Borrowed from Arb. zff ‘to conduct the bride to her husband’. In the continental MSA, a similar borrowing is attested in Jib. zəffέt ‘procession (at a wedding, circumcision)’. Conversely, Mhr. zəf ‘to carry water; to go back and forth with goods brought by a rainy-season vessel’ and Jib. zeff ‘to carry something heavy again and again’ might be autochthonous cognates in view of their more general, non-cultural meanings. Note Sab. mzf (pl. mzff) ‘outflow channel of a dam’, perhaps from < “to lead”.