Root · 9 in the Quran · 117 in 19 texts of the library
عبرa single sound root denoting passing through and going on in a thing, as in crossing a … (root br)
العين والباء والراء أصل صحيح واحد يدل على النفوذ والمضي في الشيء
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ع ب ر that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
37 words4 verbs6 verbal nouns3 participles2 places and instruments4 intensives and elatives11 other nouns4 plurals3 relatives and abstracts
- عِبَارَةspeech that passes from the tongue of the speaker to the ear of the hearer
- اِعْتَبَرَhe became admonished, or reminded
- عِبْرَةadmonition, or exhortation
- عَبَّرَhe made him to cross, go across, or pass over, or he conveyed him across, the …
- تَعْبِيرexpression
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs4عَبَرَ · اِعْتَبَرَ · عَبَّرَ
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.”)
- عَبَرَcross; traverseautoForm IQurʾān ×1library ×4LaneIbn Fāris
- اِعْتَبَرَhe became admonished, or remindedLaneForm VIIIQurʾān ×1library ×14Lane
- عَبَّرَhe made him to cross, go across, or pass over, or he conveyed him across, the …LaneForm IIlibrary ×10LaneIbn Fāris
- اِسْتَعْبَرَForm XLaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns6عِبَارَة · تَعْبِير · عُبُور
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- عِبَارَةspeech that passes from the tongue of the speaker to the ear of the hearerLaneForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×21LaneIbn Fāris
- تَعْبِيرexpressionautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×7Lane
- عُبُورcrossingautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- اِعْتِبارconsideration; regardautoForm VIIIlibrary ×3Ibn Fāris
Participles3مُعَبَّر · عَابِر · مُعْتَبَر
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُعَبَّرexpressedautopassive, Form IVlibrary ×5Ibn Fāris
- عَابِرwayfarerLaneactive, Form ILaneIbn Fāris
- مُعْتَبَرconsidered; regardedautopassive, Form VIIIlibrary ×1
Place, time and instrument2مَعْبَر · مِعْبَر
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative4عَبُور · عَبِير · عَبْرَان
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns11عِبْرَة · عَبْرَة · عَبَارَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals4عِبارات · عِبَر · عَبَرات
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- عِباراتsound plural of عِبارَةlibrary ×6
- عِبَرbroken plural of عِبْرَةLaneIbn Fāris
- عَبَراتsound plural of عَبْرَةlibrary ×1
- مَعَابِرbroken plural of مَعْبَرLane
Relative and abstract3عُبْرِيّ · عِبْرِيّ · اِعْتِبارِيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- عُبْرِيّrelative adjective (-iyy)LaneIbn Fāris
- عِبْرِيّHebrewLanerelative adjective (-iyy)LaneIbn Fāris
- اِعْتِبارِيّconsideration; regardautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×1
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 18 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 · 170ʿAbara yuʿabbiru ar-ruʾyā taʿbīran (عبر يعبر الرؤيا تعبيرا) — he interpreted the dream;
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-ʿibra (العبرة) is the noun from al-iʿtibār.
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395ʿAyn, bāʾ, and rāʾ form one sound root indicating penetrating through and passing on/through a thing.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502The root meaning of al-ʿabr (العبر) is passing from one state to another.
al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt. Quranic vocabulary, from core sense to Quranic usage.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711ʿAbara ar-ruʾyā yaʿburuhā ʿabran wa-ʿibāratan (عبر الرؤيا يعبرها عبرا وعبارة), and ʿabbarahā (عبرها): he interpreted it and told what its matter would come to.
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 ↗
Technical definitions4 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الاعتبار
أن يرى الدنيا للفناء، والعاملين فيها للموت، وعمرانها للخراب، وقيل: الاعتبار اسم المعتبرة، وهي رؤية فناء الدنيا كلها باستعمال النظر في فناء جزئها، وقيل: الاعتبار من العبر، وهو شق النهر والبحر يعني يرى المعتبر نفسه على حرف من مقامات الدنيا.
Al-iʿtibār (الاعتبار): to see the world as [destined] for annihilation, those working in it as [destined] for death, and its flourishing as [destined] for ruin. It is also said: al-iʿtibār is the name of al-muʿtabara (the act of taking a lesson), which is the perception of the annihilation of the whole world by employing observation of the annihilation of a part of it. It is also said: al-iʿtibār derives from al-ʿabr, the crossing of a river or sea — meaning the one who takes a lesson sees himself as though on the edge (ḥarf) of one of the stations of this world. AI
الاعتبار
هو النظر في الحكم الثابت أنه لأي معنى ثبت، وإلحاق نظيره به وهذا عين القياس.
