Mashrabaمشربة

أزلStraitness/hardship (root zl)

وأما الهمزة والزاء واللام فأصلان الضيق والكذب قال الخليل الأزل الشدة تقول هم في أزل من العيش إذا كانوا في سنة أو بلوى …

Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering

أزل
Patterns computed · our data

The words of أ ز ل that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.

15 words3 verbs1 verbal noun1 participle1 place or instrument1 intensive or elative5 other nouns1 plural2 relatives and abstracts

  • أَزَلeternity, with respect to past time, or considered retrospectively
  • أَزَلِيّeternal, with respect to past time
  • أَزَلَhe became in a state of straitness, or narrowness, and suffering from dearth …
  • آزَلَتِthe year became severe, distressful, calamitous, or adverse
  • تأزّلَit became strait, or straitened
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs3أَزَلَ · آزَلَتِ · تأزّلَ

The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →

Form I vowels: فَعَلَ يَفْعِلُ (a – i; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)

  • أَزَلَhe became in a state of straitness, or narrowness, and suffering from dearth …LaneForm ILaneIbn Fāris
  • آزَلَتِthe year became severe, distressful, calamitous, or adverseLaneForm IVLaneIbn Fāris
  • تأزّلَit became strait, or straitenedLaneForm VLane
Verbal nouns1أَزْل

The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →

  • أَزْلstraitnessLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
Participles1مَأْزُول

The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →

  • مَأْزُولhorse having his rope or tether shortened, and then left to feed at …Lanepassive, Form ILane
Place, time and instrument1مَأْزِل

Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →

  • مَأْزِلplace of straitness, or a strait placeLanenoun of place or timeLane
Intensives, qualities and the elative1أَزُول

The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →

  • أَزُولsevere, distressful, calamitous, or adverse, yearLaneintensive (faʿūl)Lane
Other nouns5أَزَل · آزِل · أَزِل

Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →

  • أَزَلeternity, with respect to past time, or considered retrospectivelyLanenounlibrary ×26LaneIbn Fāris
  • آزِلman in a state of straitness, distress, adversity, or difficultyLanenounLaneIbn Fāris
  • أَزِلnounLaneIbn Fāris
  • إِزْلcalamityLanenounLaneIbn Fāris
  • مُؤْزِلَةsevere year of dearth, or sterility, afflicting with droughtLanenounLane
Plurals1أُزْل

Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →

Relative and abstract2أَزَلِيّ · أَزَلِيَّة

-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →

  • أَزَلِيّeternal, with respect to past timeLanerelative adjective (-iyy)library ×5LaneIbn Fāris
  • أَزَلِيَّةabstract noun (-iyya)Lane
Why this shape?What each of the 11 patterns does

What each pattern does. The pattern gives a tendency, not a rule: many words have drifted into meanings of their own.

The pattern machinePour the root into a pattern; see whether the word exists

Choose a pattern; the root's letters pour into it. Then see whether the word exists in our sources. The machine makes shapes; only usage makes words.

مَفْعَلَةأ ز لمَأْزَلَة

Not in our sources. A possible shape, not a word we can show: the Quran, the library and Lane do not have it for this root.

Place noun with -a. The place noun with the feminine -a. Sometimes it is only a variant of mafʿal; often it names the place where a thing is found in abundance (maʾsada, 'a place full of lions'). So maktab is the place of writing, and maktaba, where writings are gathered: a library, a bookshop. Our summary

But: maktaba is not in our classical dictionaries for k-t-b: Lane and al-Jawharī give maktab ('a school'), none gives maktaba. Its sense of 'library, bookshop' fits the pattern of abundance, but that is our reading of the pattern, not a classical entry. Many mafʿala words are single items of usage (maqbara 'cemetery'), which the grammarians call heard, not formed by rule.

The grammarians on this pattern (4)
  • ما يكون مفعلة لازمة لها الهاء والفتحة … وذلك إذا أردت أن تكثر الشيء بالمكان، وذلك قولك: أرض مسبعة، ومأسدة

    Chapter on what is mafʿala, with the -a and the a-vowel always: that is when you mean that a thing abounds in a place, as you say 'a land of many beasts of prey (masbaʿa), of many lions (maʾsada)'

    Sībawayh (d. c. 180/796), al-Kitāb, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 3rd ed. (Cairo: al-Khānjī, 1988), 4:94 · OpenITI line 21027–21028 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

  • و نحو المظنة و المقبرة فتحا و ضما ليس بقياس

    and words like maẓinna and maqbara (with a or u) are not by rule

    Ibn al-Ḥājib (d. 646/1249), al-Shāfiya fī ʿilm al-taṣrīf, ed. Ḥasan Aḥmad al-ʿUthmān (Mecca: al-Maktaba al-Makkiyya, 1995), 1:30 · OpenITI line 223 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

  • “designate the place where the object signified by the noun from which they are formed, is found in large numbers or quantities” Wright, Grammar I, §247, p. 148 ↗ · on nouns of abundance, maf'ala · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
  • “Nouns of time and place not unfrequently take the feminine form” Wright, Grammar I, §225, p. 128 ↗ · on maf'ala as a variant of maf'al · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain

This root has a weak or doubled letter, so real words change shape (qāla → qāʾil, not qāwil); the machine pours the letters in as they are, and matches attested words by their regular pattern.

