Uncommon Arabic Words for Mankind

البَشَر

root: ب-ش-ر / noun / definition: mankind

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For someone who aspires for a slow-paced life, I sure do seem to be on the go a lot.

“Another project?” they ask. Yes, apparently so. I’ve been liaising with venues and thinking of my friend’s article in between organising a family trip on an I’ll-reply-when-I-can group chat and agreeing to increase the capacity of a barely-prepared workshop I’m convening in four weeks due to apparent demand.

I’m thinking to gatecrash my parents’ retirement plans at this point.

But I think this, here and now, is me spiralling up a storm with firm belief that calm will inevitably follow.

Speaking of calm, it’s hard not to speak of its absence.

We’ve seen the images and heard the stories, and we know that human lives from Gaza to East Turkistan are in crisis and—with them—so is our collective humanity.

I pondered the root of إنسان at the start of a previous post and contemplated what it means to corrupt it. But the abstract feminine form of that word (i.e. إنسانيّة) isn’t the only noun defined in the dictionary as “mankind” and “humanity”.

Here’s a collection of both common and uncommon words that are also defined as such:

البَشَر، البَشَريّة

From the root ب-ش-ر, these nouns are related to بَشَرة (skin). The word بُشرى (glad tidings) also comes from ب-ش-ر, but—interestingly—Wehr lists these two under separate (yet identical) roots.

I wonder if he saw the ب-ش-ر of rejoicing to be completely incompatible with the ب-ش-ر of the human form. Even if that was the case though, some of his dictionary entries have completely antonymic meanings.

الإنْس

إنْس is from the same root (ء-ن-س) as إنسان and إنسانيّة. It’s related to friendliness and familiarity. You’ll notice in the Qur’an that الإنْس is used in verses where الجِنّ (the jinn) is also mentioned.

الأنام، الآنام

الأَنام or الآنام can refer to mankind itself, or creation in more general terms. Lane’s Lexicon mentions these words can refer to anything with a روح (soul).

الناسوت

We came across ناسوت in a post about the abstract ـوت suffix. ناسوت is related to ناس (people), as you might have guessed.

But what about its root? We’ll actually find both ناس and ناسوت under ء-ن-س, the same root that إنس and إنسان and إنسانية fall under.

Some believe that the noun الناس is related to النِسيان (forgetting) or النَوس (movement). We probably need a separate post at some point so we can really explore these possibilities and connotations.

العِباد

عِباد (from ع-ب-د) is a broken plural form of عَبد which, in this context, means “slave/servant of God“.

الخَلق

الخَلق from خ-ل-ق literally means “creation“, but can refer specifically to mankind.

(Side note: there’s a form XII verb from this root—yes, the verb forms go beyond ten!—meaning “to become smooth”: اِخلَولَقَ!)

الوَرى

This is an interesting one. The form I verb under the root و-ر-ي means “to kindle fire” (وَرى / يَري).

And I guess that’s what humans (الوَرَى) have been doing since the beginning of time: starting fires. Either for survival, or for destruction.

What do you think these words tell us about what it means to be human?

It feels like we’re in an era of hyper-awareness and a complete lack of it, all at the same time. It’s a lot to process, but we can’t bury our heads in the sand.

As with the other posts in the Uncommon Arabic Words for… series, this list is subject to additions over time. Have you come across any other words for mankind that we can add to this post?

.في أمان الله

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