Mashrabaمشربة

Root · 18 in the Quran · 159 in 21 texts of the library

مكنPer Ibn Fāris a single word: makn, the eggs of the ḍabb lizard, with makināt, nests. The … (root mkn)

الميم والكاف والنون كلمة واحدة المكن بيض الضب وضب مكون قال — ومكن الضباب طعام العريب … ولا تشتهيه نفوس العجم … والمكنات …

Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering

مكن

The family of the root

Patterns computed · our data

The words of م ك ن that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.

11 words3 verbs2 verbal nouns2 participles1 intensive or elative2 plurals1 relative or abstract

  • مَكَّنَenable; make possible for
  • مُمْكِنpossible
  • أَمْكَنَbe possible; make possible for
  • إِمْكانpossibility; possible
  • تَمْكِينenabling; making possible
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs3مَكَّنَ · أَمْكَنَ · تَمَكَّنَ

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

Verbal nouns2إِمْكان · تَمْكِين

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

  • إِمْكانpossibility; possibleautoForm IVlibrary ×15
  • تَمْكِينenabling; making possibleautoForm IIlibrary ×12
Participles2مُمْكِن · مُتَمَكِّن

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

  • مُمْكِنpossibleautoactive, Form IVlibrary ×22
  • مُتَمَكِّنproficient; adeptautoactive, Form Vlibrary ×2
Intensives, qualities and the elative1مَكِين

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

  • مَكِينstrong; influentialautoquality (faʿīl)library ×1
Plurals2مَكِين · مُمْكِنات

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

  • مَكِينsound plural of مَكQurʾān ×4
  • مُمْكِناتplural of possiblefrom the singularsound plural of مُمْكِنlibrary ×5
Relative and abstract1إِمْكانِيَّة

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

  • إِمْكانِيَّةpossibility; capabilityautoabstract noun (-iyya)library ×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.

مَفْعَلَةم ك نمَمْكَنَة

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

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

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

The grammarians on this pattern (4)

  • ما يكون مفعلة لازمة لها الهاء والفتحة … وذلك إذا أردت أن تكثر الشيء بالمكان، وذلك قولك: أرض مسبعة، ومأسدة

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

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

  • و نحو المظنة و المقبرة فتحا و ضما ليس بقياس

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

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

  • “designate the place where the object signified by the noun from which they are formed, is found in large numbers or quantities” Wright, Grammar I, §247, p. 148 ↗ · on nouns of abundance, maf'ala · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
  • “Nouns of time and place not unfrequently take the feminine form” Wright, Grammar I, §225, p. 128 ↗ · on maf'ala as a variant of maf'al · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
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
  • al-Khalīl · 170Al-makn (المكن) and [al-mukn]: the eggs of the dabb-lizard and the like.

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

    Al-makn (المكن) and [al-mukn]: the eggs of the dabb-lizard and the like. A dabba (ضبة) that has such eggs is makūn (مكون), and the singular is makna (مكنة). Makān (المكان) in the original measure of the verb is maf'al (مفعل), because it is a place for being (kaynūna/كينونة); however, since it became frequent [in use], they treated it in inflection like fi'āl (فعال), so they said makkannā lahu (مكنا له), and it became tamakkana (تمكن) — and this is no more strange than tamaskana (تمسكن) from miskīn (مسكين). And the evidence that al-makān (المكان) is [originally] maf'al is that the Arabs do not say 'huwa minnī makāna kadhā wa kadhā' (هو مني مكان كذا وكذا) except in the accusative.

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    المكن و [المكن] : بيض الضب ونحوه.. ضبة مكون، والواحدة: مكنة والمكان في أصل تقدير الفعل: مفعل، لأنه موضع للكينونة، غير أنه لما كثر أجروه في التصريف مجرى الفعال، فقالوا: مكنا له، وقد تمكن، وليس بأعجب من تمسكن من المسكين، والدليل على أن المكان مفعل: أن العرب لا تقول: هو مني مكان كذا وكذا إلا بالنصب.

    al-Khalīl · 170 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 5, p. 387) ↗
  • al-Jawharī · 393Makkanahu Allāh min al-shay' (مكنه الله من الشيء) and amkanahu minhu (أمكنه منه) have the same meaning.