About thisWhat “attested” means here; the sources

Attested means found in our data: the Quranic Arabic Corpus (lemmas, verb Forms, participles, verbal nouns, plurals), the library's words (automatic analysis), Lane's Lexicon (his headwords, the Forms he numbers, the verbal nouns and plurals he names) and Ibn Fāris's entry. Nothing is generated for this list. Meanings are Lane's first gloss in his entry, or else the analyser's gloss (“auto”). Vowelling follows the corpus, then Lane, then the analyser; verbs are given in the regular perfect. Lane's Lexicon thins out after qāf, and a few of his entries cover several roots at once: those roots show no Lane. The patterns, written with ف ع ل, are computed by us.

English: AI translation
  • al-Khalīl · 170Al-azl: the hardship of the time.

    al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn. The first Arabic dictionary, arranged by permutations of the root letters.

    Al-azl: the hardship of the time. [It is said]: 'They are in azl of livelihood and of a [famine] year,' and 'azl of the hardships of trial.' 'Azaltu al-faras' azlan: 'I shortened its tether, then released it into pasture.'

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    الأزل: شدة الزمان، [يقال] : هم في أزل من العيش والسنة، وأزل من شدائد البلوى. وأزلت الفرس أزلا: قصرت حبله، ثم أرسلته في المرعى.

  • al-Jawharī · 393Al-azl: narrowness. One says: 'azila al-rajul yaʾzilu' azlan, meaning 'he came into narrowness and dearth.' Al-azl also [means]: confinement.

    al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.

    Al-azl: narrowness. One says: 'azila al-rajul yaʾzilu' azlan, meaning 'he came into narrowness and dearth.' Al-azl also [means]: confinement. One says: 'azalū māla-hum yaʾzilūnahu,' when they kept it from pasture out of fear. Al-maʾzil: the narrow strait, like al-maʾziq. Al-Farrāʾ said: one says 'taʾazzala ṣadrī' and 'taʾazzaqa,' meaning 'it became constricted.' Al-izl, with kasra: the lie. Yaʿqūb cited: 'They say [my claim of] loving Laylā and her affection is a lie; / but they have lied — there is no falsehood in her affection.' Al-azal, fully vocalized: eternity/pre-existence. One says 'azalī.' Some scholars mentioned that... [entry continues]

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    الأزل: الضيق، وقد أزل الرجل يأزل أزلا، أي صارفى ضيق وجذب. والازل أيضا: الحبس. يقال أزالوا ما لهم يأزلونه، إذا حبسوه عن المرعى من خوف. والمأزل: المضيق مثل المأزق. قال الفراء: يقال: تأزل صدري وتأزق، أي ضاق. والإزل بالكسر: الكذب. وأنشد يعقوب (1) . يقولون إزل حب ليلى وودها وقد كذبوا ما في مودتها إزل (1) والأزل بالتحرك: القدم. يقال أزلى. ذكر بعض أهل العلم أن

  • Ibn Fāris · 395Hamza, zāy, and lām (الهمزة والزاء واللام) form two roots: 'narrowness/hardship' and 'lying.' Al-Khalīl said: al-azl means hardship.

    Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).

    Hamza, zāy, and lām (الهمزة والزاء واللام) form two roots: 'narrowness/hardship' and 'lying.' Al-Khalīl said: al-azl means hardship. One says: 'They are in azl (أزل) of livelihood,' when in a [famine] year or a trial. [A poet] said: 'O two sons of Nizār, relieve the tremors (al-zalāzil) / from those close behind, and [relieve] a most severe hardship (azlan āzilā).' Al-Shaybānī said: 'azalta al-māshiya wa-l-qawm' azlan means 'you constricted [provisions] upon them.' 'Azalta al-ibil' means 'you kept the camels from pasture.' Ibn Durayd cited: 'Khushāf swore an oath and fulfilled his word: / He will surely graze a constrained grazing (raʿiyya maʾzūla).' It is said 'azila al-qawm yaʾzilūna' when they suffer famine. [A poet] said: 'He will surely be straitened, and his milk-camels scant of milk, / and they will divert his child with thin milk-broth (samār)' — al-samār being diluted [milk] with much water. Al-āzil [means] the man afflicted by famine. A poet said: 'Among those enjoying spring-pasture, and among the famine-afflicted (āzil), / when night covers him, [groaning] like one who pants.' Al-Khalīl said: one says 'azaltu al-faras' when you shorten its tether then release it in pasture. Abū al-Najm said: 'It has not grazed while tethered-short (maʾzūl), nor yet been hobbled.' As for lying, [the word is] al-izl. Ibn Dāra said: 'They say [my claim of] loving Laylā and her affection is a lie (izl); / but they have lied — there is no falsehood (izl) in her affection.' As for al-azal, meaning 'eternity/pre-existence,' this is not formed by [normal] analogy but is an abbreviated, altered expression: it was originally 'lam yazal' (has not ceased to be); wanting to form a relative adjective from it, [the Arabs] found it unworkable, so they related it to 'yazal,' then converted the yāʾ to hamza, saying 'azalī' — just as, relating the spear to Dhū Yazan, they said 'azanī' [for 'yazanī'].

