Root · 128 in the Quran · 117 in 24 texts of the library
عظمgreatness together with strength — per Ibn Fāris (root zm)
العين والظاء والميم أصل واحد صحيح يدل على كبر وقوة فالعظم مصدر الشيء العظيم تقول عظم يعظم عظما وعظمته أنا فإذا عظم في …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ع ظ م that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
33 words6 verbs4 verbal nouns2 participles3 intensives and elatives12 other nouns4 plurals2 relatives and abstracts
- عَظِيمman great in respect of glory, honour, dignity, or nobility, and of …
- أَعْظَمgreater; greatest
- عِظَام—
- عَظْمbone
- عَظَّمَhe made it great, big, or large
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6عَظُمَ · عَظَّمَ · أَعْظَمَ
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: فَعُلَ يَفْعُلُ (u – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- عَظُمَForm Ilibrary ×2LaneIbn Fāris
- عَظَّمَhe made it great, big, or largeLaneForm IIQurʾān ×2library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- أَعْظَمَForm IVQurʾān ×1Lane
- تَعَظَّمَhe made himself to appear great, big, or largeLaneForm VLane
Verbal nouns4عَظْم · تَعْظِيم · عَظَمَة
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- عَظْمboneautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×2library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- تَعْظِيمglorification; venerationautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×5Lane
- عَظَمَةself-magnification, pride, haughtiness, or insolenceLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
- عِظَمForm I · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
Participles2مُعَظَّم · مُعْظَم
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُعَظَّمglorified; veneratedautopassive, Form IVlibrary ×2Ibn Fāris
- مُعْظَمthe greater, main, principal, chief, or most, part or portion, or body, or …Lanepassive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
Intensives, qualities and the elative3عَظِيم · أَعْظَم · عُظَيْم
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- عَظِيمman great in respect of glory, honour, dignity, or nobility, and of …Lanequality (faʿīl)Qurʾān ×120library ×30LaneIbn Fāris
- أَعْظَمgreater; greatestautoelative or colour adjective (afʿal)Qurʾān ×3library ×27
- عُظَيْمquality (faʿīl)LaneIbn Fāris
Other nouns12عَظِيمَة · عَظَم · عَظِمَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals4عِظَام · عَظَائِم · أَعْظُم
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- عِظَامbroken plural of عَظِيمQurʾān ×13library ×1
- عَظَائِمbroken plural of عَظِيمَةlibrary ×1Lane
- أَعْظُمplural of bonefrom the singularbroken plural of عَظْمLane
- مُعَظَّمُونsound plural of مُعَظَّمlibrary ×1
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 15 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-ʿiẓām (العظام) is the plural of al-ʿaẓm (العظم), which is 'the tube-bones of the joints.' Al-ʿiẓm (العظم) is [also] the verbal noun of 'the thing being great': ʿaẓuma al-shayʾu ʿiẓaman (عظم الشيء عظما), 'it became gre
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 · 393ʿAẓuma al-shayʾu ʿiẓaman (عظم الشيء عظما): it became great, so it is ʿaẓīm (عظيم).
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395ʿAyn, ẓāʾ, mīm is one sound root indicating greatness and strength.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-ʿaẓm (العظم), 'bone';
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 · 711Among the attributes of God, Mighty and Exalted, are al-ʿAliyy (العلي, 'the High') and al-ʿAẓīm (العظيم, 'the Tremendous').
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic below
Technical definitions2 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الاسم الأعظم
هو الاسم الجامع لجميع الأسماء. وقيل: هو الله؛ لأنه اسم الذات الموصوفة بجميع الصفات، أي المسماة بجميع الأسماء، ويطلقون الحضرة الإلهية على حضرة الذات، مع جميع الأسماء. وعندنا: هو اسم الذات الإلهية، من حيث هي هي، أي المطلقة الصادقة عليها مع جميعها أو بعضها، أو لا مع واحد منها، كقوله تعالى: {قل هو الله أحد} .
