جَريمة
root: ج-ر-م / noun / plural: جَرائِم / definition: crime
What do youngest siblings have in common with lawlessness?
A few ideas might spring to your mind (although I, as the youngest child myself, see no relation whatsoever…).
But Arabic dictionaries hold the two definitions under the same term. Let’s see why.
Under the root ج-ر-م in the Hans Wehr, we find the noun جَريمة:
جريمة here is defined as a crime or sin.
Then, if we head over to Lane’s Lexicon, we find جَريمة with a different definition:
Here, جريمة is defined as the “last of one’s offspring”, i.e. the youngest child.
So what’s the connection?
Well, جريمة is a noun derived from the form I verb جَرَمَ / يَجرِمُ which carries the core meaning of cutting off.
It also means “to commit a crime or sin” (i.e. a جريمة)—which I guess could be considered “cutting” away from morals or society.
And this “cutting off” also explains the second definition of جريمة. As Lane’s notes, جريمة refers to the last of someone’s children “as though there were a cutting off after it”.
Anyway, I haven’t heard جريمة being used in the context of the latter definition, and I’m swayed to say it’s a more archaic or rarer one.
And by no means is any of this a go-ahead to call your youngest sibling or child a “crime”!
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