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    وأما الهمزة والزاء واللام فأصلان الضيق والكذب قال الخليل الأزل الشدة تقول هم في أزل من العيش إذا كانوا في سنة أو بلوى قال : — ابنا نزار فرجا الزلازلا … عن المصلين وأزلا آزلا … قال الشيباني أزلت الماشية والقوم أزلا أي ضيقت عليهم وأزلت الإبل حبست عن المرعى وأنشد ابن دريد : — حلف خشاف فأوفى قيله … ليرعين رعية مأزوله … ويقال أزل القوم يؤزلون إذا أجدبوا قال : — فليؤزلن وتبكؤن لقاحه … ويعللن صبيه بسمار … السمار المذيق الذي يكثر ماؤه والآزل الرجل المجدب قال شاعر : — من المربعين ومن آزل … إذا جنه الليل كالناحط … قال الخليل يقال أزلت الفرس إذا قصرت حبله ثم أرسلته في مرعى قال أبو النجم : — لم يرع مأزولا ولما يعقل … وأما الكذب فالإزل قال ابن دارة : — يقولون إزل حب ليلى وودها … وقد كذبوا ما في مودتها إزل … وأما الأزل الذي هو القدم فالأصل ليس بقياس ولكنه كلام موجز مبدل إنما كان لم يزل فأرادوا النسبة إليه فلم يستقم فنسبوا إلى يزل ثم قلبوا الياء همزة فقالوا أزلي كما قالوا في ذي يزن حين نسبوا الرمح إليه أزني

  • Lisān · 711Al-azl: narrowness and hardship.

    Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).

    Al-azl: narrowness and hardship. Al-azl also: confinement. 'Azalahu yaʾziluhu' azlan: 'he confined it.' Al-azl also: hardship of the time. One says: 'They are in azl of livelihood' and 'azl of the [famine] year.' 'Āzalat al-sana': 'the year became severe [in drought]'; from this is the hadith, the saying of Ṭahfa to the Prophet, peace be upon him: 'A red year, mūzila (مؤزلة), afflicted us,' meaning 'bringing hardship (al-azl)'; also transmitted 'muʾazzila,' doubled, for intensity. It is said: 'aṣbaḥa al-qawm āzilīn' meaning 'in hardship'; al-Kumayt said: 'I saw the noble ones trusting in it, / that they would not go without milk, nor be brought to hardship (yuʾzalū).' 'Azala al-faras': 'he shortened its tether,' from [the sense of] confinement. 'Azila al-rajul yaʾzilu' azlan means 'he came into narrowness and dearth.' 'Azaltu al-rajul' azlan: 'I constricted [things] upon him.' In the hadith: 'Your Lord marvels at your azl and your despair'; Ibn al-Athīr said: thus it is transmitted in some chains, but the well-known [version] is 'min alikum,' to be mentioned in its place; al-azl [there] means hardship and narrowness, as if meaning 'from the severity of your despair and hopelessness.' In the hadith of the Dajjāl: he besieges the people in Jerusalem, and they 'yuʾzalūn azlan,' meaning they suffer famine and are constricted. In the hadith of ʿAlī, peace be upon him: 'except after hardship (azl) and trial.' 'Azaltu al-faras' when you shorten its tether then loosen it in pasture; Abū al-Najm said: 'It has not grazed while tethered-short, nor yet been hobbled.' 'Azalū māla-hum yaʾzilūnahu' azlan: 'they kept their livestock from pasture out of constraint, hardship, and fear'; from Ibn al-Aʿrābī. Al-āzila: the confined [she-camel] not let loose to pasture, hobbled from fear of its owner of a raid; 'she took it and cut its hobble.' Al-Aʿshā said: 'And milk-camels far-grazing I seized, so it became / plunder, and [another] confined one whose hobble I cut.' 'Azl āzil': severe [hardship]: '[A poet said]: O two sons of Nizār, relieve the tremors / from those close behind, and [relieve] a most severe hardship.' Al-maʾzil: the place of battle when constricted, and likewise 'maʾzil al-ʿaysh' [the strait of livelihood]; both from al-Liḥyānī. Al-izl also: the calamity. Al-izl: the lie, with kasra; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Dāra said: 'They say [my claim of] loving Laylā and her affection is a lie, / but they have lied — there is no falsehood in her affection.' Al-azal, fully vocalized: eternity/pre-existence. Abū Manṣūr said: from this is their saying 'this is something azalī,' meaning 'ancient/eternal.' Some scholars mentioned that the origin of this word is their saying, of the eternal, 'lam yazal' (has not ceased to be), and then... [entry continues]

