Root · 0 in the Quran · 2 in 2 texts of the library
جسرPer Ibn Fāris: strength and daring/boldness. (root jsr)
الجيم والسين والراء يدل على قوة وجرأة فالجسرة الناقة القوية ويقال هي الجريئة على السير وصلب جسر أي قوي قال : — موضع …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ج س ر that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
13 words5 verbs4 verbal nouns2 intensives and elatives2 other nouns
- جَسَرَhe ventured upon such a thing daringly, courageously, or boldly
- جَسَّرَhe encouraged him
- جَسَّارvery daring or courageous or bold
- جَسُورdaring, courageous, or bold
- جِسْرbridge
The whole family4 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs5جَسَرَ · جَسَّرَ · أَجْسَرَ
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 يَفْعُلُ (a – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
Verbal nouns4جَسَارَة · جَسْر · تَجْسِير
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative2جَسَّار · جَسُور
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 10 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.
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 AI
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)' AI
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 AI
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
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.
The dictionaries
English: AI translation AIal-Khalīl · 170Al-jisr (الجسر) and al-jasr (الجسر) [both vocalizations] mean the qanṭarah (القنطرة, bridge) and similar things over which one crosses.
al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn. The first Arabic dictionary, arranged by permutations of the root letters.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Jawharī · 393Al-jisr (الجسر) is one of the jusūr (جسور), the bridges over which one crosses.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Jīm, sīn, and rāʾ indicate strength and boldness.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Jasara yajsuru jusūran wa jasāratan (جسر يجسر جسورا وجسارة): he went forth and proceeded.
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLane · 1876English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
E. W. Lane (d. 1876), An Arabic-English Lexicon. English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
Lane, Arabic-English Lexiconread Lane's entry online ↗
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ج س ر
الجيم والسين والراء يدل على قوة وجرأة فالجسرة الناقة القوية ويقال هي الجريئة على السير وصلب جسر أي قوي
j-s-r indicates strength and boldness. Al-jasrah is the strong she-camel, and it is said she is bold in travel, and ṣulb jasr means strong. AI
an entry in Ibn Fārislater sources onlyin none of them
Do these six share one core meaning?
Reference
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:
- 1 of 6319
- 2 of 6218
- 3 of 6164
- 4 of 6155
- 5 of 6107
- 6 of 658
- 1 of 6148
- 2 of 6108
- 3 of 6157
- 4 of 6179
- 5 of 6111
- 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.
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.
Letters & sound
- جjīmmiddle of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- سsīntongue-tip, by the front teeth · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
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)
Reference
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ج
ومن وسط اللسان بينه وبين وسط الحنك الأعلى مخرج الجيم والشين والياء
From the middle of the tongue, between it and the middle of the upper palate, is the place of the jīm, the shīn and the yāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26553 ↗
ومن وسط اللسان بينه وبين وسط الحنك الأعلى، مخرج الجيم والشين والياء
From the middle of the tongue, between it and the middle of the upper palate, is the place of the jīm, the shīn and the yāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 974 ↗
س
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 ↗
ر
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا لانحرافه إلى اللام مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26557–26558 ↗
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا، لانحرافه إلى اللام، مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, lines 980–981 ↗
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 AI
ج
Level of existence: الفلك الأطلس فلك البروج · the Atlas (starless) sphere, the sphere of the zodiacal signs
Divine Name: الغني · al-Ghanī, the Independent
Lunar mansion: الطرف · al-Ṭarf
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62085Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582س
Level of existence: ما ظهر في الماء · what appears in water
Divine Name: المحيي · al-Muḥyī, the Life-Giver
Lunar mansion: النعائم · al-Naʿāʾim
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62110Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
السين والشين فطبعهما الحرارة واليبوسة
Sīn and shīn: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2581ر
Level of existence: السماء الخامسة · the fifth heaven
Divine Name: المصور · the Form-Giver (al-Muṣawwir)
Lunar mansion: الغفر · al-Ghafr
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64675Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ج
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي نبوة أو ولاية إذا كان قبلها أو بعدها ما يدل على ذلك، وإلا فهي للخير الذي لا يزول أبدا.
It is prophethood or sainthood (walāya) if something before or after it indicates that. Otherwise it is for the good that never ceases.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي الخير الذي يؤكل أو ينتفع الناس منه.
