Bible Lexicons

סְמָדַר m. quadrilit. (compounded of the verbs סָמַם to smell, and הָדַר to adorn, compare Arab. هدر to break forth, as the blossom of palms), vine blossom, οἰνάνθη, Song of Solomon 7:13, פָּֽרְחָה הַגֶּפֶן פִּתַּח הַסְּמָדַר “the vine sprouts, its blossom opens;” Song of Solomon 2:13, הַגְּפָנִים סְמָדַר “the vines (are in) blossom;” Song of Solomon 2:15, כְּרָמֵנוּ סְמָדַר “our vines (are in) blossom; (compare Exodus 9:31, הַפִּשְׁתָּה גִבְעֹל). Symm. οἰνάνθη, κυπρίζω, κυπρισμός. (Syr. ܣܡܳܕܪܳܐ id., see Isaiah 17:11 Pesh.; in the Zabian also of other blossoms, as of hemp, see Norbergii Lexid. p. 159). Some of the Jewish doctors do not understand this to be the blossom of the vine, but the small grapes just out of the blossom (see Surenhusius, Mishnah, t. i. p. 309); this sense is also given by the Vulgate, chap. 7:13 so also Kimchi and Leonh. Hug (Schutzschrift für s. Erklärung des Hohenliedes, p. 5); but I prefer the former explanation, because of 2:13 and 7:13.-Some one has of late proposed a singular conjecture relative to this word (Lit. Zeit. Jen. 1830, iv. p. 333), that סְמָדַר is a superior kind of vine, so called from the town of سمندر, which abounds in wine, which was situated in the province of Chazaria (now Astrachan), on the Caspian sea, not far from the mouth of the Volga, inhabited by both Jews and Christians, and destroyed by the Russians a.d. 969, as is narrated by Ibn Alvardi (Frähn on Ibn Fozlan, page 65). This place appears to have been so called from the monastery of St. Andrew, the [alleged] apostle of that region, as is shewn by the modern name, San Andrewa. (Compare the Servian city سمندرية or Sendrovia, from the Slav. Sandrew, i.e. St. Andreas.)