This word probably illustrates the most complicated and multi-faceted set of developments in all of Aramaic (or for that matter within the Semitic languages). It would appear that sqwṭ and its phonetic by-form ( when there is no intermediate vowel) zqwṭ are dissimilated forms of *zṭwṭ > sṭwṭ-- the latter a diminutive from zwṭˀ which is a simplification of zwṭr which is a by-form or parallel development of the common Semitic root that appears most frequently in Aramaic as zˁr, "to be small."