Al-ism al-aʿẓam (الاسم الأعظم), 'the Greatest Name': it is the name that comprehends all [other] names. It is also said: it is [the name] Allāh (الله), because it is the name of the Essence (al-dhāt) described by all [divine] attributes, i.e., named by all [divine] names; and [scholars] apply the term al-ḥaḍrah al-ilāhiyyah (الحضرة الإلهية, 'the Divine Presence') to the Presence of the Essence together with all the Names. And according to us: it is the name of the Divine Essence considered in itself (min ḥaythu hiya hiya), i.e., [taken] absolutely, applying to it together with all [the Names], or with some of them, or without being conjoined with any single one of them — as in His saying, exalted: "Say: He is Allah, [the] One" [Q112:1, al-Ikhlāṣ]. AI
الروح الأعظم
الذي هو الروح الإنساني مظهر الذات الإلهية من حيث ربوبيتها، ولذلك لا يمكن أن يحوم حولها حائم، ولا يروم وصلها رائم، ولا يعلم كنهها إلا الله تعالى، ولا ينال هذه البغية سواه، وهو العقل الأول، والحقيقة المحمدية، والنفس الواحدة، والحقيقة الأسمائية، وهو أول موجود خلقه الله على صورته، وهو الخليفة الأكبر، وهو الجوهر النوراني، جوهريته مظهر الذات، ونورانيته مظهر علمها، ويسمى باعتبار الجوهرية: نفسا واحدة، وباعتبار النورانية: عقلا أولا، وكما أن له في العالم الكبير مظاهر وأسماء من العقل الأول، والقلم الأعلى، والنور، والنفس الكلية، واللوح المحفوظ، وغير ذلك، له في العلم الصغير الإنساني مظاهر وأسماء بحسب ظهوراته ومراتبه في اصطلاح أهل الله وغيرهم، وهي السر والخفاء والروح والقلب والكلمة والروع والفؤاد والصدر والعقل والنفس.
Al-rūḥ al-aʿẓam (الروح الأعظم), 'the Greatest Spirit': it is the human spirit (al-rūḥ al-insānī), the locus of manifestation of the Divine Essence in respect of its Lordship (rubūbiyyah); and for this reason no one circling [around it] can encompass it, nor can any seeker attain union with it, and none knows its inmost reality except God, exalted, and none but He attains this sought-for goal. It is the First Intellect (al-ʿaql al-awwal), the Muḥammadan Reality (al-ḥaqīqah al-Muḥammadiyyah), the Single Soul (al-nafs al-wāḥidah), and the Reality of the [Divine] Names (al-ḥaqīqah al-asmāʾiyyah). It is the first existent that God created upon His [own] form, and it is the Greatest Vicegerent (al-khalīfah al-akbar). It is the Luminous Substance (al-jawhar al-nūrānī): its substantiality is the locus of manifestation of the Essence, and its luminosity is the locus of manifestation of Its Knowledge. In respect of its substantiality it is called 'the Single Soul,' and in respect of its luminosity, 'the First Intellect.' And just as it has, in the Macrocosm (al-ʿālam al-kabīr), loci of manifestation and names — the First Intellect, the Supreme Pen (al-qalam al-aʿlā), the Light, the Universal Soul (al-nafs al-kulliyyah), the Preserved Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ), and others — so too it has, in the Microcosm of man, loci of manifestation and names according to its manifestation [entry continues] AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ع ظ م
العين والظاء والميم أصل واحد صحيح يدل على كبر وقوة فالعظم مصدر الشيء العظيم تقول عظم يعظم عظما وعظمته أنا فإذا عظم في عينيك قلت أعظمته واستعظمته ومعظم الشيء أكثره وعظمة الذراع مستغلظها وهي العظيمة النازلة الملمة الشديدة
ʿ-ẕ-m is one sound root indicating greatness and strength. Al-ʿaẕm is the infinitive of the great thing; you say ʿaẕuma yaʿẕumu ʿaẕaman, and aʿẕamtuhu means I made it great; and if it became great in your eyes you say aʿẕamtuhu and istaʿẕamtuhu. Al-muʿẕam of a thing is the most of it, and ʿaẕmat al-dhirāʿ is its thick part, and it is al-ʿaẕīma, the descending, befalling, severe calamity. 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
- عʿaynmiddle of the throat · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- ظẓāʾtongue-tip, edges of the teeth · voiced, continuant, velarisedSīb. · I. Jinnī
- مmīmbetween the lips · 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 ↗
ظ
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأطراف الثنايا مخرج الظاء والذال، والثاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the front teeth is the place of the ẓāʾ, the dhāl and the thāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26561 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأطراف الثنايا، مخرج الظاء والذال والثاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the front teeth is the place of the ẓāʾ, the dhāl and the thāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 984 ↗
م
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 ↗
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 ↗
ظ
Level of existence: المعادن · the minerals
Divine Name: العزيز · the Mighty (al-ʿAzīz)
Lunar mansion: سعد الذابح · Saʿd al-Dhābiḥ
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 65491Spheres 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 2582م
Level of existence: الإنسان · the human being
Divine Name: الجامع · al-Jāmiʿ, the Gatherer
Lunar mansion: المؤخر · al-Muʾakhkhar
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62119Spheres 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.
