A new word or phrase from the Hans Wehr dictionary, every Wednesday.
على شفرة الهاوية on the brink of the abyss
Root: ش-ف-ر
Page: 558*
Example: “كانَ على شَفْرةِ الهاوِيَةِ.. وَأَنْتَ أَنْقَذْتَه”
Translation: “he was on the brink of the abyss… and you saved him”
Notes:
- We explored several other phrases meaning “on verge/brink of” in Four Arabic Roots to Express the Phrase “on the Verge of”
- In that post, we looked at how to use a verbal derivative of the root ش-ر-ف to mean “to be on the verge of”. In today’s post, we have a nominal derivative of ش-ف-ر. Notice how the root letters are the same, but in a different order? See Arabic Observations: Same Root Letters, Different Sequence for more on this linguistic phenomenon.
Revise all of the vocab from the series on Quizlet:
- Wehr Wednesdays Vocab (#1-100)
- Wehr Wednesdays Vocab (#101-200)
- Wehr Wednesdays Vocab (#201-300)
- Wehr Wednesdays Vocab (#301-400)
* The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th Edition
The Arabic Pages 