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

    Makkanahu Allāh min al-shay' (مكنه الله من الشيء) and amkanahu minhu (أمكنه منه) have the same meaning. And istamkana al-rajulu min al-shay' (استمكن الرجل من الشيء) and tamakkana minhu (تمكن منه) have the same meaning. And [they say] fulān lā yumkinuhu al-nuhūḍ (فلان لا يمكنه النهوض), i.e. he is not able to do it. And their saying 'mā amkanahu 'inda al-amīr' (ما أمكنه عند الأمير) is anomalous (shādhdh). And al-makn (المكن) is the eggs of the dabb-lizard. He [the poet] said: 'The makn (مكن) of dabb-lizards is food for the Bedouin (العريب) — which the souls of non-Arabs (العجم) do not desire.' And al-maknah (المكنة), with kasra on the kāf, is the singular of al-makn (المكن) and al-maknāt (المكنات). And in the hadith: 'Leave the birds on their maknāt (مكناتها)' — with ḍamma on maknātihā. Abū Ziyād al-Kilābī and other Bedouin said: We do not know of maknāt (مكنات) for birds; rather they are wiknāt (وكنات) [nests]. As for al-maknāt (المكنات), they belong only to dabb-lizards. Abū 'Ubayd said: it is permissible in speech, even though al-makn (المكن) is [properly] for dabb-lizards, to apply it to birds by way of comparison (tashbīh), just as they say mashāfir al-ḥabashī (مشافر الحبشي) ['lips of the Abyssinian'], when mashāfir [thick lips/muzzles] are properly [used only] for camels. And as in Zuhayr's description of the lion: 'He has a mane, his claws not clipped' — whereas he [properly] has makhālib (مخالب) [talons]. He said: it is also permissible that it be intended as 'on their amkina (أمكنتها)' [their places], i.e. on the places God made for them, so do not scare them off nor pay attention to them, for they neither harm nor benefit, nor does it extend beyond that. And it is said: al-nās 'alā maknatihim (الناس على مكناتهم), i.e. on their steadfastness (istiqāma). Al-Kisā'ī: amkanat al-ḍabbah (أمكنت الضبة) means she gathered her eggs in her belly, so she is makūn (مكون). Abū Zayd said: amkanat al-ḍabbah (أمكنت الضبة) so she is mumkin (ممكن), and likewise the locust (jarāda). And al-mikān (المكنان), with fatḥa and sukūn, is a plant. And the grammarians' saying of a noun: 'innahu mutamakkin (متمكن)' means it is declinable (mu'rab), like 'Umar and Ibrāhīm. And if it is also fully declined (munṣarif) along with that, then it is al-mutamakkin al-amkan (المتمكن الأمكن), like Zayd and 'Amr. That which is not mutamakkin is the indeclinable (mabnī), like your saying kayfa and ayna. And the meaning of their saying about the adverbial (ẓarf): 'innahu mutamakkin (متمكن)' is that it is used sometimes as an adverbial and sometimes as a noun, as when you say jalastu khalfaka (جلست خلفك), putting it in the accusative, and majlisī khalfaka (مجلسي خلفك), putting it in the nominative, in a position that could be adverbial. That which is not mutamakkin is used in a position that could be adverbial only as an adverbial, as when you say laqītuhu ṣabāḥan (لقيته صباحا) and maw'iduka ṣabāḥan (موعدك صباحا), both in the accusative, the nominative not being permitted if you mean a specific morning — and this is not due to any logical distinction beyond the Arabs' usage of them as such, and it is taken only by oral transmission from them; these are: ṣabāḥ (صباح), dhū ṣabāḥ (ذو صباح), masā' (مساء), 'ashiyya (عشية) and 'ashā' (عشاء), ḍuḥā (ضحى) and ḍuḥwa (ضحوة), saḥar (سحر), bukr (بكر) and bukra (بكرة), 'atama (عتمة), dhāta marra (ذات مرة) and dhāta yawm (ذات يوم), layl (ليل) and nahār (نهار), and ba'īdan (بعيدا) [entry continues]

