ר The twentieth letter of the Heb. alphabet. The name of the letter, רֵישׁ (‘resh’), is Aram., and lit. means ‘head’; so called in allusion to the ancient form of this letter. In PBH it has the numerical value of two hundred. ר alternates with ל and נ (see the introductory entries to these letters). ר often serves for the dissimilation of the reduplication of a consonant. So, e.g., דַּרְמֶשֶׂק is a dissimilated form of דַּמֶשֶׂק (= Damascus). In this way many bases and words have been enlarged into quadriliterals; cp. e.g. BAram. כָּרֽסֵא (= chair), which is prob. a loan word from Akka. kussu (= chair, throne), whence prob. also Heb. כִּסֵּא; base כרסם (= to chew, gnaw, devour), dissimilated from כסם (= to shear, clip); שַׁרְבִיט (= scepter), enlarged from שֵׁבֶט (of s.m.); סַרֽעַפָּה (= branch), enlarged from סֽעַפָּה (of s.m.); שַׂרְעַפִּים (= thoughts), enlarged from שֽׂעִפִּים (of s.m.). Sometimes ר is assimilated to the following consonant; so כִּרֽכַּר becomes כִּכָּר (see כִּכָּר ᴵ, כִּכָּר ᴵᴵ, כִּכָּר ᴵᴵᴵ).