It is the good that is eaten, or from which people derive benefit.
With kasra ـِ
فهي الخير القليل الذي في الذات من نور الإيمان.
It is the small good within the self from the light of faith.
س
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء المليح الذي من طبعه الرقة.
It is an indication of the comely thing whose nature is delicacy.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القبيح الخشن، أو إشارة إلى سواد حسا ومعنى.
It is an indication of the ugly, rough thing, or of blackness, sensible and figurative.
With kasra ـِ
وبالكسر إشارة إلى الشيء الطابع وتكون الإشارة منه.
With kasra it is an indication of the impressing/stamping thing, and the indication proceeds from it.
ر
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى جميع الخيرات الظاهرة والباطنة.
It is an indication of all goods, outward and inward.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الواحد في نفسه وهو ظاهر.
It is an indication of the one in itself, and it is manifest.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي فيه الروح وليس من بني آدم، أو إشارة إلى الروح نفسها.
It is an indication of a thing that has spirit in it but is not of the children of Adam, or an indication of the spirit itself.
Two-letter nucleus4 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterج س
Ibn Fāris groups his roots under two-letter chapters (“the X and the Y and what makes them three”). These are the roots of this root's chapter with the core sense he gives each. Setting them side by side is our juxtaposition; he does not himself draw a shared meaning. His chapter heading, line 5613 ↗
- جسمالجيم والسين والميم يدل على تجمع الشيء فالجسم كل شخص مدرك كذاQ 2 · L5614
- جسأالجيم والسين والهمزة يدل على صلابة وشدةL5616
- جسدالجيم والسين والدال يدل على تجمع الشيء أيضا واشتدادهQ 4 · L5617
- جسرالجيم والسين والراء يدل على قوة وجرأة فالجسرة الناقة القوية ويقال هي الجريئة على السير وصلب جسر أي قويL5624
In the sister scriptsHebrew ג ס/ש רSyriac ܓ ܣ/ܫ ܪ
| Arabic | ج س ر |
| Hebrew | ג ס/ש ר |
| Syriac | ܓ ܣ/ܫ ܪ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩴 𐩯/𐩦 𐩧 |
| Phoenician | 𐤂 𐤎/𐤔 𐤓 |
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.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) gives al-jisr/al-jasr as 'the qanṭara and the like that one crosses upon,' alongside jasr as a man who is jasīm jasūr — bulky and courageous — and jasra as a mare that is māḍiya, 'forward-pressing.' Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) confirms al-jisr as one of the جسور crossed upon, and adds jasr (fatḥ) for a camel that is 'huge' (al-ʿaẓīm), fem.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) gives al-jisr/al-jasr as 'the qanṭara and the like that one crosses upon,' alongside jasr as a man who is jasīm jasūr — bulky and courageous — and jasra as a mare that is māḍiya, 'forward-pressing.' Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) confirms al-jisr as one of the جسور crossed upon, and adds jasr (fatḥ) for a camel that is 'huge' (al-ʿaẓīm), fem. jasra, with the verb jasara ʿalā... yajsuru jasāra, 'to venture boldly,' and al-jasūr as 'the daring one.' Ibn Fāris's headword gloss (Maqāyīs) makes the core sense quwwa wa-jarāʾa — strength and daring — instancing jasra as the strong or step-daring she-camel and ṣulb jasr as 'firm, strong'; he further notes (via Ibn Durayd) that al-jisr, the crossing-structure, is 'well known' and that it is from this that the tribal name Jasr is said to derive. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān al-ʿArab) adds al-Shaʿbī's address to his sword — 'ijsir jasār' — an imperative built on this same sense of bold, penetrating action, and Lane's gloss unifies the whole as daring, penetrating energy and effectiveness, with jasara ʿalā kadhā, 'to venture daringly upon a thing.'