Al-iʿtibār (الاعتبار) is the examination of an established ruling as to the reason for which it was established, and the attachment of its analogue to it; this is identical with qiyās (analogical reasoning). AI
الأمر الاعتباري
هو الذي لا وجود له إلا في عقل المعتبر، ما دام معتبرا، وهو الماهية، بشرط العراء.
Al-amr al-iʿtibārī (الأمر الاعتباري, the notional matter) is that which has no existence except in the mind of the one considering it, so long as it is being considered; it is the quiddity (māhiyya) on condition of being stripped [of external existential attachments]. AI
عبارة النص
هي النظم المعنوي المسوق له الكلام؛ سميت عبارة لأن المستدل يعبر من النظم إلى المعنى، والمتكلم من المعنى إلى النظم، فكانت هي موضع العبور، فإذا عمل بموجب الكلام من الأمر والنهي يسمى: استدلالا بعبارة النص.
ʿIbārat al-naṣṣ (عبارة النص, the explicit wording of the text) is the meaningful construction for the sake of which the speech is composed; it is called ʿibāra (expression) because the one inferring passes (yaʿbur) from the construction to the meaning, while the speaker passes from the meaning to the construction — so it is the place of crossing (ʿubūr). When one acts according to what the speech requires, of command and prohibition, this is called 'inference by the explicit wording of the text' (al-istidlāl bi-ʿibārat al-naṣṣ). AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ع ب ر
العين والباء والراء أصل صحيح واحد يدل على النفوذ والمضي في الشيء
ʿ-b-r is one sound root indicating penetrating through and passing on in a thing. AI
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
- عʿaynmiddle of the throat · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · voiced, stopSīb. · 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
ع
ومن أوسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26548–26549 ↗
ومن وسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 970 ↗
ب
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء، والميم، والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Sībawayh, line 26563 ↗
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء والميم والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Ibn Jinnī, line 986 ↗
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
ع
Level of existence: الطبيعة · Nature
Divine Name: الباطن · The Inward (al-Bāṭin)
Lunar mansion: الثريا · al-Thurayyā (the Pleiades)
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 63825Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
ب
Level of existence: الجن · the jinn
Divine Name: اللطيف · al-Laṭīf, the Subtle
Lunar mansion: الفرع المقدم · al-Farʿ al-Muqaddam
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62118Spheres 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 2582ر
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
ع
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم لقدوم أو رحيل.
It is a name for arrival or departure.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم للساكن في الذات التي تقوم به.
It is a name for that which dwells in the self and by which the self subsists.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لخبث الذات.
It is a name for the foulness of the self.
ب
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي هو في غاية العز أو في غاية الذل.
It is an indication of the thing that is at the utmost of might or at the utmost of abasement.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة معها قبض.
It is an indication accompanied by contraction (qabḍ).
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما دخل أو هو داخل على الذات.
It is an indication of what has entered, or is entering, upon the self.