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    مكنه الله من الشئ وأمكنه منه، بمعنى. واستمكن الرجل من الشئ وتمكن منه، بمعنى. وفلان لا يمكنه النهوض، أي لا يقدر عليه. وقولهم: ما أمكنه عند الأمير، شاذ. والمكن: بيض الضب. قال (1) : ومكن الضباب طعام العري‍ * ب لا تشتهيه نفوس العجم والمكنة بكسر الكاف: واحدة المكن والمكنات. وفي الحديث: " أقروا الطير على مكناتها " ومكناتها بالضم. قال أبو زياد الكلابي وغيره من الأعراب: إنا لا نعرف للطير مكنات وإنما هي وكنات. فأما المكنات فإنما هي للضباب. قال أبو عبيد: ويجوز في الكلام، وإن كان المكن للضباب، أن يجعل للطير تشبيها بذلك، كقولهم: مشافر الحبشى، وإنما المشافر للابل. وكقول زهير يصف الاسد: له لبد أظفاره لم تقلم (1) * وإنما له مخالب. قال: ويجوز أن يراد به على أمكنتها، أي على مواضعها التى جعلها الله لها، فلا تزجروها ولا تلتفتوا إليها، لانها لا تضر ولا تنفع، ولا تعدو ذلك إلى غيره. ويقال: الناس على مكناتهم، أي على استقامتهم. الكسائي: أمكنت الضبة: جمعت بيضها في بطنها، فهي مكون. وقال أبو زيد: أمكنت الضبة فهى ممكن، وكذلك الجرادة. (*) والمكنان بالفتوا لتسكين: نبت. ومعنى قول النحويين في الاسم: إنه متمكن، أي إنه معرب، كعمر وإبراهيم. فإذا انصرف مع ذلك فهو المتمكن الأمكن، كزيد وعمرو. وغير المتمكن هو المبنى، كقولك: كيف وأين. ومعنى قولهم في الظرف: إنه متمكن، أي إنه يستعمل مرة ظرفا ومرة اسما، كقولك جلست خلفك فتنصب، ومجلسي خلفك فترفع في موضع يصلح أن يكون ظرفا. وغير المتمكن هو الذى لا يستعمل في موضع يصلح أن يكون ظرفا إلا ظرفا، كقولك لقيته صباحا وموعدك صباحا، فتنصب فيهما ولا يجوز الرفع إذا أردت صباح يوم بعينه. وليس ذلك لعلة توجب الفرق بينهما أكثر من استعمال العرب لها كذلك، وإنما يؤخذ سماعا عنهم، وهى صباح، وذو صباح، ومساء، وعشية وعشاء، وضحى وضحوة، وسحر، وبكر وبكرة، وعتمة، وذات مرة وذات يوم، وليل ونهار، وبعيدات بين. هذا إذا عنيت بهذه الاوقات يوما بعينه. أما إذا كانت نكرة وأدخلت عليها الالف واللام تكلمت بها رفعا ونصبا وجرا. قال سيبويه: أخبرنا بذلك يونس النحوي.

    al-Jawharī · 393 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 6, p. 2205) ↗
  • Ibn Fāris · 395Mīm, kāf, and nūn form one word: al-makn (المكن) is the eggs of the dabb-lizard (skink), and a dabb-lizard that has such eggs is makūn (مكون).

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

    Mīm, kāf, and nūn form one word: al-makn (المكن) is the eggs of the dabb-lizard (skink), and a dabb-lizard that has such eggs is makūn (مكون). He said: 'The makn (مكن) of dabb-lizards is food for the Bedouin (العريب)... which the souls of non-Arabs (العجم) do not desire...' And al-maknāt (المكنات) are the nests of birds, and one also says maknāt (مكنات).

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    الميم والكاف والنون كلمة واحدة المكن بيض الضب وضب مكون قال — ومكن الضباب طعام العريب … ولا تشتهيه نفوس العجم … والمكنات أوكار الطير ويقال مكنات

    Ibn Fāris · 395 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 5, p. 343) ↗
  • al-Rāghib · 502Al-makān (المكان), according to the people of language, is the location containing the thing;

    al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt. Quranic vocabulary, from core sense to Quranic usage.

