “the Qur'an”)

• Eilers, Wilhelm (1962), “Iranisches Lehngut im arabischen Lexikon”, in Indo-Iranian Journal (in German), volume 5, issue 3, pages 216–218
• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 248–249
• Jeffery, Arthur (1938) The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʾān (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series; 79), Baroda: Oriental Institute, pages 148–149