فَوْضى root: ف-و-ض / noun / definition: chaos I’ve just emailed a wonderfully chaotic draft of a PhD chapter to my supervisor who, if he’s reading this post, might scoff at the word “wonderfully” coming anywhere near the mention of that calamitous document—the second half of which is a roaring pandemonium of red font andContinue reading “Five Arabic Words Meaning “Nightmare””
Tag Archives: dictionary
Andalusi Arabic: to Revive or Not to Revive?
إحْياء root: ح-ي-و / form IV verbal noun / definition: revival Every so often and very suddenly, a linguist (and I’m specifically talking about myself) gets ludicrously preoccupied with researching an extinct language or dialect and dreamily sketches out a grandiose plan to revive it… which, of course, firstly includes learning it. It’s partly delusion—butContinue reading “Andalusi Arabic: to Revive or Not to Revive?”
One-Letter Imperatives in Arabic
أَناقة root: ء-ن-ق / noun / definition: elegance, grace Modelling is tough work, I thought as I posed as a muse for my photographer friend who was practising using her new camera. And by posing, what I mean is that I was walking through Central London in the evening at 0.25x speed with an expressionContinue reading “One-Letter Imperatives in Arabic”
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”
Arabic Words for “Perhaps”
أَمَل root: ء-م-ل / noun / plural: آمال / definition: hope I’ve been feeling a sense of peace recently that had remained elusive for a while. Or maybe I mean a sense of relief. Perhaps it’s to do with the fact that some internal pressure has been lifted, and my mind isn’t beating me upContinue reading “Arabic Words for “Perhaps””
Arabic Observations: Another Collection of Word Twins
مَجْموعة root: ج-م-ع / noun / plural: مَجموعات / definition: collection, group In Akkadian class last week, we learnt that mut (“husband”) plus the possessive pronoun suffix –ša (“her”) join to form mussa, in a phonological process triggered when the š finds itself snuggled up next to a dental or sibilant phoneme. Our teacher alsoContinue reading “Arabic Observations: Another Collection of Word Twins”
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,Continue reading “Ten Arabic Place Nouns for “Refuge””
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 lotsContinue reading “Three Ways to Say “There is” in Arabic”
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 