Root · 0 in the Quran · 43 in 15 texts of the library
قيدPer Ibn Fāris: al-qayd, the fetter or shackle, later extended metaphorically to anything … (root qyd)
القاف والياء والدال كلمة واحدة وهي القيد وهو معروف ثم يستعار في كل شىء يحبس
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ق ي د that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
13 words3 verbs2 verbal nouns1 participle1 place or instrument5 other nouns1 plural
- قَيَّدَbind; restrict
- مُقَيَّدhorse large in the place of the shackle, or pastern
- تَقْيِيدrestriction; limitation
- قَيْدshackle
- قُيُودshackles
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs3قِيدَ · قَيَّدَ · تَقَيَّدَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
- قِيدَForm ILaneIbn Fāris
- قَيَّدَbind; restrictautoForm IIlibrary ×11LaneIbn Fāris
- تَقَيَّدَForm Vlibrary ×2Lane
Verbal nouns2تَقْيِيد · قَيْد
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- تَقْيِيدrestriction; limitationautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×7Lane
- قَيْدshackleLaneForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×4LaneIbn Fāris
Participles1مُقَيَّد
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُقَيَّدhorse large in the place of the shackle, or pasternLanepassive, Form IVlibrary ×9LaneIbn Fāris
Place, time and instrument1مَقِيد
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Other nouns5قَيِّد · قِيد · قِيَاد
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals1قُيُود
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- قُيُودshacklesfrom the singularbroken plural of قَيْدlibrary ×2
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 8 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
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.
The dictionaries
English: AI translation AIal-Khalīl · 170Al-qawd (القود) is the opposite of al-sawq (السوق) [driving]: one leads (yaqūdu/يقود) a riding animal from in front (and drives it, yasūquhā/يسوقها, from behind).
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 · 393Qudtu l-farasa wa-ghayrahu aqūduhu qawdan wa-miqādatan wa-qaydūdatan (قدت الفرس وغيره أقوده قودا ومقادة وقيدودة) [I led the horse or other animal].
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Qāf, yā', and dāl form one word: al-qayd (القيد), the fetter/shackle, which is well known.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Al-qawd (القود) is the opposite of al-sawq (السوق): one leads (yaqūdu/يقود) a riding animal from in front and drives it (yasūquhā/يسوقها) from behind;
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.
ق ي د
القاف والياء والدال كلمة واحدة وهي القيد وهو معروف ثم يستعار في كل شىء يحبس
q-y-d: a single word, which is al-qayd, well known, and then it is used metaphorically for anything that is confined. 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
- قqāffar back of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- يyāʾmiddle of the tongue · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- دdāltongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiced, stopSīb. · 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
ق
ومن أقصى اللسان وما فوقه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج القاف
From the furthest part of the tongue and the upper palate above it is the place of the qāf. Sībawayh, line 26550 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك من أقصى اللسان، مخرج القاف
From above that, at the furthest part of the tongue, is the place of the qāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 972 ↗
ي
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 ↗
د
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا مخرج الطاء، والدال، والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26559 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا، مخرج الطاء والدال والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 982 ↗
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
ق
Spheres 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 2582ي
Level of existence: السماء الأولى · The First Heaven
Divine Name: الرب · The Lord (al-Rabb)
Lunar mansion: الخرتان · al-Kharatān
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64500Spheres 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 2582د
Level of existence: السماء الدنيا · the lowest heaven (al-samāʾ al-dunyā)
Divine Name: المبين · the Clarifier (al-Mubīn)
Lunar mansion: الأكليل · al-Iklīl
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64682Spheres 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
ق
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى حيازة الخيرات أو إلى جميع الأنوار.
It is an indication of the acquisition of goods, or of all lights.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى النشأة الأصلية أو العلم القديم وما أشبه ذلك.
It is an indication of the original creation, or eternal knowledge, and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الذل.
It is an indication of abasement.
ي
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي للنداء، وقد يؤكد بها.
It is for the vocative (calling), and it may be used for emphasis.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا يثبت كالبرق ونحوه.
It is an indication of the thing that does not remain fixed, like lightning and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي يستحيا به أو يستحيا منه كالعورة.
It is an indication of the thing that causes shame, or of which one is ashamed, like the private parts.
د
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى خارج عن الذات.
It is an indication of something external to the self.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى ما هو قليل أو قبيح ومعه غضب فيهما.
It is an indication of what is small or ugly, accompanied by anger in both cases.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما في الذات أو إلى ما هو داخل عليها أو إلى ما هو قريب منها.
It is an indication of what is in the self, or what is entering upon it, or what is near to it.