ظ
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي هو عظيم في نفسه ولا يكون معه ضده، كالجود في الشرفاء والغش في اليهود.
It is an indication of the thing that is great in itself and is not accompanied by its opposite, such as generosity in the sharīfs and deceit in the Jews.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي يتبع تحرك نفسه وهي تسعى في هلاكه.
It is an indication of the thing that follows the movement of its own soul while that soul strives for its destruction.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي يتضرر منه العبد ومن طبعه أنه يضر.
It is an indication of the thing by which the servant is harmed and whose nature is to harm.
م
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي جميع المكونات.
It is all created beings.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العزيز القليل كماء العين، ومنه قيل مومو.
It is the precious, scarce thing, like the water of the eye; from it comes the expression 'mūmū'.
With kasra ـِ
فهي نور الذات ظاهرا كما في العين، وباطنا كما في القلب.
It is the light of the self, outwardly as in the eye and inwardly as in the heart.
Two-letter nucleus4 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterع ظ
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 23313 ↗
- عظمالعين والظاء والميم أصل واحد صحيح يدل على كبر وقوة فالعظم مصدر الشيء العظيم تقول عظم يعظم عظما وعظمته أنا فإذا عظم في عينيك قلت أعظمته واستعظمته ومعظمQ 128 · L23314
- عظبالعين والظاء والباء يقولون عظب الطائر إذا حرك رمكاه وهو كلام والعنظب الجراد الضخم النون زائدةL23319
- عظلالعين والظاء واللام أصل صحيحL23321
- عركسقال الخليل عركس أصل بناء اعرنكس وذلك إذا تراكم الشيء بعضه على بعضL23372
In the sister scriptsHebrew ע צ מSyriac ܥ ܛ ܡ
| Arabic | ع ظ م |
| Hebrew | ע צ מ |
| Syriac | ܥ ܛ ܡ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩲 𐩼 𐩣 |
| Phoenician | 𐤏 𐤑 𐤌 |
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 anchors the root in the concrete: al-ʿiẓām as the plural of ʿaẓm, the bony shaft of the joints, alongside the abstract maṣdar ʿiẓam/ʿaẓāma of 'the great affair' and the verb ʿaẓẓama, 'to magnify.' Al-Jawharī confirms ʿaẓuma/ʿiẓām as synonyms for 'to be great' and notes the exclamatory construction ʿaẓuma l-baṭnu baṭnuka, treating greatness like praise-verbs (niʿma/biʾsa) that admit phonetic compression.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl anchors the root in the concrete: al-ʿiẓām as the plural of ʿaẓm, the bony shaft of the joints, alongside the abstract maṣdar ʿiẓam/ʿaẓāma of 'the great affair' and the verb ʿaẓẓama, 'to magnify.' Al-Jawharī confirms ʿaẓuma/ʿiẓām as synonyms for 'to be great' and notes the exclamatory construction ʿaẓuma l-baṭnu baṭnuka, treating greatness like praise-verbs (niʿma/biʾsa) that admit phonetic compression. Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) states the single underlying sense as kubr wa-quwwa, 'greatness and strength,' under which both the bone and the abstract 'great' fall, the bone being named for its structural strength. Al-Rāghib develops the metaphor explicitly: ʿaẓm the bone is the sensory root, then 'great' is transferred (istiʿāra) to any large thing, sensory or intelligible — yawm ʿaẓīm, naba' ʿaẓīm. Ibn Manẓūr applies this trajectory to the divine epithet al-ʿAẓīm: He whose measure exceeds bounds, beyond intellects' capacity to encompass His reality — and cites the hadith command to 'magnify the Lord' in rukūʿ.