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 nucleus17 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterع ب
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 21390 ↗
- عبثالعين والباء والثاء أصل صحيح واحد يدل على الخلطQ 2 · L21391
- عبجالعين والباء والجيم ليس عند الخليل فيه شيء وقد قيل العبجة الأحمقL21396
- عبدالعين والباء والدال أصلان صحيحان كأنهما متضادان والأول من ذينك الأصلين يدل على لين وذل والآخر على شدة وغلظQ 275 · L21397
- عبرالعين والباء والراء أصل صحيح واحد يدل على النفوذ والمضي في الشيءQ 9 · L21425
- عبطالعين والباء والطاء أصل صحيح يدل على شدة تصيب من غير استحقاق وهذه عبارة ذكرها الخليل وهي صحيحة منقاسة فالعبط أن تعبط الناقة صحيحة من غير داء ولا كسرL21474
- عبقالعين والباء والقاف أصل صحيح واحد وهو لزوم الشيء للشيءL21490
- عبكالعين والباء والكاف أصيل صحيح يدل على ما يدل عليه الذي قبله وليس ببعيد أن يكون من باب الإبدالL21505
- عبلالعين والباء واللام أصل صحيح يدل على ضخم وامتداد وشدةL21510
- عبمالعين والباء والميم كلمة تدل على غلظ وجفاءL21519
- عدرالعين والدال والراء ليس بشيء وقد ذكرت فيه كلمةL21903
- عدسالعين والدال والسين ليس فيه من اللغة شيء لكنهم يسمون الحب المعروف عدسا ويقولون عدس زجر للبغالQ 1 · L21904
- عدقالعين والدال والقاف ليس بشيء وذكروا أن حديدة ذات شعب يستخرج بها الدلو من البئرL21914
- عدكالعين والدال والكاف ليس بشيء إلا كلمة من هنوات ابن دريدL21916
- عدلالعين والدال واللام أصلان صحيحان لكنهما متقابلان كالمتضادين أحدهما يدل على استواء والآخر يدل على اعوجاجQ 28 · L21917
- عدمالعين والدال والميم أصل واحد يدل على فقدان الشيء وذهابهL21939
- عدوالعين والدال والحرف المعتل أصل واحد صحيح يرجع إليه الفروع كأنها وهو يدل على تجاوز في الشيء وتقدم لما ينبغي أن يقتصر عليهQ 106 · L21953
- عدبالعين والدال والباء زعم الخليل أنه مهمل ولعله لم يبلغه فيه شيء فأما البناء فصحيح والعداب مسترق من الرملL22004
In the sister scriptsHebrew ע ב רSyriac ܥ ܒ ܪ
| Arabic | ع ب ر |
| Hebrew | ע ב ר |
| Syriac | ܥ ܒ ܪ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩲 𐩨 𐩧 |
| Phoenician | 𐤏 𐤁 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 (d. 175/791) opens with interpreting a dream (ʿabara al-ruʾyā, taʿbīr).well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
al-Khalīl (d. 175/791) opens with interpreting a dream (ʿabara al-ruʾyā, taʿbīr). He then gives crossing a river (ʿubūr), the bank (ʿibr), the ferry (miʿbar, miʿbara), the passer-by (ʿābir sabīl), and speaking on behalf of someone who cannot argue his case (ʿabbartu ʿanhu). He defines ʿibra as considering what has passed (al-iʿtibār li-mā maḍā). al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003) treats ʿibra as the noun of iʿtibār and adds a group of senses for weeping: ʿabra (tears welling), ʿabira (to weep), ʿabrān (weeping), ʿabar (a heat in the eye that brings tears). Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004) reduces all of this to one aṣl of passing through, and argues that tears belong to the root because tears pass and flow. al-Rāghib (early 5th/11th c.) takes the aṣl more abstractly as moving from one state to another. For him ʿubūr is restricted to crossing water, ʿibāra is speech crossing the air from tongue to ear, iʿtibār is reaching from what is witnessed to what is not, and ʿabara al-qawm means 'they died', as if crossing the bridge of this world. Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311) reports al-Zajjāj and al-Jawharī on the lām in li-l-ruʾyā taʿburūn (Q 12:43). Lane gives crossing a river 'from one side thereof to the other' as the primary sense, with ʿubūr as the commoner infinitive.
Draws on: al-Khalīl · al-Jawharī · Ibn Fāris · al-Rāghib · Ibn Manẓūr · Lane
Letters & soundIn al-Dabbāgh's letter meanings, ʿayn is 'a name for arrival or departure', which a symbolic reader could connect with crossing from one bank to the other.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In al-Dabbāgh's letter meanings, ʿayn is 'a name for arrival or departure', which a symbolic reader could connect with crossing from one bank to the other. Bāʾ indicates what is at the utmost of might or of abasement, and rāʾ indicates all goods, outward and inward. In the letter-cosmology data given, rāʾ is linked to the Fifth Heaven; no such correspondence is given here for ʿayn or bāʾ. Ibn Jinnī's imsās al-alfāẓ ashbāh al-maʿānī would invite hearing a movement from the deep guttural through the lips to the rolled rāʾ, but he does not discuss this root. Mainstream linguistics treats such readings as suggestive at most.
