Root Exploration: ء-ر-ب

مُسْتَشْفى

root: ش-ف-ي / form X passive participle / plural: مُستَشفَيات / definition: hospital

Four hours is how long we spent in A&E yesterday. And it’s interesting how the brain keeps itself busy during those drawn-out periods of waiting on seemingly uncomfortable-by-design chairs.

My mind, for example, kept wandering between Subway sandwiches and the spacing of the wall decor while my eyes scanned the ECG results in my hand every now and then, as if anything new would have made its way onto the paper since I’d last checked.

I didn’t get a Subway sandwich in the end, if you were wondering. Nor did I work out why the wall decor was laid out as it was.

But in spite of the lack of answers at the hospital, my mind felt unexpectedly clear today—ready to present you, my dear reader, with another Root Exploration post.

Since I mentioned wishful thinking in last week’s post, I decided today to dig into the root ء-ر-ب.

Let’s explore:

ء-ر-ب

ء-ر-ب is a hamzated, triliteral root. For an easy guide on how the hamza changes form depending on its phonological position, see Seats of the Hamza (ء).

Form I

الفعل / verb:

أَرِبَ / يَأْرَبُ = to be skillful, proficient (بِـ in)

أَرَبَ / يَأْرِبُ = to tighten (a knot)

(note the difference in vowelling of these form I verbs; the first vowelling pattern indicates a state whilst the second indicates an action; see Form I Verb Vowelling Patterns for more)

المصدر / verbal noun:

أَرَب / آراب = wish, desire, need (في for); purpose, goal, aim

noun:

إرْب / آراب = limb

(note how إرْب and أَرَب have the same plural form!)

collocations:

مَزَّقَهُ إرْبًا إرْبٍا = to tear something to shreds

إرْبة = skill, resourcefulness

أُرْبة / أُرَب = knot, bow

emphatic adjectives:

أَريب = skillful, resourceful, clever

(the pattern فَعيل is an emphatic form—صيغة مبالغة)

noun of place and time:

مَأْرَب / مَآرِب = wish, desire, aim, goal

(for more on this type of noun, check out The مَـ of Place and Time)

Form III

الفعل / verb:

آرَبَ / يُؤارِبُ = to try to outwit someone

This was a short post compared to some other ones in the Root Exploration series, right? Well, sometimes we just need a shorter post to help our minds relax and stop them from wandering.

I hope it kept your brain a little busy at least.

!مع السلامة