Draws on: khalil · jawhari · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, root ʿ-ẓ-m
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt, s.v. ʿaẓm
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. ʿaẓm
- Wiktionary Arabic root appendix ع ظ م ↗
Letters & soundIn the letter-tables attributed to Ibn ʿArabī's circle, ʿayn is assigned to Nature (al-ṭabīʿa) and, per al-Dabbāgh, marks arrival or departure;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the letter-tables attributed to Ibn ʿArabī's circle, ʿayn is assigned to Nature (al-ṭabīʿa) and, per al-Dabbāgh, marks arrival or departure; ẓāʾ is assigned to the minerals and, per al-Dabbāgh, indicates 'a thing great in itself, unaccompanied by its opposite' (his examples concern moral qualities in named groups, which should be read as period color rather than doctrine); mīm is assigned to the human being and, per al-Dabbāgh, to all created things generally. Read together this would put ʿaẓīm's letters across nature, unmixed greatness, and the created order — a suggestive alignment at best. Mainstream historical linguistics treats such letter-symbolism as literary/mystical exegesis, not as evidence for word-formation.
Draws on: akbari198 · dabbagh
- Ibn ʿArabī letter-table (akbari198)
- al-Dabbāgh, letter meanings (fatḥa series)
Root structureIbn Fāris groups ʿ-ẓ-m with ʿ-ẓ-b (a bird ruffling its wings, or the great locust) and ʿ-ẓ-l (marked merely 'a sound root,' no content supplied) — the chapter itself gives too little to establish shared meaning beyond the shared first two letters;uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris groups ʿ-ẓ-m with ʿ-ẓ-b (a bird ruffling its wings, or the great locust) and ʿ-ẓ-l (marked merely 'a sound root,' no content supplied) — the chapter itself gives too little to establish shared meaning beyond the shared first two letters; the kubr wa-quwwa sense he assigns appears specific to ʿ-ẓ-m within its own chapter. Among the permutations only ʿẓm itself and m-ẓ-ʿ are attested; the latter describes soaking a rod in its bark until it toughens (mazaʿa l-qaḍīb), a process of imparting firmness that echoes, loosely, the quwwa component of ʿaẓm. This is offered as a juxtaposition in Ibn Jinnī's spirit of greater derivation, not as an established etymological link.
Draws on: nucleusSiblings · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, roots ʿ-ẓ-b, ʿ-ẓ-l, m-ẓ-ʿ
Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew ʿeṣem (עֶצֶם) means both 'bone' and, reflexively, 'the very (thing), self, substance' (be-ʿeṣem ha-yom, 'on that very day'), paralleling the Arabic move from concrete bone to an intensified abstract sense, though Hebrew develops toward 'self/essence' where Arabic develops toward 'great.' Aramaic/Syriac show a cognate ʿaṭmā/ʿaṣmā, 'bone.' Akkadian eṣemtu, 'bone,' confirms the root as pan-Semitic with 'bone' as the shared concrete anchor.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
Hebrew ʿeṣem (עֶצֶם) means both 'bone' and, reflexively, 'the very (thing), self, substance' (be-ʿeṣem ha-yom, 'on that very day'), paralleling the Arabic move from concrete bone to an intensified abstract sense, though Hebrew develops toward 'self/essence' where Arabic develops toward 'great.' Aramaic/Syriac show a cognate ʿaṭmā/ʿaṣmā, 'bone.' Akkadian eṣemtu, 'bone,' confirms the root as pan-Semitic with 'bone' as the shared concrete anchor. No loanword relationship is indicated; this is inherited Semitic vocabulary.
Draws on: comparative
- Brown–Driver–Briggs, s.v. עֶצֶם (printed lexicon, no page verified)
Quranic exegesisIn the Throne Verse (2:255), al-ʿAliyy al-ʿAẓīm closes the verse;well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
In the Throne Verse (2:255), al-ʿAliyy al-ʿAẓīm closes the verse; Ṭabarī and al-Rāzī read al-ʿAẓīm as denoting a majesty and reality that exceeds every measure minds can form, the term's abstract sense (kubr) pushed to its theological limit. At 68:4, khuluqin ʿaẓīm describing the Prophet's character is glossed by al-Zamakhsharī and others as sublime moral character, later hadith identifying it with the Qur'ān itself. Al-naba' al-ʿaẓīm (78:2) is debated: some exegetes take it as the Resurrection, others as the Prophet's mission or the Qur'ān — the ambiguity of 'great tiding' left productively open. ʿArsh al-ʿaẓīm (9:129) extends the same majesty-language to the Throne.
Draws on: quran · tafsir-convention
Reference