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    الأزل: الضيق والشدة. والأزل: الحبس. وأزله يأزله أزلا: حبسه. والأزل: شدة الزمان. يقال: هم في أزل من العيش وأزل من السنة. وآزلت السنة: اشتدت؛ ومنه الحديث قول طهفة للنبي، صلى الله عليه وسلم: أصابتنا سنة حمراء مؤزلة أي آتية بالأزل، ويروى مؤزلة ، بالتشديد على التكثير. وأصبح القوم آزلين أي في شدة؛ وقال الكميت: رأيت الكرام به واثقين ... أن لا يعيموا، ولا يؤزلوا وأنشد أبو عبيد: وليأزلن وتبكؤن لقاحه، ... ويعللن صبيه بسمار أي ليصيبنه الأزل وهو الشدة. وأزل الفرس: قصر حبله وهو من الحبس. وأزل الرجل يأزل أزلا أي صار في ضيق وجدب. وأزلت الرجل أزلا: ضيقت عليه. وفي الحديث: عجب ربكم من أزلكم وقنوطكم ؛ قال ابن الأثير: هكذا روي في بعض الطرق، قال: والمعروف من ألكم ، وسنذكره في موضعه؛ الأزل: الشدة والضيق كأنه أراد من شدة يأسكم وقنوطكم. وفي حديث الدجال: أنه يحصر الناس في بيت المقدس فيؤزلون أزلا أي يقحطون ويضيق عليهم. وفي حديث علي، عليه السلام: إلا بعد أزل وبلاء. وأزلت الفرس إذا قصرت حبله ثم سيبته وتركته في الرعي؛ قال أبو النجم: لم يرع مأزولا ولما يعقل وأزلوا مالهم يأزلونه أزلا: حبسوه عن المرعى من ضيق وشدة وخوف؛ وقول الأعشى: ولبون معزاب حويت فأصبحت ... نهبى، وآزلة قضبت عقالها الآزلة: المحبوسة التي لا تسرح وهي معقولة لخوف صاحبها عليها من الغارة، أخذتها فقضبت عقالها. وآزلوا: حبسوا أموالهم عن تضييق وشدة؛ عن ابن الأعرابي. والمأزل: المضيق مثل المأزق؛ وأنشد ابن بري: إذا دنت من عضد لم تزحل ... عنه، وإن كان بضنك مأزل قال الفراء يقال تأزل صدري وتأزق أي ضاق. والأزل: ضيق العيش؛ قال: وإن أفسد المال المجاعات والأزل وأزل آزل: شديد؛ قال: إبنا نزار فرجا الزلازلا، ... عن المصلين، وأزلا آزلا والمأزل: موضع القتال إذا ضاق، وكذلك مأزل العيش؛ كلاهما عن اللحياني. والإزل: الداهية. والإزل: الكذب، بالكسر؛ قال عبد الرحمن بن دارة: يقولون: إزل حب ليلى وودها، ... وقد كذبوا، ما في مودتها إزل والأزل، بالتحريك: القدم. قال أبو منصور: ومنه قولهم هذا شيء أزلي أي قديم، وذكر بعض أهل العلم أن أصل هذه الكلمة قولهم للقديم لم يزل، ثم نسب إلى هذا فلم يستقم إلا بالاختصار فقالوا يزلي ثم أبدلت الياء ألفا لأنها أخف فقالوا أزلي، كما قالوا في الرمح المنسوب إلى ذي يزن: أزني، ونصل أثربي.

  • Lane · 1876English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.

    E. W. Lane (d. 1876), An Arabic-English Lexicon. English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.

    أَزَلَ

    1. أَزَلَ, (S, K,) aor. اَزِلَ , inf. n. أَزْلٌ, (S,) He (a man) became in a state of straitness, or narrowness, and suffering from dearth or drought or sterility. (S, K.) [See also the pass. form of the verb here following; and see 5.] أَزَلَهُ, aor. as above, (K,) and so the inf. n., (TA,) He confined, restricted, restrained, withheld, debarred, hindered, or prevented, him; (K,* TA;) and straitened him; in consequence of distress, or adversity, and fear. (TA.) He shortened his (a horse's) rope, [or tether,] and then left him to pasture at pleasure (Lth, K, [in the CK, شَيَّبَهُ is put for سَيَّبَهُ,]) in the place of pasturage. (Lth.) أَزَلُوا مَالَهُمْ, (S,) or أَمْوَالَهُمْ, (K,) aor. as above, (S,) They confined, restricted, or debarred, their cattle from the place of pasturage, (S,) or did not take, or send, them forth thereto, (K,) in consequence of fear, (S, K,) or dearth or drought or sterility. (K.) It is said in a trad. respecting Ed-Dejjál, and his besieging the Muslims in Beytel-Makdis, [or Jerusalem,] فَيُؤْزَلُونَ أَزْلًا شَدِيدًا And they will be straitened with a vehement straitening. (TA.) And أُزِلَ النَّاسُ signifies The people suffered, or were afflicted with, drought, or want of rain. (TA.)

