The مِـ of Tools

آلة

root: ء-و-ل / noun / plural: آلات / definition: tool, instrument, device

Last week, we explored ten Arabic words for “refuge” which all followed one of the place and time noun patterns (مَفعَل or مَفعَلة or مَفعِل).

Today, I thought we’d cover another group of patterns—this time for nouns referring to tools (collectively: اسم الآلة) which begin with مِـ.

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Ten Arabic Place Nouns for “Refuge”

لُجوء

root: ل-ج-ء / form I verbal noun / definition: refuge

It’s the final week of the first semester, which means I’ll soon have five weeks to completely focus on my PhD without thinking about teaching.

At the end of the first semester last year, I wrote the post The مَـ of Place and Time, in which we saw how the patterns مَفعَل and مَفعَلة and مَفعِل were used to indicate place nouns, or nouns of time.

So I thought today we’d look at ten synonyms for the word “refuge” that follow these place noun patterns.

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Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #14

دِفْء

root: د-ف-ء / noun / definition: warmth

December has brazenly blustered in with its frost and chill and here I am, sitting at my desk with my right foot pressed against the radiator beside me, hoping for a semblance of warmth to spread to the rest of my body.

I may as well type to keep my fingers from dropping too far below body temperature—so who fancies reading another step-by-step literature translation?

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Three Ways to Say “There is” in Arabic

ضَوْء

root: ض-و-ء / noun / plural: أَضْواء / definition: light

I feel like a heavy door has flung open and let light flood in since I wrote about my deepening winter blues two weeks back. Maybe it’s my increased vitamin D dosage. Or maybe entering my twenty-sixth year of life brought with it lots of things to be grateful for and look forward to.

Either way, I’m thankful for the flood of light.

And speaking of light, I think this post will help some of us elevate and illuminate our writing in Arabic.

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Fixed-Form Passive Participles with Prepositions

شَرْح

root: ش-ر-ح / form I verbal noun / definition: explanation

One of my classmates, a while back, asked me if I could clarify the grammar of the phrase غير المُبلَغ عنه, which translates as “unreported”.

We’ve talked before about the different meanings of غَير—here, it gives the word its un- prefix in English, so no confusion there.

But then we have the passive participle مُبلَغ and the preposition with a pronoun suffix, عنهُ. Why are these three components needed to give the meaning of “reported”? Isn’t the passive participle itself enough?

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Delving into لَلأَسَف

اِكفِهْرار

root: ك-ف-ه-ر / form IV quadriliteral verbal noun / definition: gloom

It’s mid-November and my winter blues are bursting vibrantly into full swing. I sort of feel like I’m in a gloomy room with a heartbroken flamenco dancer who keeps passionately swishing her black skirt in my face whilst I’m trying to draft an outline for my PhD literature review in the candlelight that only illuminates glimpses of her pained expressions.

Perhaps part of me wants to get up and dance too, but I’m decidedly an observer in this beautifully sombre display swirling around me.

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Dictionary Finds: عَطَن

جَمَل

root: ج-م-ل / noun / plural: جِمال / definition: camel

I didn’t realise it’d been so long since our last proper Dictionary Finds post, especially as I’m always adding to the list of intriguing vocabulary I’ve stumbled upon whilst consulting the dictionary for one reason or another.

So today I’ve chosen a word from that list. And the interesting thing about this word is not really the definition itself, but rather how it takes on a seemingly unrelated meaning in the collocations it occurs in.

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Arabic Headline Analysis #9

ساعة

root: س-و-ع / noun / plural: ساعات / definition: hour, clock

So the clocks went back by an hour here on the weekend, and I felt like I turned back time in another sense a few days ago when my new purchase—a 1928, first-edition Ottoman Turkish book about arts—arrived in the post.

“What are you going to do with that?” asked my friend. Erm, “read it,” I replied… Or at least I will do once I get the book rebound. Its pages are falling from the spine like leaves from one of the trees outside my window.

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Some Arabic Words and Phrases for “to Cry”

دَمْع

root: د-م-ع / noun / plural: دُموع / definition: tear

October is the month of the pomegranate, according to the fruit tree calendar on my wall. Which means I’m begrudgingly ushering in the wintery months where a gloomy disposition clouds over me and clings on until the dawn of spring.

It happens every year and I’m sure it has everything to do with the decrease in sunshine hours here in the northern hemisphere.

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Reading Arabic Literature: يالنجي and يبرق

طَبَق

root: ط-ب-ق / noun / plural: أَطباق / definition: dish

Hearing about the sudden passing of the Syrian novelist Khaled Khalifa a few weeks ago, I was overcome by an unexpected grief.

I was still, at the time, partway through reading his novel, لا سكاكين في مطابخ هذه المدينة. I guess you feel a certain closeness to someone when you’ve connected with their words, and that’s perhaps why the news hit me so strongly.

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