Draws on: al-ʿAyn · al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Maqāyīs · Lisān al-ʿArab · Lane
- Lane's Lexicon, جسر (link not verified)
Letters & soundIn the Akbarian scheme, jīm is assigned to 'the Atlas sphere, the sphere of the zodiacal signs,' sīn to 'what appears in water,' and rāʾ to 'the fifth heaven.' Al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-glosses give jīm as prophethood or sainthood (when context indicates) or else 'unceasing good,' sīn as 'the comely thing whose nature is delicacy,' and rāʾ as 'all goods, outward and inward.' One might read jasr's daring as jīm's rank-conferring boldness pressing through sīn's delicate surface toward rāʾ's comprehensive good — but this is impressionistic assembly, not a demonstrated method, and mainstream linguistics treats such letter-symbolism as suggestive at most.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the Akbarian scheme, jīm is assigned to 'the Atlas sphere, the sphere of the zodiacal signs,' sīn to 'what appears in water,' and rāʾ to 'the fifth heaven.' Al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-glosses give jīm as prophethood or sainthood (when context indicates) or else 'unceasing good,' sīn as 'the comely thing whose nature is delicacy,' and rāʾ as 'all goods, outward and inward.' One might read jasr's daring as jīm's rank-conferring boldness pressing through sīn's delicate surface toward rāʾ's comprehensive good — but this is impressionistic assembly, not a demonstrated method, and mainstream linguistics treats such letter-symbolism as suggestive at most.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī, Breath letters (given table) · al-Dabbāgh letter-meanings (given table)
Root structureIbn Fāris's chapter ج-س groups جسر with جسم (the gathering-together of a thing, hence 'body'), جسأ (hardness, toughness), and جسد (a thing's gathering and solidifying, hence 'body/corpse') — all three neighbors turning on firmness or gathered solidity, with جسر's 'strength and daring' plausibly of a piece with this cluster.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris's chapter ج-س groups جسر with جسم (the gathering-together of a thing, hence 'body'), جسأ (hardness, toughness), and جسد (a thing's gathering and solidifying, hence 'body/corpse') — all three neighbors turning on firmness or gathered solidity, with جسر's 'strength and daring' plausibly of a piece with this cluster. Among the six permutations of ج-س-ر, three others are independently attested with unrelated senses: جرس (sound, voice), سجر (fullness, mixture, kindling — the Quran's 'al-baḥr al-masjūr,' 3 occurrences), سرج (beauty and adornment; sirāj, 'lamp,' 4 occurrences), and رجس (mixing, confusion; rijs, 10 occurrences); رسج is unattested. Ibn Jinnī's greater-derivation method would note these permutations cluster loosely around intensity — solidity in the ج-س pair, vividness or agitation in the ر-forms — with جسر's 'forceful daring' sitting plausibly amid them, though this remains his speculative method, not an established etymology.
Draws on: Maqāyīs chapter ج-س · permutation table
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, chapter ج-س (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsAkkadian gašru, 'strong, mighty,' plausibly shares the same root as Arabic jasr's core sense of strength and daring.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Akkadian gašru, 'strong, mighty,' plausibly shares the same root as Arabic jasr's core sense of strength and daring. Hebrew גֶּשֶׁר (gesher) and Aramaic/Syriac ܓܫܪܐ (gišrā) both mean 'bridge,' matching Arabic al-jisr, 'bridge, causeway' — the concrete structural noun. Together these suggest an inherited Common Semitic root spanning 'strength' and 'a firm/spanning structure' (hence 'bridge'), rather than a loan in either direction; Arabic's abstract sense (daring, boldness) and concrete sense (bridge) likely reflect this same inherited range rather than one being derived from the other within Arabic alone.
Draws on: comparative Semitic lexicon
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, discussing the khalīfa's seal guarding creation as a royal seal guards treasuries, Ibn ʿArabī writes that 'so long as the king's seal is upon it, no one is bold enough [lā yajsuru] to open it except by his permission.' The verb is used in its ordinary classical sense — to venture or dare upon something — applied here to the metaphysical point that access to what the vicegerent (khalīfa) seals is barred to all but by divine leave.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, discussing the khalīfa's seal guarding creation as a royal seal guards treasuries, Ibn ʿArabī writes that 'so long as the king's seal is upon it, no one is bold enough [lā yajsuru] to open it except by his permission.' The verb is used in its ordinary classical sense — to venture or dare upon something — applied here to the metaphysical point that access to what the vicegerent (khalīfa) seals is barred to all but by divine leave. No separate Iṣṭilāḥ definition of the root is given; jasr functions descriptively rather than as a technical term in this passage.
Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam excerpt
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam (link not verified)
Reference