    آزَلَتِ السَّنَةُ

    4. آزَلَتِ السَّنَةُ The year became severe, distressful, calamitous, or adverse. (TA.) آزَلَهُمُ ٱللّٰهُ God afflicted them with drought, or want of rain. (TA.)

    تأزّل

    5. تأزّل It (a man's bosom or mind) became strait, or straitened; (Fr, S, K;) as also تأزّق. (Fr, S.)

    أَزْلٌ

    أَزْلٌ Straitness; distress; difficulty; (S,* K;) and drought, or want of rain. (TA.) Vehemence of might, or of strength, in war, or fight; of courage, valour, or prowess: or of war, or fight: or of fear: or of punishment: syn. شِدَّةُ بَأْسٍ. (TA.) It is also used as an epithet, meaning Strait; narrow; confined. (Ham p. 339.)

    إِزْلٌ

    إِزْلٌ A calamity; (K;) because of its distressing character. (TA.) Lying, or falsehood. (Yaa- koob, S, K.)

    أَزَلٌ

    أَزَلٌ i. q. قِدَمٌ [i. e. Eternity, with respect to past time, or considered retrospectively; existence from eternity; or ancientness] (S, K, TA) that is without beginning; (TA;) or the continuance of existence in decreed times interminable in respect of the past; like as أَبَدٌ is the continuance of existence in decreed times interminable in respect of the future; (KT;) or that [existence, or time,] which has no extremity in its beginning; like قِدَمٌ; and أَبَدٌ is that which has no extremity in its latter part; like بَقَآءٌ: the former is existence without any beginning: (Kull p. 31:) said to be from the phrase لَمْ يَزَلْ [“he, or it, has not ceased” to be &c.; i. e. “has ever” been &c. (see أَزَلِىٌّ)]: or, accord. to some, from أَزْلٌ signifying “narrowness;” because the intellect is prevented by its narrowness from perceiving its beginning: (MF:) ازل is a name for that of which the mind is prevented by its narrowness from determining the limit of the beginning; from أَزْلٌ meaning “narrowness;”; and ابد is a name for that of which the mind shrinks from, or shuns, the determining the limit of the end; from أُبُودٌ meaning the act of “shrinking” from a thing, or “shunning” it. (Kull pp. 30 and 31.) Hence the saying, كَانَ فِى الأَزَلِ قَادِرًا عَالِمًا [He was, or has been, ever, powerful, knowing]. (A, TA.) The phrase أَزَلَ الآزَالِ [During the space, without beginning, of all past times; or ever, in all past times;] is like the phrase أَبَدَ الآبَادِ; said to be no evidence of the use of آزَالٌ as a pl. of أَزَلٌ in a general way by the Arabs of the classical ages, as it is here added merely as a corroborative. (MF in art. ابد.) [See also أَزَلِىٌّ.]

    أَزِلٌ

    أَزِلٌ: see آزِلٌ.

    أَزَلِىٌّ

    أَزَلِىٌّ [Eternal, with respect to past time; existing from eternity; or ancient without beginning; as is implied in the S and K &c.;] a thing, or being, which has not been preceded by non-existence: it is applied to God: and to [his] knowledge: that which exists must be one of three kinds only: أَزَلِىٌّ أَبَدِىٌّ [existing from eternity, and consequently existing to eternity]; and this is God [who is also called القَدِيمُ الأَزَلِىُّ the Ancient without beginning]: and لَا أَزَلِىٌّ وَ لَا أَبَدِىٌّ [not existing from eternity nor existing to eternity]; and such is the present world: and أَبَدِىٌّ غَيْرُ أَزَلِىّ [existing to eternity without existing from eternity]; and such is the world to come; the reverse of which [last] is impossible: (TA:) it is a rel. n. from أَزَلٌ: or, accord. to some, it is not [genuine] Arabic: (TA:) or it is originally يَزَلِىٌّ, a rel. n. from لَمْ يَزَلْ, (S, K,) a phrase applied to that which is قَدِيم; and is formed by contraction; (S;) then, the ى is changed into ا, as being easier of pronunciation; as in أَزَنِىٌّ, applied to a spear, in relation to ذُو يَزَن; (S, K,* Sgh, TA;) and as in أَثْرَبِىٌّ, applied to a blade, (S, Sgh, TA,) in relation to يَثْرِب: (TA:) so say some of the learned. (S.)

    أَزَلِيَّةٌ

    أَزَلِيَّةٌ The quality, or attribute, of أَزَلٌ [eternity, with respect to past time, &c.]: but it is a forged term, not of the [genuine] language of the Arabs. (A, TA.)

