The Many Meanings of وَ

فَلَك

root: ف-ل-ك / noun / plural: أَفْلاك / definition: celestial orbit

July is waning and August, only four moonrises away, awaits expectantly.

And I, in four new moons, reach 29 (or 30, Turkish-ly speaking) and all this talk of moons is sending me into an orbital spin. Whatever that may mean.

And speaking of counting and meaning, did you know that there’s a one-letter Arabic particle that carries a whole system of definitions and connotations?

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Academic Arabic: Carrying Out, Conducting, Doing

كادَ

root: ك-و-د / form I past tense verb / definition: almost

When was the last time I wrote an Academic Arabic post? Too long ago, clearly, because I almost forgot this series existed.

But since my memory has been jogged, we’re getting back into it.

And today, we’re looking at two widely-applicable Arabic verbs that you’ll read or hear in academic contexts. They’re pretty much academic ways of saying doing.

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Dictionary Finds: Come Rain or Shine

يَصيفُ

root: ص-ي-ف / form I present tense, hollow verb / definition: to be summery

It’s mid-July. Summer’s peak. And while most have their faces stubbornly positioned in a fan’s airpath, my own spectacled one has been nestled warmly into the dictionary’s pages.

It seems that, come rain or shine, my mind will always be drawn back to one place. And—oh!—there’s an Arabic phrase for that.

Come rain or shine, meet صاف الزمان أم شتا.

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Arabic Observations: Warm Hearts, Cool Eyes

قُرّ

root: ق-ر-ر / noun / definition: cold, coolness

I’ve been napping a lot lately. Sometimes two or three times a day. My body feels heavy with a fatigue that pulls down my eyelids and drags my centre of gravity to the nearest flat surface to search for rest in the land of nod.

But no matter how much I sleep, or how I spend the day, no nodding-off awakens me.

Doctors have even studied my blood and still can’t find an answer to that age-old question: why is this girl so tired? Nor can they answer—more crucially—why I still have pins and needles in all my limbs, but my mum—unreassuringly—reassures me that I’ve just inherited her lineage’s “weak body” and that the almost-constant tingling is simply an ancestral bequest.

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Pins, Needles, and a Pause

تَنْميل

root: ن-م-ل / form II verbal noun / definition: pins and needles

I never thought I’d have to send a sick leave request with “pins and needles” as the reason—but each season homes realisations of the unexpected, and I submitted my GP note with bated breath and tingling limbs.

A four-week PhD pause, on my doctor’s recommendation.

Since my trip to A&E back in April, not much has improved, nor have I received any answer as to why my extremities sizzle whenever I sit or stand at my desk (or anywhere else, for that matter) or even when I lay down in a comfy bed holding a book to read.

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Exploring Time in the Arabic Dictionary: “Season”

هَنْهونة

root: ه-ن-ه-ن / noun / definition: lullaby

Tuesday’s early-hours London sky boomed and ignited in thunderstorm, and I—with my passionate affection for summer storms—heard the rumbles and roars as cradlesong and slipped effortlessly back into sleep after dawn prayer.

I was, however, mildly fearful that the “triangle of death” would fly into my room; that is, the giant and blurry moth I noticed against the window through sleepy, glasses-absent eyes. But the lullaby of the sky’s tumult was too slumber-inducing to protest rest.

Speaking of summer storms, we’re circling back to our Exploring Time series to look at the Arabic word for season.

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Same Rule, Another Noun: عِزون

مَعْرَج

root: ع-ر-ج / noun of place / plural: مَعارِج / definition: place or route of ascent

Over a year ago, in Non-Human Nouns, Human Plurals, we explored some non-human nouns that—unexpectedly—take on sound, masculine plural forms (which are usually reserved for nouns referring to humans).

Think: سِنون and عالَمون and أولون. Or, with a different case: سِنين and عالَمين and أولين.

Another noun displaying this phenomenon is عِزون.

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Four Shared Words for Camels in Arabic and Akkadian

إبِل

root: ء-ب-ل / collective noun / definition: camels

I learnt a new phrase this weekend, from an Arabic-speaking guy who drove three hours to an underwhelming event and told us: أَكَلْنا خازوق.

Basically, as my husband put it, it means he took an L. In other words, “we’ve been done”. Or, in ever-so-slightly-less colloquial terms (?), “we got screwed over”. (There’s no translating this one formally… we’d lose the emotional context.)

That guy might have “eaten” a خازوق, but we ate kibbeh, biryani, and msemmen that day and were all the better for it.

(For more on Arabic phrases with “أكل”, see Arabic Observations: The Cross-Linguistic-ness of “Eating” a Beating!)

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Root Exploration: Venus, Mars, and Saturn

كَوْكَب

root: ك-و-ك-ب / noun / plural: كَواكِب / definition: planet (compare with the Akkadian)

Isn’t it ironic (or maybe just careless of me) that I placed all of my winter boots in storage just before the heavens opened over London last night and left us deluged in a mizzle-to-downpour pendulum.

My friend questioned my sanity—who told you to do that in British weather?

Valid. But a disappointing change-of-skies nonetheless.

Speaking of skies and the heavens: we’re heading to the planets today (well, to their dictionary entries) to explore the derivations of their names.

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The Levantine بِدّي and a Weekly Request

وِدّ

root: و-د-د / noun / definition: love, wish, desire

Every weekend, my other half hears the same two words from me: بِدّي برغر (I want a burger).

I can’t help my weekly craving for a juicy burger, and I think it started when I began travelling abroad regularly a few years back. Sure, I’d sample the local cuisine most of the trip. But—on at least one occasion—I’d want to try what that country had to offer in terms of burgers.

Sometimes, failing to find halal options, I’d seek out a vegetarian burger instead—and felt satisfied all the same. (And I still dream about the surprisingly exquisite burger I ate in Doha’s MIA Café. So so good…)

Oh, but yes: I wanted to talk about the first part of my oft-repeated phrase: بِدّي.

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