=====xer=====
צר

The meaning of 'xer' is unclear.

In many cases it is taken to mean "trouble", or "enemies", and is the root word of [[xerey]] refering to "skin problems" such as pox or leprosy.

On the other hand, in many cases it appears to have a rather opposite meaning of "preserve".

It is also the root of two geographically neighboring cultural opponents, the same word translated sometimes as "Tyre" and sometimes "Egypt"((see [[mexerim]])). The Egyptians could be thought of as "the Preserved People", due to their practice of mummification of their dead.

One possible resolution of this dilemma is that the word originally meant "preserve" but came to take on several ironic usages. 

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LexID 6862 - 6869