    سَنَةٌ أَزُولٌ

    سَنَةٌ أَزُولٌ A severe, distressful, calamitous, or adverse, year: pl. أُزْلٌ. (K.)

    آزِلٌ

    آزِلٌ A man in a state of straitness, distress, adversity, or difficulty. (TA.) A man in a state of straitness in consequence of fever: or who is unable to go forth in consequence of pain: or confined, restricted, withheld, or prevented [from going forth]. (TA.) لَبُونٌ آزِلَةٌ [A milch camel] confined, or restricted, not pasturing at pleasure, having her shank tied up to her arm, on account of her owner's fear of a hostile incursion: occurring in a poem of El-Aashà. (TA.) أَزْلٌ آزِلٌ, in the K, erroneously, أَزِلٌ, Severe, or vehement, straitness, distress, or difficulty. (K, * TA.)

    مَأْزِلٌ

    مَأْزِلٌ A place of straitness, or a strait place; (S, K;) like مَأْزِقٌ: (S:) or a place of war or fight, when strait. (Lh.) And مَأْزِلُ العَيْشِ The place where the means of subsistence are strait, or narrow. (Lh.)

    Lane, Arabic-English Lexiconread Lane's entry online ↗

The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.

أ ز ل

Not in Ibn Fāris; only in later sources.

Lisān ↗Lane ↗

an entry in Ibn Fārislater sources onlyin none of them

Do these six share one core meaning?

About thisal-Khalīl, Ibn Jinnī, Ibn Fāris; the counts across the dictionary

al-Khalīl (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn, as transmitted by al-Layth: a two-letter word “turns in two ways”, a three-letter word “in six ways” (masdūsa), four letters in 24, five in 120; “its used forms are written down and its unused ones dropped” (line 975 ↗). The dictionary is built on this: each chapter takes a set of letters and names which orders are used (mustaʿmal) and which unused (muhmal). The ring shows that verdict, from the chapter heading as edited (documented in the text; how much of the book is al-Khalīl's own is disputed).

A reported total. al-Suyūṭī transmits, from Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī, that al-Khalīl put the possible forms, used and unused, of two to five letters at 12,305,412 (al-Muzhir, line 1347 ↗). It is reported, not found in the ʿAyn. It equals exactly the arrangements of 2 to 5 different letters out of 28 (756 + 19,656 + 491,400 + 11,793,600); the breakdown printed beside it is corrupt, and al-Zubaydī's count, given next, differs (6,659,400).

Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, names the greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar): bind a three-letter root and its six orders to one meaning, and bring stray members back “by the subtlety of the craft and interpretation” (line 7536 ↗). He says himself that it does not hold for every root (line 167 ↗; line 7603 ↗).

Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004) gives each root its own aṣl and treats a rearranged word as maqlūb, “turned round”, and so not a root of its own: “j-b-dh is not a root, because it is a single word, turned round” (Maqāyīs, line 6147 ↗). The ring sets his aṣl for each order side by side; whether they meet is the question.

Neighbours on the ring differ by one swap of two letters.

The critique. A source quoted by al-Suyūṭī calls the greater derivation Ibn Jinnī's innovation, “not relied on in the language” (al-Muzhir, line 6159 ↗).

The other axis. The root's letters also go into patterns that keep their order and change the frame: the patterns (awzān) and the verb Forms I–X.

Across Ibn Fāris's dictionary. Of the 2,300 possible sets of three different sound letters (no hamza, w or y), 1,021 have at least one order as an entry. How many of their six orders are entries:

Ibn Fāris, entries found (1,021 letter-sets)
  1. 1 of 6319
  2. 2 of 6218
  3. 3 of 6164
  4. 4 of 6155
  5. 5 of 6107
  6. 6 of 658
al-Khalīl, orders his headings call used (746 letter-sets)
  1. 1 of 6148
  2. 2 of 6108
  3. 3 of 6157
  4. 4 of 6179
  5. 5 of 6111
  6. 6 of 643

Of the orders al-Khalīl calls used, 2,097 are entries in Ibn Fāris and 267 are not; 17 that he calls unused are entries in Ibn Fāris.

Our computation from the OpenITI texts; heading detection can miss entries

Attested here means found in our digital texts (Ibn Fāris, Lisān al-ʿArab, Lane, the Quranic Arabic Corpus), with w and y kept apart and hamza spellings merged; it is our data, not a classical verdict. English beside the Arabic is AI translation. Sources and grades: docs/research/root-permutations.md.

How each letter is made, in brief, from Sībawayh's and Ibn Jinnī's own sentences (linked); their words are under Reference.

