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 lotsContinue reading “Three Ways to Say “There is” in Arabic”
Tag Archives: dictionary
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 yearContinue reading “Some Arabic Words and Phrases for “to Cry””
Arabic Verbs for “to Look at” (Part 2)
نَظَر root: ن-ظ-ر / noun / plural: أَنْظار / definition: sight, view We’re adding to our synonyms series this week, with part two of Arabic Verbs for “to Look at”. And this time, we’re including some phrases. Let’s get into it:
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”
Affinity to Quadriliterals
اِنْجِذاب root: ج-ذ-ب / verbal noun of form VII / definition: affinity, attraction I have such an affinity to Arabic quadriliterals (four-letter roots). Are there really that many in the dictionary that they can’t be ignored, or are my eyes just drawn to them whenever they’re present on the page? Either way, I usually taskContinue reading “Affinity to Quadriliterals”
The Online Dictionary for Arabic Dialects
لَهْجة root: ل-ه-ج / noun / plural: لَهْجات / definition: dialect I can’t believe we officially hit the 200th-post mark with Wehr Wednesdays #99, where we looked at the phrase ضاح للشمس—a phrase which has been allocated to the “I love this bit of vocab and I can’t explain why” section of my brain (whereContinue reading “The Online Dictionary for Arabic Dialects”
Reference: A List of Abbreviations in the Hans Wehr Dictionary
اِخْتِصار root: خ-ص-ر / noun / plural: اِختِصارات / definition: abbreviation So, admittedly, this may not be the most interesting post you’ll read on this blog. But anything that helps with understanding the Hans Wehr dictionary—and, by extension, Arabic—is worth posting, in my opinion.
How to Use (and Love) the Hans Wehr Dictionary
قاموس root: ق-م-س / noun / plural: قَواميس / definition: dictionary If I had started this blog for the purpose of sharing only a single post, it would be this one. You would only have to be studying Arabic for a short while before you’d hear the name “Hans Wehr” flying at you from allContinue reading “How to Use (and Love) the Hans Wehr Dictionary”
The Arabic Pages 