alapa

Of unknown origin. Originally used by Romans to refer to the strike given from master to slave upon manumission as a final act of indignity. First attested in Phaedrus when the Empire was already greatly expanded, then in the Semitic loanword-ridden Juvenal and largely attested in the Christian writings, i. e. from the proponents of a Semitic religion. Hence, probably from Aramaic אַלַּף (allap̄, “to teach”), and/or from Proto-Semitic *ʔallipa (“to tame, to domesticate; to familiarize, to instruct, to put together, to join”), related via the idea of an ox trained to Proto-Semitic *ʔalp- (“ox, ox in a yoke”).