Sharing two of its three letters (computed; kinship of form, not of meaning)

16 more
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics

English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic

أ

فأقصاها مخرجا: الهمزة والهاء والألف

The furthest of them [the three in the throat] in place: the hamza, the hāʾ and the alif. Sībawayh, line 26548 ↗

فأولها من أسفله وأقصاه، مخرج الهمزة والألف والهاء، هكذا يقول سيبويه

The first of them [in the throat], from its lowest and furthest part, is the place of the hamza, the alif and the hāʾ: so Sībawayh says. Ibn Jinnī, line 965 ↗

ز

ومما بين طرف اللسان وفويق الثنايا مخرج الزاي، والسين، والصاد

From between the tip of the tongue and just above the front teeth is the place of the zāy, the sīn and the ṣād. Sībawayh, line 26560 ↗

ومما بين الثنايا وطرف اللسان، مخرج الصاد والزاي والسين

From between the front teeth and the tip of the tongue is the place of the ṣād, the zāy and the sīn. Ibn Jinnī, line 983 ↗

ل

ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان، من بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى، مما فويق الضاحك والناب والرباعية والثنية، مخرج اللام

From the edge of the tongue, from its nearest part to the end of its tip, between it and the upper palate next to it, just above the premolar, the canine, the lateral and the central incisor, is the place of the lām. Ibn Jinnī, lines 977–978 ↗

Sībawayh, al-Kitāb (ed. Hārūn) and Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb; OpenITI digital texts (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Full credits on each letter's page.

In the Breath of the All-MercifulIbn ʿArabī · metaphysics

English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic

أ

وإلا الهاء والهمزة فإنهما باردتان رطبتان

And except hāʾ and hamza, for these two are cold and moist.

Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2583

ز

Level of existence: ما يظهر في ركن الهواء · what appears in the pillar (element) of air

Divine Name: الحي · the Living (al-Ḥayy)

Lunar mansion: الشولة · al-Shawla

Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64951

Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2570 ↗

منها دون الألف فطبعها الحرارة واليبوسة

[Zāy and lām] of it, excluding alif: their nature is heat and dryness.

Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2577

ل

Level of existence: السماء الثالثة · the third heaven

Divine Name: القاهر · the Subduer (al-Qāhir)

Lunar mansion: العوا · al-ʿAwwā

Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64654

Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2576 ↗

منها دون الألف فطبعها الحرارة واليبوسة

[Zāy and lām] of it, excluding alif: their nature is heat and dryness.

Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2577
Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac

English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic

أ

فهي إشارة إلى جميع الأشياء قلت أو كثرت، وتكون الإشارة في بعض الأحيان من المتكلم إلى ذاته ونفسه، وهذه الإشارة سالمة من القبض.

It is an indication of all things, whether few or many. At times the indication is from the speaker to his own essence and self, and this indication is free of contraction (qabḍ).

فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القريب القليل.

It is an indication of the near, small thing.

فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القريب المناسب.

It is an indication of the near, fitting (congruent) thing.

al-Dabbāgh (d. 1132/1719), al-Ibrīz, ch. 2 §15, compiled by al-Lamaṭī

ز

فهي اسم للشيء الذي إذا دخل على الشيء ضره، وقال مرة: اسم للشيء وما يتحرز منه.

It is a name for the thing that harms another thing when it enters upon it. On one occasion he said: a name for the thing and what one guards against.

فهي إشارة إلى القبيح الذي فيه ضرر كالكبائر.

It is an indication of the ugly thing that contains harm, such as the major sins.

فهي إشارة إلى القبيح الذي لا ضرر فيه كالصغائر والشبهات والنجاسة.

It is an indication of the ugly thing that contains no harm, such as minor sins, doubtful matters and ritual impurity.

al-Dabbāgh (d. 1132/1719), al-Ibrīz, ch. 2 §15, compiled by al-Lamaṭī

ل

فهي حصول المتكلم على شيء عظيم، وتكون إشارة إلى شيء عظيم.

It is the speaker's attaining of something great, and it serves as an indication of something great.

فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا نهاية له.

It is an indication of the thing that has no end.

فهي إشارة من المتكلم إلى وجود ذاته أو إلى ذاته.

It is an indication by the speaker of the existence of his self, or of his self.

al-Dabbāgh (d. 1132/1719), al-Ibrīz, ch. 2 §15, compiled by al-Lamaṭī
In the sister scriptsHebrew א ז לSyriac ܐ ܙ ܠ
Arabicأ ز ل
Hebrewא ז ל
Syriacܐ ܙ ܠ
Ancient South Arabian (musnad)𐩱 𐩸 𐩡
Phoenician𐤀 𐤆 𐤋

Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.

  • Classical lexiconAl-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) glosses al-azl as severity of time — people 'in azl min al-ʿaysh' are enduring a hard year or trial — and azalat al-faras as shortening a horse's tether before releasing it to graze.well attested

    The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.