    Al-makān (المكان), according to the people of language, is the location containing the thing; and according to some theologians (mutakallimūn), it is an accident ('araḍ), namely the coming together of two bodies, a containing one and a contained one, in such a way that the surface of the containing body surrounds the contained one. He said [entry continues]

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    المكان عند أهل اللغة: الموضع الحاوي للشيء، وعند بعض المتكلمين أنه عرض، وهو اجتماع جسمين حاو ومحوي، وذلك أن يكون سطح الجسم الحاوي محيطا بالمحوي، فال

    al-Rāghib · 502 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 1, p. 772) ↗
  • Lisān · 711Al-makn (المكن) and al-mukn (المكن): the eggs of the dabb-lizard, the locust, and the like;

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

    Al-makn (المكن) and al-mukn (المكن): the eggs of the dabb-lizard, the locust, and the like; Abū al-Hindī, whose name was 'Abd al-Mu'min ibn 'Abd al-Quddūs, said: 'The makn (مكن) of dabb-lizards is food for the Bedouin (العريب) — which the souls of non-Arabs (العجم) do not desire.' Its singular is makna (مكنة) and mikna (مكنة), with kasra on the kāf. It is said: makanat al-ḍabbah (مكنت الضبة), and she is makūn (مكون), and amkanat (أمكنت), and she is mumkin (ممكن), when she gathers the eggs in her belly; and the locust is likewise. Al-Kisā'ī: amkanat al-ḍabbah (أمكنت الضبة) means she gathered her eggs in her belly, so she is makūn (مكون); Ibn Barrī cited, for a man of Banū 'Uqayl: 'My companion wanted me to hunt for him a dabb-lizard / that is makūn (مكونا), and the best of dabb-lizards is its makūn one.' And in the hadith of Abū Sa'īd: 'We were, in the time of the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, [such that] if a makūn dabb-lizard (الضبة المكون) were given to one of us as a gift, it was more beloved to him than being given a fat hen.' Al-makūn (المكون) is that which has gathered the makn (المكن), which is its eggs. It is said: ḍabbah makūn (ضبة مكون) and ḍabb makūn (ضب مكون); and from it is the hadith of Abū Rajā': 'Which is more beloved to you, a makūn dabb-lizard (ضب مكون) or such-and-such?' And it is said that al-ḍabbah al-makūn (الضبة المكون) is the one sitting on her eggs. And it is said ḍibāb makān (ضباب مكان); the poet said: 'And he said: know that she is a ṣafariyyah, / having makn (مكان) filled with al-daba' (الدبى) and its locusts.' Al-Jawharī: al-maknah (المكنة), with kasra on the kāf, is the singular of al-makn (المكن) and al-maknāt (المكنات). And his saying, peace be upon him: 'Leave the birds on their maknātihā (مكناتها)' — with ḍamma — it is said he means their eggs, borrowed here metaphorically from the dabba, because al-makn (المكن) is not [properly] for birds; and it is said he meant the places (mawāḍi') of the birds. Al-maknāt (المكنات) originally are the eggs of dabb-lizards. Abū 'Ubayd said: I asked a number of Bedouin about maknātihā (مكناتها) and they said: We do not know of maknāt (مكنات) for birds, rather they are wiknāt (وكنات); and al-maknāt (المكنات) are only the eggs of dabb-lizards. Abū 'Ubayd said: it is permissible in the speech of the Arabs to borrow makn (مكن) of dabb-lizards and apply it to birds by way of comparison, just as they said mashāfir al-ḥabash (مشافر الحبش) ['lips of the Abyssinians'] when mashāfir are properly [only] for camels; and as in Zuhayr's description of the lion: 'Beside a lion, armed, fully equipped, / having a mane, his claws not clipped' — whereas he [properly] has al-makhālib (المخالب) [talons]. He said: and it is said, in explaining his saying 'Leave the birds on their maknātihā (مكناتها),' that he means 'on their amkina (أمكنتها)' [their places], and its meaning concerns the birds used for omen-taking (yuzjaru bihā); he means: do not scare off the birds nor pay attention to them; leave them on their places that God made for them, i.e. they neither harm nor benefit, and it does not extend beyond that to anything else. Shamir said: the correct view regarding his saying 'alā maknātihā (على مكناتها) is that it is the plural of al-maknah (المكنة), and al-maknah (المكنة) is at-tamakkun (التمكن) [established influence]. The Arabs say: inna banī fulān la-dhawū maknah min al-sulṭān (إن بني فلان لذوو مكنة من السلطان), i.e. tamakkun [influence], meaning: leave the birds on every maknah (مكنة) you see them upon and abandon the omen-taking (taṭayyur) from them; it [maknah here] is like al-tabi'ah (التبعة) from al-tatabbu' (التتبع), and al-ṭalibah (الطلبة) from al-taṭallub (التطلب). Al-Jawharī said: and it is sai[d...] [entry continues]