Draws on: al-Dabbāgh · Ibn ʿArabī letter-cosmology · Ibn Jinnī imsās
Root structureIbn Fāris's ʿ-b chapter contains ʿbth (mixing), ʿbd (softness and abasement, and also hardness), ʿbṭ (harm without cause), ʿbq (one thing clinging to another) and ʿbl (bulk and extension).plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris's ʿ-b chapter contains ʿbth (mixing), ʿbd (softness and abasement, and also hardness), ʿbṭ (harm without cause), ʿbq (one thing clinging to another) and ʿbl (bulk and extension). None of these shares ʿbr's sense of passing through, so the nucleus gives no clear common meaning. All five permutations are attested. ʿrb (clarity and eloquent disclosure, alongside two other aṣls) can be set beside ʿibāra 'expression'. rbʿ (a fourth, staying, raising), rʿb (fear, filling, cutting), bʿr (camels, dung) and brʿ (voluntary giving, excellence) lie further off. Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar) does not fit this set well; the ʿbr/ʿrb pairing is a juxtaposition, not a demonstrated common sense.
Draws on: Maqāyīs nucleus ʿ-b · permutations
Semitic kin & loanwordsThis is a secure common Semitic root for crossing.well attested
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
This is a secure common Semitic root for crossing. Hebrew ʿāḇar means 'to pass over, cross', and ʿēḇer means 'region across, side', as in ʿēḇer ha-nāhār, 'beyond the River'. Aramaic and Syriac ʿbar means 'to cross, pass'. Akkadian ebēru means 'to cross (a river)'. The Arabic word is inherited, not borrowed. The Arabic senses of dream interpretation, expression and admonitory example are inner-Arabic developments from 'crossing'.
Draws on: Hebrew · Aramaic · Akkadian · common Semitic
Quranic exegesisAt Q 3:13 and 12:111 the exegetes gloss ʿibra as a lesson or sign from which those with sight or understanding (ulū l-abṣār, ulū l-albāb) draw inferences.plausible
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At Q 3:13 and 12:111 the exegetes gloss ʿibra as a lesson or sign from which those with sight or understanding (ulū l-abṣār, ulū l-albāb) draw inferences. This matches al-Rāghib's definition of passing from the witnessed to the unwitnessed. At Q 12:43 (li-l-ruʾyā taʿburūn) the discussion is largely grammatical: the lām is explained as strengthening a verb whose object has been placed before it. At Q 4:43 (illā ʿābirī sabīl) al-Ṭabarī reports two readings: travellers who may pray after tayammum, or those merely passing through a place of prayer while in a state of janāba. He prefers the latter. At Q 59:2 (fa-ʿtabirū yā ulī l-abṣār), al-Rāzī and the uṣūlīs cite the command to 'cross over' by consideration as scriptural support for analogy (qiyās).
Draws on: al-Ṭabarī · al-Zamakhsharī · al-Rāzī · al-Rāghib
Philosophy & kalāmIn the Arabic Organon, ʿibāra names Aristotle's Peri Hermeneias (Kitāb al-ʿIbāra).well attested
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
In the Arabic Organon, ʿibāra names Aristotle's Peri Hermeneias (Kitāb al-ʿIbāra). al-Fārābī wrote a commentary on it, and Avicenna's Shifāʾ has a logic section under that name. The term denotes linguistic expression as the vehicle carrying meanings (maʿānī) from the soul to a hearer, close to al-Rāghib's 'speech crossing the air'. In kalām and uṣūl, ʿibāra is set against ishāra and other modes of signification in textual hermeneutics.
Draws on: falsafa logic · Kitāb al-ʿIbāra
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam the root occurs as ʿabbara ʿan / al-muʿabbar ʿanhu, 'that which is expressed as'.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam the root occurs as ʿabbara ʿan / al-muʿabbar ʿanhu, 'that which is expressed as'. The divine spirit is expressed by blowing (nafkh), which he glosses as the form's acquiring preparedness (istiʿdād). The cosmos is what the Folk term 'the Great Human' (al-insān al-kabīr). Human sight is what is 'expressed as' baṣar, and the pairing of majesty and beauty is expressed by the two hands. The idiom presents scriptural and technical names as expressions that point across to realities. This fits Ibn ʿArabī's broader treatment elsewhere in the Fuṣūṣ, notably Faṣṣ Yūsuf, of dream interpretation (taʿbīr) as crossing from an imaginal form to its meaning. No Iṣṭilāḥ definition is given for this root.
Draws on: Fuṣūṣ, Faṣṣ Ādam · taʿbīr
Reference