سوف

Borrowed from Aramaic סוֹף‎ / ܣܘܦ‎ (sōp̄, “end”),[1] which was used in various adverbal uses such as “after”, “in the end”. Compare the same word pervading the Hebrew language as סוֹף‎ (sōp̄, “end”) in her later usage.

From the Arabic particle, it was natural to form a form II verb “to put off in the future”, said of someone who commits to do something (سَوْفَ أَفْعُلُ (sawfa ʔafʕulu, “I will do”), and less well-known form I سَافَ‎ (sāfa) meaning “to endure” and “to smell” as sensory anticipation, whence ”to hunt”, and form III سَاوِفَ‎ (sāwifa, “to smell; to say in private; to compress, to go in unto”), and notably مَسَافَة‎ (masāfa, “distance, interval”).

سَوْفَ • (sawfa)

1. added to an imperfect (present) verb form to express future tense: will

   ‏يَقْرَأُ كِتَابًا، سَوْفَ يَقْرَأُ كِتَابًا‎

   yaqraʔu kitāban, sawfa yaqraʔu kitāban

   He is reading a book, he will read a book.

• سَـ‎ (sa-)

• لَنْ‎ (lan)

سَوَّفَ • (sawwafa) II, non-past يُسَوِّفُ‎‎ (yusawwifu)

1. to postpone, delay, procrastinate, to put off a person or thing
2. (obsolete) to commission to, to charge