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    المكن والمكن: بيض الضبة والجرادة ونحوهما؛ قال أبو الهندي، واسمه عبد المؤمن بن عبد القدوس: ومكن الضباب طعام العريب، ... ولا تشتهيه نفوس العجم واحدته مكنة ومكنة، بكسر الكاف. وقد مكنت الضبة وهي مكون وأمكنت وهي ممكن إذا جمعت البيض في جوفها، والجرادة مثلها. الكسائي: أمكنت الضبة جمعت بيضها في بطنها، فهي مكون؛ وأنشد ابن بري لرجل من بني عقيل: أراد رفيقي أن أصيده ضبة ... مكونا، ومن خير الضباب مكونها وفي حديث أبي سعيد: لقد كنا على عهد رسول الله، صلى الله عليه وسلم، يهدى لأحدنا الضبة المكون أحب إليه من أن يهدى إليه دجاجة سمينة ؛ المكون: التي جمعت المكن، وهو بيضها. يقال: ضبة مكون وضب مكون؛ ومنه حديث أبي رجاء: أيما أحب إليك ضب مكون أو كذا وكذا؟ وقيل: الضبة المكون التي على بيضها. ويقال ضباب مكان؛ قال الشاعر: وقال: تعلم أنها صفرية، ... مكان بما فيها الدبى وجنادبه الجوهري: المكنة، بكسر الكاف، واحدة المكن والمكنات. وقوله، صلى الله عليه وسلم: أقروا الطير على مكناتها ومكناتها ، بالضم، قيل: يعني بيضها على أنه مستعار لها من الضبة، لأن المكن ليس للطير، وقيل: عنى مواضع الطير. والمكنات في الأصل: بيض الضباب. قال أبو عبيد: سألت عدة من الأعراب عن مكناتها فقالوا: لا نعرف للطير مكنات، وإنما هي وكنات، وإنما المكنات بيض الضباب؛ قال أبو عبيد: وجائز في كلام العرب أن يستعار مكن الضباب فيجعل للطير تشبيها بذلك، كما قالوا مشافر الحبش، وإنما المشافر للإبل؛ وكقول زهير يصف الأسد: لدى أسد شاكي السلاح مقذف، ... له لبد أظفاره لم تقلم وإنما له المخالب؛ قال: وقيل في تفسير قوله أقروا الطير على مكناتها ، يريد على أمكنتها، ومعناه الطير التي يزجر بها، يقول: لا تزجروا الطير ولا تلتفتوا إليها، أقروها على مواضعها التي جعلها الله لها أي لا تضر ولا تنفع، ولا تعدوا ذلك إلى غيره؛ وقال شمر: الصحيح في قوله على مكناتها أنها جمع المكنة، والمكنة التمكن. تقول العرب: إن بني فلان لذوو مكنة من السلطان أي تمكن، فيقول: أقروا الطير على كل مكنة ترونها عليها ودعوا التطير منها، وهي مثل التبعة من التتبع، والطلبة من التطلب. قال الجوهري: ويقال الناس على مكناتهم أي على استقامتهم. قال ابن بري عند قول الجوهري في شرح هذا الحديث: ويجوز أن يراد به على أمكنتها أي على مواضعها التي جعلها الله تعالى لها، قال: لا يصح أن يقال في المكنة إنه المكان إلا على التوسع، لأن المكنة إنما هي بمعنى التمكن مثل الطلبة بمعنى التطلب والتبعة بمعنى التتبع. يقال: إن فلانا لذو مكنة من السلطان، فسمي موضع الطير مكنة لتمكنه فيه؛ يقول: دعوا الطير على أمكنتها ولا تطيروا بها؛ قال الزمخشري: ويروى مكناتها جمع مكن، ومكن جمع مكان كصعدات في صعد وحمرات في حمر. وروى الأزهري عن يونس قال: قال لنا الشافعي في تفسير هذا الحديث قال كان الرجل في الجاهلية إذا أراد الحاجة أتى الطير ساقطا أو في وكره فنفره، فإن أخذ ذات اليمين مضى لحاجته، وإن أخذ ذات الشمال رجع، فنهى رسول الله، صلى الله عليه وسلم، عن ذلك ؛ قال الأزهري: والقول في معنى الحديث ما قاله الشافعي، وهو الصحيح وإليه كان يذهب ابن عيينة. قال ابن الأعرابي: الناس على سكناتهم ونزلاتهم ومكناتهم، وكل ذي ريش وكل أجرد يبيض، وما سواهما يلد، وذو الريش كل طائر، والأجرد مثل الحيات والأوزاغ وغيرهما مما لا شعر عليه من الحشرات. والمكانة: التؤدة، وقد تمكن. ومر على مكينته أي على تؤدته. أبو زيد: يقال امش على مكينتك ومكانتك وهينتك. قال قطرب: يقال فلان يعمل على مكينته أي على اتئاده. وفي التنزيل العزيز: اعملوا على مكانتكم* ؛ أي على حيالكم وناحيتكم؛ وقيل: معناه أي على ما أنتم عليه مستمكنون. الفراء: لي في قلبه مكانة وموقعة ومحلة. أبو زيد: فلان مكين عند فلان بين المكانة، يعني المنزلة. قال الجوهري: وقولهم ما أمكنه عند الأمير شاذ. قال ابن بري: وقد جاء مكن يمكن؛ قال القلاخ: حيث تثنى الماء فيه فمكن قال: فعلى هذا يكون ما أمكنه على القياس. ابن سيده: والمكانة المنزلة عند الملك. والجمع مكانات، ولا يجمع جمع التكسير، وقد مكن مكانة فهو مكين، والجمع مكناء. وتمكن كمكن. والمتمكن من الأسماء: ما قبل الرفع والنصب والجر لفظا، كقولك زيد وزيدا وزيد، وكذلك غير المنصرف كأحمد وأسلم، قال الجوهري: ومعنى قول النحويين في الاسم إنه متمكن أي أنه معرب كعمر وإبراهيم، فإذا انصرف مع ذلك فهو المتمكن الأمكن كزيد وعمرو، وغير المتمكن هو المبني ككيف وأين، قال: ومعنى قولهم في الظرف إنه متمكن أنه يستعمل مرة ظرفا ومرة اسما، كقولك: جلست خلفك، فتنصب، ومجلسي خلفك، فترفع في موضع يصلح أن يكون ظرفا، وغير المتمكن هو الذي لا يستعمل في موضع يصلح أن يكون ظرفا إلا ظرفا، كقولك: لقيته صباحا وموعدك صباحا، فتنصب فيهما ولا يجوز الرفع إذا أردت صباح يوم بعينه، وليس ذلك لعلة توجب …