    Al-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) glosses al-azl as severity of time — people 'in azl min al-ʿaysh' are enduring a hard year or trial — and azalat al-faras as shortening a horse's tether before releasing it to graze. Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) confirms al-azl as straitness and confinement (azalū māla-hum: they withheld their livestock from pasture out of fear), and separately records al-izl (kasr) as lying, citing a verse that calls a false claim of love kadhib and izl. Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) codifies two distinct aṣlān under this root, ḍīq (straitness) and kadhib (lying), the former covering hardship, confinement of livestock, and the forbidden racing practice of leading a spare horse. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) gathers the ḍīq material — azala yaʾzulu (to confine), āzalat al-sana (the year grew severe), the ḥadīth phrase 'sana ḥamrāʾ muʾazzala' — and Lane confirms: to be in straits, dearth, or sterility; to confine or restrain; to shorten a horse's rope.

    Draws on: al-Khalīl · al-Jawharī · Ibn Fāris · Ibn Manẓūr · Lane

    • Wiktionary, Arabic root ء-ز-ل (link not verified)
  • Letters & soundIn al-Dabbāghī's letter-values, zāy marks something that harms upon entering, or that which must be guarded against, and lām marks the speaker's attainment of, or pointer toward, something great — jointly suggestive, at a stretch, of a harm to be warded off and a great thing reached for, loosely compatible with both the 'straitness to endure' and the 'lie to guard against' senses Ibn Fāris records.speculative

    What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.

    In al-Dabbāghī's letter-values, zāy marks something that harms upon entering, or that which must be guarded against, and lām marks the speaker's attainment of, or pointer toward, something great — jointly suggestive, at a stretch, of a harm to be warded off and a great thing reached for, loosely compatible with both the 'straitness to endure' and the 'lie to guard against' senses Ibn Fāris records. Al-Akbarī's cosmological correspondences assign zāy to what appears in the element of air and lām to the third heaven, associations with no evident bearing on this root's sense. No letter-value is supplied here for hamza. This kind of sound-symbolism is suggestive at most and is not accepted by mainstream historical linguistics.

    Draws on: al-Dabbāgh · al-Akbarī

  • Root structureIbn Fāris's own chapter for أزل already splits into two aṣlān, ḍīq and kadhib, so the root is internally divided rather than unitary.plausible

    The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).

    Ibn Fāris's own chapter for أزل already splits into two aṣlān, ḍīq and kadhib, so the root is internally divided rather than unitary. Among the metathetic permutations, لزأ is attested with a sense of tending camels well or, dialectally, begetting a child; ألز and زأل are marked attested but without a recorded gloss in the excerpt; زلأ and لأز are unattested. Any link between أزل's confinement/narrowness and لزأ's careful tending is only a juxtaposition of letters — Ibn Fāris records no semantic bridge, and Ibn Jinnī's greater-derivation method would require such a bridge to be more than coincidence.

    Draws on: Ibn Fāris - Maqāyīs · permutations

  • Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew has אָזַל (ʾāzal), 'to go away, be gone, be spent or exhausted' (e.g.plausible

    Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.

    Hebrew has אָזַל (ʾāzal), 'to go away, be gone, be spent or exhausted' (e.g. Deuteronomy 32:36, of strength that has 'gone'), and Aramaic/Syriac ʾzl is a very common verb meaning simply 'to go, depart.' These share the root letters with Arabic أزل and plausibly the underlying Semitic root, though the core sense in Hebrew and Aramaic is motion/departure while Arabic specializes it toward the resultant state of privation — straitness, dearth, want — as when provisions 'go away' and one is left constrained. This is an inherited Semitic root with sense-divergence across branches, not a loanword.

    Draws on: Hebrew · Aramaic/Syriac

  • Philosophy & kalāmAzal (beginninglessness) is a standing technical term in kalām and falsafa, paired with abad (endlessness): azalī describes what has no first moment, abadī what has no last one.plausible

    The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.

    Azal (beginninglessness) is a standing technical term in kalām and falsafa, paired with abad (endlessness): azalī describes what has no first moment, abadī what has no last one. The mutakallimūn treat azaliyya as a necessary attribute of God's essence, opposed to ḥudūth (temporal origination), the mark of created things; Avicenna likewise calls the Necessary Existent azalī, having existence with no beginning in time. Notably, this technical sense is not what the excerpted lexicographers define under this root (straitness, and separately lying); some grammarians instead derive azal as a contraction of lam yazal, from the unrelated root ز-و-ل ('to cease'), making the philosophical term's link to أزل itself a point of dispute.

    Draws on: kalām · Avicenna

  • Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī calls the Perfect Human 'al-insān al-ḥādith al-azalī' — the temporally originated human who is nonetheless eternal-in-origin — holding ḥudūth and azal together in one description.plausible

    The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.

    In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī calls the Perfect Human 'al-insān al-ḥādith al-azalī' — the temporally originated human who is nonetheless eternal-in-origin — holding ḥudūth and azal together in one description. He affirms that azal and qidam (pre-eternity) properly belong to God precisely because awwaliyya (having a first, which entails an 'opening' of existence) is negated of Him. Azal thus functions technically as the negation of any first moment, securing God's absolute priority to, and independence from, the contingent (mumkin) human being under discussion.

    Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam

Neighbouring rootsThe roots that share letters with this one, as a map you can open out