Exploring Time in the Arabic Dictionary: “Tomorrow”

غَدًا

root: غ-د-و / adverb of time / definition: tomorrow

In the new Exploring Time series last week, we took a trip to yesterday. This week, we’re looking ahead: exploring how we can understand the notion of tomorrow through the Arabic dictionary.

(Yes, we’re skipping today—call me future-thinking or something.)

As for “tomorrow”, there are two main words used to express it in Arabic. Let’s explore:

غَدٌ

root: غ-د-و

This two-letter word is actually derived from the triliteral defective root غ-د-و. So where has the و gone?

Well, غَد was originally غَدْو but the و eventually fell out of use. We can use the accusative form غدًا to make “tomorrow” an adverb of time.

Arabic dictionaries also document the word غَداة (as an abstract feminisation of غَد), which can either refer to the morning or a more remote tomorrow. In غداة, we can see that the original و has transformed into an alif.

Back to غد—it’s defined in the dictionary as:

tomorrow
a future day
sometime in the future

But we can extract more meaning than that by looking at the form I verb from the same root: غَدا / يَغدو. This verb can mean “to go or come (particularly in the morning)” and “to become or come to be”.

Reflecting on this, we can interpret غد also as:

that which comes with the approaching morning
that which comes to be

Thus, غد is what’s approaching us—it may be as close and definite as the morning, or as unknown and vague as a future “sometime”. But غد is always dawning, always coming into being, and rising over whatever has set from today.

بُكْرة

root: ب-ك-ر

Like غَد, the noun بُكرة is related to the morning; and its root, ب-ك-ر, is all about being early. (Think مُبَكِّراً!)

For example, the form I verb بَكَرَ / يَبكُرُ means “to set out early in the morning” or “to come/be early”, whilst the form III باكَرَ / يُباكِرُ is defined as “to be ahead of” and “anticipate” someone.

So, in addition to the definitions filed under بُكرة in dictionary, like:

the early morning
the first part of the day
tomorrow
the following day

…we can add that بكرة is also:

that which lies ahead
that which is anticipated… or anticipates us?

But I can’t stop my eyes from wandering in the dictionary…

Under the same root, we find the noun بَكرة (which, clearly, is very similar to بُكرة):

So, as well as بُكرة being that which lies ahead, waiting for us while we’re expecting it, and emerging like the brightness of an early morning, perhaps we can also understand that بُكرة is what we’re all going forth into—whatever world the Sun may rise upon, we’ll all be swept into it by the currents of time.

The link between the Arabic words for “tomorrow” and the idea of morning reminds me of the Spanish word mañana, which means both “tomorrow” and “morning”. I always found mañana por la mañana (“tomorrow morning”) a curious thing.

Maybe we need someone to write an Exploring Time in the Spanish Dictionary series. Volunteers please.

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