    Lisān · 711 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 13, p. 412) ↗
Technical definitions9 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt

  • التمكين

    عندن هو التمكن فى التلوين وقيل حال اهل الوصول.

    Al-tamkīn (التمكين): according to us, it is al-tamakkun (التمكن) [establishment/stability] within al-talwīn (التلوين) [variegation, i.e. shifting spiritual states]; and it is said [to be] the state of the people of attainment (ahl al-wuṣūl).

    Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥ al-Ṣūfiyya, line 217 ↗

  • الاستعارة المكنية

    هي تشبيه الشيء على الشيء في القلب.

    Al-isti'ārah al-makniyyah (الاستعارة المكنية) [implicit metaphor]: it is the likening of the thing to the thing within the mind/heart (qalb).

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 368 ↗

  • الاسم المتمكن

    ما تغير آخره بتغير العوامل في أوله، ولم يشابه الحرف، نحو قولك: هذا زيد، ورأيت زيدا، ومررت بزيد، وقيل: الاسم المتمكن، هو الاسم الذي لم يشابه الحرف والفعل، وقيل: الاسم المتمكن: ما يجري عليه الإعراب، وغير المتمكن: ما لا يجري عليه الإعراب.

    Al-ism al-mutamakkin (الاسم المتمكن) [the declinable noun]: that whose ending changes with the change of the governing factors ('awāmil) at its beginning, and which does not resemble the particle (ḥarf), as in your saying: hādhā Zaydun (هذا زيد), ra'aytu Zaydan (رأيت زيدا), and marartu bi-Zaydin (مررت بزيد). And it is said: al-ism al-mutamakkin (الاسم المتمكن) is the noun that does not resemble the particle and the verb. And it is said: al-ism al-mutamakkin (الاسم المتمكن) is that upon which declension (i'rāb) operates, and ghayr al-mutamakkin (غير المتمكن) [the indeclinable] is that upon which declension does not operate.