Two-letter nucleus4 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterق ي
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 25859 ↗
- قيحالقاف والياء والحاء كلمة قاح الجرح يقيح وهو مدة لا يخالطها دمL25864
- قيدالقاف والياء والدال كلمة واحدة وهي القيد وهو معروف ثم يستعار في كل شىء يحبسL25866
- قيلالقاف والياء واللام أصل كلمه الواو وإنما كتب هاهنا للفظ فالقيل الملك من ملوك حمير وجمعه أقيال ومن جمعه على الأقوال فواحدهم قيل بتشديد الياء والقيل والQ 2 · L25872
- قينالقاف والياء والنون أصل صحيح يدل على إصلاح وتزيينL25882
In the sister scriptsHebrew ק י דSyriac ܩ ܝ ܕ
| Arabic | ق ي د |
| Hebrew | ק י ד |
| Syriac | ܩ ܝ ܕ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩤 𐩺 𐩵 |
| Phoenician | 𐤒 𐤉 𐤃 |
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 lexiconThe excerpts given under al-Khalīl, al-Jawharī, and Ibn Manẓūr for this heading actually describe al-qawd: leading an animal from the front as opposed to al-sawq, driving it from behind, and by extension al-qawad, retaliation in kind (qiṣāṣ).plausible
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
The excerpts given under al-Khalīl, al-Jawharī, and Ibn Manẓūr for this heading actually describe al-qawd: leading an animal from the front as opposed to al-sawq, driving it from behind, and by extension al-qawad, retaliation in kind (qiṣāṣ). Ibn Fāris's Maqāyīs, by contrast, isolates the root q-y-d proper to a single principle: al-qayd, the fetter placed on an animal's legs, extended metaphorically to any confinement, as in the phrase describing a horse so swift it is 'the fetter of wild game' (qayd al-awābid). Lane's article, keyed to this same root, confirms the physical sense — qayyada, to hobble a horse's forelegs — and records the idiom 'bind him by oath,' showing the extension from literal shackling to binding by covenant. The classical material as given thus shows two adjacent fields sharing the letters q and d: the hollow-root qawd of leading and retaliation, and the sound triliteral qayd of fettering, the latter being Ibn Fāris's and Lane's proper subject.
Draws on: al-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) · al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) · Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) · Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) · Lane
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, s.v. q-y-d
- Lane's Lexicon, s.v. qāda/qayyada
Letters & soundBy the correspondences given: al-Dabbāgh's ق marks acquisition of goods or of lights;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
By the correspondences given: al-Dabbāgh's ق marks acquisition of goods or of lights; ي is linked by al-ʿAkbarī to the First Heaven and read by al-Dabbāgh as a vocative or emphatic particle; د is linked by al-ʿAkbarī to the lowest heaven and read by al-Dabbāgh as something external to the self. A speculative sequence could be proposed: something singled out or emphasized (ي) becomes an acquisition (ق) fixed toward what lies outside it (د) — a resonance with restraint imposed from without. This is letter-symbolism, not etymology, and mainstream historical linguistics gives it no evidentiary weight.
Draws on: al-Dabbāgh letter meanings · al-ʿAkbarī heaven correspondence
- al-Dabbāgh, letter meanings
- al-ʿAkbarī, letters and the heavens correspondence
Root structureIbn Fāris groups qayd (fetter) among the chapter-siblings qayḥ (pus from a wound), qayl (a Ḥimyarite ruling chieftain), and qayn (a smith, or adornment) — a set with no evident shared semantic core beyond the q-y skeleton.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris groups qayd (fetter) among the chapter-siblings qayḥ (pus from a wound), qayl (a Ḥimyarite ruling chieftain), and qayn (a smith, or adornment) — a set with no evident shared semantic core beyond the q-y skeleton. Among the permutations of q-y-d, only the root itself is judged in this data to carry its own meaning; qadā/qadī, though independently attested with the sense of matching or appraising one thing to make it equal to another, is not treated as derivationally connected to fettering, nor is daqiya (said of a weanling colt choked by its mother's milk). The remaining permutations (y-q-d, y-d-q, d-y-q) are unattested altogether. Ibn Jinnī's greater-derivation method would find little to work with here: the data as given does not support a semantic thread running through the qyd anagram set.
Draws on: nucleusSiblings · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, nucleus and permutation table
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident Semitic cognate for q-y-d in the sense of fetter is identified from the available comparative material.uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident Semitic cognate for q-y-d in the sense of fetter is identified from the available comparative material. The root's formation, a concrete physical referent built into a sound triliteral, is consistent with native Arabic word-formation rather than borrowing. Absent further evidence from Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Geʿez, or South Arabian sources, no cognate claim should be made.
Draws on: absence of comparative data
Philosophy & kalāmThe verbal noun taqyīd, restriction or qualification, is a standing technical term in Arabic logic and uṣūl al-fiqh, paired with iṭlāq, absoluteness: a muṭlaq term or ruling is unrestricted, a muqayyad one is qualified by a further condition.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
The verbal noun taqyīd, restriction or qualification, is a standing technical term in Arabic logic and uṣūl al-fiqh, paired with iṭlāq, absoluteness: a muṭlaq term or ruling is unrestricted, a muqayyad one is qualified by a further condition. Legal theorists use the muṭlaq/muqayyad pair to reconcile apparently conflicting texts, reading an unrestricted ruling in light of a restricted one on the same subject. In logic and kalām the same pair can distinguish an unconditioned predication from one hedged by a respect or condition. Ibn ʿArabī inherits this technical sense and gives it metaphysical weight, discussed under the akbarian lens.
Draws on: uṣūl al-fiqh · Arabic logic
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī uses taqyīd to mark discipline in speech before God: one should not claim in unrestricted terms a station one has not actually realized, but should restrict (bi'l-taqyīd) the claim to what has been verified by direct tasting.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī uses taqyīd to mark discipline in speech before God: one should not claim in unrestricted terms a station one has not actually realized, but should restrict (bi'l-taqyīd) the claim to what has been verified by direct tasting. Elsewhere in the same faṣṣ he uses the term to distinguish the Absolute from the delimited: if God's priority (awwaliyya) were merely the priority of a delimited existent (wujūd al-taqyīd) among other delimited things, He could not properly be the Last relative to what delimits (al-muqayyid), since possible, delimited things have no true last. Taqyīd thus names both an ethical restraint in speech and the ontological condition of anything short of the unconditioned Real, distinguishing a particular locus of manifestation from the absolute Wujūd it manifests.
Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam excerpts
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
Reference