Four Dual Nouns Meaning “Day and Night”

نَهار

root: ن-ه-ر / noun / plural: أَنهُر / definition: day, daytime

At the beginning of the year, we looked at some dual nouns which carry the meaning of “the Sun and the Moon“, because sometimes the dual is used to refer to a pair of things often mentioned together.

So, I thought, why don’t we round off this year with some more dual nouns—this time with the meaning of “day and night”?

Remember that the dual endings are: ـانِ for words in the nominative case (مرفوع), and ـَينِ for words in the accusative or genitive (منصوب or مجرور). In the following list, the dual nouns are written in the nominative.

Without further ado, here are four dual nouns meaning “day and night”:

الجَديدان

root: ج-د-د

We’re most likely familiar with the word جَديد, “new”.

Perhaps الجديدان (literally: the two new (things)) refers to day and night because they’re in a constant state of renewal: the day dawns and the night falls in a repetitive cycle.

Maybe it’s a good lesson too—every sunrise and moonrise is a new start.

الرِّدفان

root: ر-د-ف

The singular رِدف means “the one which follows”.

So, the word الردفان highlights the fact that day and night always follow one another.

الطَّريدان

root: ط-ر-د

This is an interesting one.

طَريد means “banished” or “outcast” or “fleeing”… And maybe it’s because day banishes night when it breaks, and vice versa when night falls. And maybe it’s because they appear to flee from one another, and we never find daytime and nighttime coincide.

And maybe there are too many maybes and not a lot of answers in this post…

المَلَوان

root: م-ل-و

This dual noun is from the same root as the adverb مَلِيّاً (“for a long time”), which we saw in Wehr Wednesdays #252.

Day and night are also related to time, so that’s one link. (Speaking of time, have you been keeping up with the Exploring Time series?)

But we can also look at the verbs under the root to understand why الملوان refers to day and night.

For example, the form V verb تَمَلّى / يَتَمَلَّى means “to pursue”—based on this, we can say that الملوان carries a similar meaning to الردفان.

And the form I verb, مَلا / يَملو means “to walk briskly or run”. So الملوان may be referring to how the day and night are in constant motion, passing quickly.

It’s a curious thing how the adverb ملياً and the form I verb ملا refer to slowness and rapidness, respectively.

Days and nights feel long yet pass quickly, though. So I guess in the end, it all makes sense. Arabic always does.

I guess I’ll see you in 2025.

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