Exploring Time in the Arabic Dictionary: Is سنة Longer than عام?

سَنَة

root: س-ن-ه or س-ن / noun / definition: year

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Both سَنة and عام are translated into English as “year”, and they’re used interchangeably.

So why does the dictionary tell us that one of these years is longer than the other? What’s the real difference between these two words?

(Note: حَول is another word for “year”, but we’ll deal with that one another time…)

Let’s start with separate overviews of the nouns سنة and عام:

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سَنة

root: س-ن or س-ن-ه

Some say that سنة only has two root letters, س-ن, similar to words like يَد (“hand”) and اِبْن (“son”).

For more about the word ابن, see What’s the Difference Between ابن and بن?

Others say that its root is actually س-ن-ه, and that سَنة was originally سَنْهة. (And some others say سَنْوة, but stay with me on this train of thought and maybe we’ll head somewhere.)

There’s support that سنة is derived from س-ن-ه: we just need to head to the dictionary, where we’ll find a small array of derivatives under the root.

For example, we have the form V verb تَسَنَّهَ / يَتَسَنَّهُ (“to stay for a year” or “for food/drink to become spoilt) and the form III verbal-noun-turned-adverb مُسانَهَةً (“annually, yearly”).

(Compare مسانهةً to مُياوَمةً from the root ي-و-م, meaning “daily”.)

The form V verb يتسنّه appears in the Qur’an, in verse 2:259!

Whatever its root, the common plural forms for سنة are سَنَوات and سِنين.

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عام

root: ع-و-م

عام is derived from the root ع-و-م, and its plural form is أَعْوام.

From this root, we also get the form I verb عامَ / يَعومُ which means “to swim or float”.

And it’s said that عام is so called because the Sun appears to “swim” or takes its course through all of the zodiacal constellations in that time period.

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So what’s the difference?

Everyone knows I love the Hans Wehr, but Lane’s Lexicon is amazing for understanding the nuances in the language.

In the latter, we find one main difference between سنة and عام:

• سنة refers to the time it takes for the Earth to perform a single revolution of the Sun, starting from any day (i.e. a solar year)
• عام refers to the twelve Arabian months—which are based on the moon’s phase cycle—as a collective (i.e. a lunar year)

So while a سنة (solar year) is around 365 days, an عام (lunar year) only lasts approximately 354 days, making سنة longer than عام.

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Hmm, I wonder if there’s a separate Arabic word for a galactic year. (That’s the time it takes for the Solar System to complete one orbit of the Milky Way Galaxy, it’s close to 80 billion days…)

For more space-related terms, check out the Space vocabulary list and test yourself with the quiz!

Oh, and have a read of last week’s quasi-related post if you missed it: Four Dual Nouns Meaning “Day and Night”.

!مع السلامة

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