نادِر root: ن-د-ر / adjective, form I active participle / definition: uncommon, rare As they say, one discovery in the dictionary leads to another. So that’s why—for the second week in a row—I couldn’t resist adding to the Dictionary Finds series. And this time, our dictionary find brings us back to an uncommon triliteral verbContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: A Form XIV Verb”
Category Archives: dictionary finds
Dictionary Finds: The Thursday Before الخميس
خَميس root: خ-م-س / noun / definition: Thursday Last Thursday marked my move into my twenty-ninth year of life, which makes me twenty-eight in some cultures and twenty-nine in others—and makes me closer to twenty-one in my head. But it’s not like numbers really matter. Except in the case of the days of the weekContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: The Thursday Before الخميس”
Dictionary Finds: A Page of Woe
مُخَلِّص root: خ-ل-ص / form II active participle / definition: saviour, Salvador These days, I’ve been thinking a lot about Salvador—the diabetic former boxer who drove my mum and I to the airport two years ago. He was driving between motorway lanes whilst scrolling through photos on his phone to share with us and pullingContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: A Page of Woe”
Dictionary Finds: بقيت دار لقمان على حالها
دار root: د-و-ر / noun / plural: دِيار / definition: home I had this idea a few days ago to vlog a week in my life as a PhD student. And now, every action poses a conundrum. Like, do I record the aftermath of my disastrous attempt to bake a sugar-free brownie without a recipeContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: بقيت دار لقمان على حالها”
Dictionary Finds: رَحَموت
الرَّحْمة root: ر-ح-م / noun / definition: mercy I can summarise my PhD progress today by saying that I eventually won the wrestle with page numbers on my running thesis draft. Of course the developers had to make that difficult, because God forbid someone would want the numbering to start on page 3 rather thanContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: رَحَموت”
Dictionary Finds: أَبَّ
الرُّجوع root: ر-ج-ع / form I verbal noun / definition: to return Do you ever let your mind wander, then pull it back, then realise the wandering might have been going somewhere? Let me explain.
Dictionary Finds: فَوَّزَ
إنْجاز root: ن-ج-ز / form IV verbal noun / definition: milestone Have I really written five hundred posts on this blog? It seems so. I would reflect more deeply on this milestone, but there’s an open suitcase on the living room floor with a four-month supply of my various vitamins, four pairs of shoes, enoughContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: فَوَّزَ”
Dictionary Finds: a Spelling Mistake
إمْلاء root: م-ل-ء / form IV verbal noun / definition: spelling, filling out After I submitted my first-year PhD work last week, I had two days of conducting students’ oral exams followed by an unplanned overnight stay, then a wedding, then a Saturday outing and a Sunday (today) of ticking things off my to-do list.Continue reading “Dictionary Finds: a Spelling Mistake”
Post-Sleep Linguistic Observations and Finds
عَشْوائي root: ع-ش-و / adjective / definition: random I was introduced to the beauty of Babylonian names in a recent Akkadian class and have grown mildly obsessed with the idea of naming my future child (or pet… perhaps a terrapin) with something like May I See Your Light in Akkadian, which I might have toContinue reading “Post-Sleep Linguistic Observations and Finds”
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 fromContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: عَطَن”
Some Arabic Proverbs from the Hans Wehr Dictionary
مَثَل root: م-ث-ل / noun / plural: أَمْثال / definition: proverb I almost completed writing an entirely different post to publish today, but it just didn’t feel like the right day to post it. That happens sometimes when I write posts, and I then store them in my drafts to publish another week, or IContinue reading “Some Arabic Proverbs from the Hans Wehr Dictionary”
Dictionary Finds: ء-ل-ك and Angels
مَلَك root: م-ل-ك or ل-ء-ك or ء-ل-ك… / noun / plural: مَلائِكة / definition: angel I had a conversation with my teacher about the Akkadian root ʔ-l-k (the equivalent of ء-ل-ك) which carries the general meaning of “to go” and, discussing one of his theories, he mentioned that he wasn’t sure whether this ancient SemiticContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: ء-ل-ك and Angels”
Dictionary Finds: the Curious Case of the Question Mark
اِستِفهام root: ف-ه-م / form X verbal noun / definition: inquiry, question For me, this week has been characterised by a lovely long chat in a cosy café, arranging a flurry of travel vaccinations, and adding some fresh ideas to my growing list of side hustles. I don’t remember what I was doing, however, whenContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: the Curious Case of the Question Mark”
Dictionary Finds: Collocations of شقّ
جَوّ root: ج-و-و / noun / plural: أَجْواء / definition: air, atmosphere I try to evoke, in my physical spaces, an air of refreshing minimalism. My bedroom walls, for example, are washed in white and bare, save the two (white) floating shelves and narrow (white) floating desk that quite subtly jut out along one side.Continue reading “Dictionary Finds: Collocations of شقّ”
Dictionary Finds: جِفتلِك
نَفَس root: ن-ف-س / noun / plural: أَنْفاس / definition: breath For the first time in a while, I feel like I can take a breath. And I can feel my creativity, whose absence I’ve been mourning for the past few weeks, rushing back as though floodgates have suddenly been lifted. What a relief!
Dictionary Finds: ماخِرة
عام root: ع-و-م / noun / plural: أَعْوام / definition: year We’re some days into 2023 now, around the time where resolutions begin to break down and the glossy new year starts to feel like any other. Except, of course, for those who didn’t bother with resolutions, determined to avoid failure at all costs. ButContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: ماخِرة”
Dictionary Finds: ناهيك
ناهٍ root: ن-ه-ي / form I active participle / definition: prohibitive Under certain words in the dictionary, we find a list of their various usages—some collocations, some phrases. ناهٍ—which is a form I active participle from a defective root, ن-ه-ي (hence the kasratayn ending)—is one example of this.
Dictionary Finds: أيِس
وَثائِقي root: و-ث-ق / adjective / definition: documentary I’ve spent the past few days furiously (and, sometimes, frustratedly) editing the mini documentary I have to submit for an Arabic assessment. I say “mini”, but creating a 30-minute video with footage from Jordan and videos I shot here in my flat of me speaking face-to-camera—with myContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: أيِس”
Dictionary Finds: لا تدمري
اِكتِشاف root: ك-ش-ف / verbal noun of form VIII / plural: اِكتِشافات / definition: a discovery, find There are certain words and phrases you’ll come across in the Arabic dictionary that’ll stick with you for some reason or other, despite you never having heard them uttered or seen them written down elsewhere. For me, theContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: لا تدمري”
The Arabic Pages 