Exploring Time in the Arabic Dictionary: “the Future”

اللّامَعْنى

root: ع-ن-ي / compound abstract noun / definition: meaninglessness

The clocks went back the day before yesterday and, like every year, it feels like someone somewhere switched off the warming daylight and left us in a cold, dark wintertime.

I think about how a shift of just an hour changes so much, and I wonder whether that speaks to the significance or meaninglessness of counting time.

And with that seed planted, we circle back to our Exploring Time series. This time, we’ll look ahead to the future, المستقبل.

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Uncontactable and Unread

اِختِفاء

root: خ-ف-ي / form VIII verbal noun / definition: disappearance

For those who have found me almost uncontactable—of whom I must mention: journal co-editors, my Akkadian teacher, and dear friends whose messages lie in wait in my Whatsapp unreads—I apologise for my unexplained disappearance.

You see, there was an unexpected meeting. Then, a chosen date; then rings exchanged; then a move to somewhere new. Now: here I am, on a balcony overlooking city lights and my suitcase only half-unpacked.

A whirlwind is probably the only way to describe it and I’m still swirling.

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Arabic Headline Analysis #11

صَديقة

root: ص-د-ق / feminine noun / plural: صَديقات / definition: friend

Has it really been over a year since I last wrote an Arabic headline analysis? My archives nod “yes” and guilt sinks me into my chair.

I think of my friend who was the inspiration behind both the headline analysis and literature translation series—posts with word-by-word breakdowns and guidance for putting everything together to get something that resembles a logical sentence.

Because between un-vowelled words and Arabic grammar complexities, meanings can sometimes get lost for us students.

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Seventeen Arabic Words for Peace

سَبْعة

root: س-ب-ع / noun / definition: seven

Only seven days to go, I remind myself, willing away the days but craving more hours. I’m restless with the wait, yet overwhelmed by all I need to get done before next Tuesday.

Despite the dull pangs of stress in my head, my heart is at peace with everything. And I realise I’ve been using that word—peace—a lot in my conversations.

Just as art imitates life, this blog mirrors my thoughts. So today I decided to write a synonyms post, looking at some words in Arabic that mean “peace”.

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Journeys with Arabic: Mohammed N.

خَريف

root: خ-ر-ف / noun / definition: autumn

It’s that time of year, as September dips into the mid-autumn of October, that I start worrying about the narrowing window of daylight and almost-inevitable wintery mood that draughts in through closed curtains.

And if I weren’t so distracted by the spring of a new season in my life, I’d already be blanketed by a premonition of sombreness.

But away from my own seasonal reflections, I thought it’s time—again—to bring a new voice to the blog. And this time, I reached out to someone whose Arabic notes I, once upon a time, embarrassingly misread.

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Arabic Observations: Solace Through Forgetting

التَّأَمُّل

root: ء-م-ل / form V verbal noun / definition: reflection, contemplation

I’ve been in a reflective mood lately. And it’s the type of reflection that is directly opposed to productivity rather than one that drives it: consuming, daydreamy, paralysing.

As such, it made sense for me to write a reflective post today, adding to our Arabic Observations—a series I’m particularly fond of.

And this reflection begins on page 498 of the Hans Wehr…

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A Useful Structure: ما إن ـــــ حتى ـــــ

إبْريق

root: ب-ر-ق / noun / plural: أَباريق / definition: teapot, jug

With the pouring of a never-emptying teapot and the stealing of smiling glances, another Sunday passed and this week has left me in unfamiliar but exciting territory.

I served the dolma and wondered if any of the leaves had gotten stuck between my teeth. I run my tongue, now, over a new name in my mouth and re-count grains of rice.

I lose focus and start again.

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A Final Call, a Third Year

نِداء

root: ن-د-و / noun / plural: نِداءات / definition: call, public announcement

If you saw four dishevelled passengers racing through Istanbul Airport to catch their transfer flight and making it just before their gate closed on Saturday evening… that was me and my family.

Gate F1—why did you have to be so far.

A delayed first flight. A gate at the other side of the airport. A hold-up at security (over my sister’s water bottle, how menacing). Then: FINAL CALL on the board and me—running ahead—nearly flinging my cabin bag (and self) down the escalator.

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Five Arabic Words for the Metaphorical Heart

وَطَن

root: و-ط-ن / noun / plural: أَوْطان / definition: homeland

Is your homeland still your homeland if you’ve never set foot on its soil?

I don’t give myself much time to come up with an answer because my flight is due to take off in a matter of hours.

But perhaps it’s not that physical meeting of foot to soil that connects you to a place, but the residing of ancestral memories and a dialect suspended by migration in that intangible space within your chest that aches with an unfamiliar nostalgia. That intangible space that is your heart, or soul, or something similar.

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Form VI: Gradualness, Exchange, and Pretence

التَّدَرُّج

root: د-ر-ج / form V verbal noun / definition: gradual advance or progression

I’ve gone straight from floating to hitting the ground running. And between that landing and my approaching take-off, things have progressed unexpectedly quickly in the space of a week.

I could get used to this pace.

But Arabic’s form VI verbs remind me of the power contained in gradual progress and—I think—now is a good time to start explaining.

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