حُبّ
root: ح-ب-ب / noun / definition: love
Deciding to spend the rest of my year studying in Qatar has come with many immediate benefits.
For one, it motivated me to finally address a major point of procrastination: sorting through the big bag of miscellanea at the foot of my bed which has been sat there for two years too long.
What a relief, at last, to show the door to this uninvited guest I’d been tiptoeing around in my own space.
So it’s from this air-conditioned library in Doha, looking out onto the sunshine-flooded, cat-filled campus, that I write this post.
And I think it’s high time for another synonyms post, don’t you?
Let’s look at some different verbs meaning “to prefer” in Arabic:
فَضَّلَ / يُفَضِّلُ
root: ف-ض-ل
form: II
This is the one most of us learnt in our first year of studying Arabic at university.
(هل تُفضِّلون الشاي أم القهوة؟)
The root ف-ض-ل is related to excess or going over-and-above. The concepts of grace and favour fall under this root, too, because they encompass the idea of going beyond the norm or what is expected.
اِستَحَبَّ / يَستَحِبُّ
root: ح-ب-ب
form: X
Here we have a form X verb from a geminate root. Form X verbs are associated with seeking, and ح-ب-ب is related to love. Cute.
آثَرَ / يُؤثِرُ
root: ء-ث-ر
form: IV
Our third verb is a form IV from a hamzated root, which is why the spelling is a little interesting. (Read more about the hamza and the different ways it can be written here.)
The root ء-ث-ر gives rise to many meanings, often related in some metaphorical way to the idea of a trace. Explore it.
The next three words are less commonly associated with the meaning of “to prefer”:
خَيَّرَ / يُخَيِّرُ
root: خ-ي-ر
form: II
It’s from this root that we get the word for “good” or “better”, خَير.
We’re probably more familiar with another word from this hollow root: the form VIII verb اِختارَ / يَختارُ meaning “to decide”.
رَجَّحَ / يُرَجِّحُ
root: ر-ج-ح
form: II
When you see this root, think of a balance scale that you put weights on. It’s related to outweighing, inclining, and rocking.
When you prefer something, you give more weight to it and incline towards it.
أمازَ / يُميزُ
root: م-ي-ز
form: IV
Our final verb on the list is from the hollow root م-ي-ز, which is related to distinction and preference.
From this root, we get the word مُمتاز, “excellent”.
As always, there are many more synonyms for this concept—have you come across any others?
See you on my next post, إلى اللقاء!
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Great post, as usual.
For the third verb, «آثَرَ», the imperfect tense would be «يُؤْثِرُ» as opposed to «يُآثِرُ». It is a Form IV verb, as you correctly mentioned.
Think «آمن، يؤمن» or «آتى، يؤتي».
Oops, my mistake! Thanks for pointing it out, I’ve fixed it now 😄