Exploring Time in the Arabic Dictionary: “Autumn”

ضَباب

root: ض-ب-ب / noun / definition: fog, mist

---

It’s never great to have brain fog. It’s even worse if someone else suggests you have it. And more so if your brain doesn’t feel particularly foggy and you start to question what “symptoms” the other person noticed…

And then, all of a sudden (the same way I notice the lenses of my glasses are covered in smudges and fingerprints at the end of the day), my brain feels very foggy and I count the remaining days of winter, anticipating the fresh breezes of spring to demist the mind.

But before we think about spring—and even before we move past winter—I wanted to head back to autumn, الخَريف, for our Exploring Time series.

---

الخَريف

root: خ-ر-ف

خَريف is derived from a sound root which also gives rise to words like:

• خَروف (lamb)
• خُرافة (superstition)
• خَرَف (senility)

But it’s the form I verb from the root that really tells us about the origins of الخريف.

The form I verb خَرَفَ / يَخرُفُ means “to pluck or gather fruit“. (It can also mean “for one’s intellect to become weak as a result of old age” amongst other things… but the first definition holds more relevance for now.)

So, very simply, الخريف, autumn, is called as such because it’s the season in which fruits are harvested.

And خريف takes on other meanings too. It can refer to:

• ripe dates
• fresh milk
• autumnal rain

Going back to that form I verb that carries several meanings (explore the lamb-, senility-, and rain-related meanings here), it can also mean “to stay somewhere during autumn”.

I think about where I was in autumn compared to where I am now and—maybe it’s true—maybe my brain is a little foggy, because this period has been such a blur.

Also, my glasses need a good clean.

!إلى اللقاء

---

If you’d like to receive email notifications whenever a new post is published on The Arabic Pages, enter your email below and click “Subscribe”: