סַנְסִנָּיו (sansinnāyw; Song of Songs 7:9) and the Palpal Noun Pattern

The word סַנְסִנָּיו (sansinnāyw; Song 7:9) is a hapax legomenon, and there is no scholarly consensus about its meaning. It has been variously identified as denoting the branches of a date palm, clusters of dates, or the blossoms or the fruit of a date palm. The word sansinnāyw belongs to the class of noun pattern termed palpal (פַּלְפַּל). This article maintains that some of the words of the palpal noun pattern share a common semantic characteristic. This characteristic enables one to determine the precise meaning of the word סַנְסִנָּיו: a fruit-laden cluster of dates.