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 448 ↗

  • الإمكان

    عدم اقتضاء الذات الوجود والعدم.

    Al-imkān (الإمكان) [contingency]: the essence's (dhāt) not requiring existence or non-existence.

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 696 ↗

  • الإمكان الذاتي

    هو ما لا يكون طرفه المخالف واجبا بالذات وإن كان واجبا بالغير.

    Al-imkān al-dhātī (الإمكان الذاتي) [essential possibility]: that whose opposing side (ṭaraf) is not necessary in itself (bi-al-dhāt), even if it is necessary through another (bi-al-ghayr).

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 697 ↗

  • الإمكان الاستعدادي

    ويسمى: الإمكان الوقوعي، أيضا، وهو ما لا يكون طرفه المخالف واجبا، لا بالذات ولا بالغير، ولو فرض وقوع الطرف الموافق لا يلزم المحال بوجه، والأول أعم من الثاني مطلقا.

    Al-imkān al-isti'dādī (الإمكان الاستعدادي) [dispositional possibility], also called al-imkān al-wuqū'ī (الإمكان الوقوعي) [occurrent possibility]: that whose opposing side is not necessary, neither in itself nor through another; and if the occurrence of the agreeing side were supposed, no impossibility (muḥāl) would follow in any way. The first [essential possibility] is more general than the second, absolutely.

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 699 ↗

  • الإمكان الخاص

    سلب الضرورة عن الطرفين، نحو: كل إنسان كاتب؛ فإن الكتابة وعدم الكتابة ليس بضرورة له.

    Al-imkān al-khāṣṣ (الإمكان الخاص) [specific possibility]: the negation of necessity from both sides, as in: 'every human is a writer' (kull insān kātib); for writing and not-writing are not necessary for him.

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 702 ↗

  • الإمكان العام

    سلب الضرورة عن أحد الطرفين، كقولنا: كل نار حارة؛ فإن الحرارة ضرورية بالنسبة إلى النار، وعدمها ليس بضروري، وإلا لكان الخاص أعم مطلقا.

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 704 ↗

  • التمكين

    هو مقام الرسوخ والاستقرار على الاستقامة، وما دام العبد في الطريق فهو صاحب تمكين؛ لأنه يرتقي من حال إلى حال، وينتقل من وصف إلى وصف، فإذا وصل واتصل فقد حصل التمكين.

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 1359 ↗

Look this root up elsewhere:Doha Historical Dictionary ↗Quranic Arabic Corpus ↗Arabic Almanac ↗Hawramani Arabic Lexicon ↗

The same letters, turned

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

م ك ن

الميم والكاف والنون كلمة واحدة المكن بيض الضب وضب مكون

m-k-n is a single word: al-makn is the eggs of the lizard (ḍabb), and a lizard is makūn.

Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗al-Khalīl: used ↗Quran ×18

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:

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

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

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

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

Letters & sound

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

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

16 more

Reference

How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics

English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic

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 ↗

ك

ومن أسفل من موضع القاف من اللسان قليلا ومما يليه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج الكاف

From a little lower on the tongue than the qāf's place, and the upper palate next to it, is the place of the kāf. Sībawayh, lines 26551–26552 ↗

ومن أسفل من ذلك وأدنى إلى مقدم الفم مخرج الكاف

From lower than that and nearer the front of the mouth is the place of the kāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 973 ↗

ن

ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان ما بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى وما فويق الثنايا مخرج النون

From the edge of the tongue, from its nearest part to the end of its tip, between it and the upper palate next to it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Sībawayh, lines 26555–26556 ↗

ومن طرف اللسان بينه وبين ما فويق الثنايا، مخرج النون

From the tip of the tongue, between it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Ibn Jinnī, line 979 ↗

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

م

Level of existence: الإنسان · the human being

Divine Name: الجامع · al-Jāmiʿ, the Gatherer

Lunar mansion: المؤخر · al-Muʾakhkhar

Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62119

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 2582

ك

Level of existence: الكرسي والقدمين · the Footstool and the two Feet

Divine Name: الشكور · al-Shakūr, the Grateful

Lunar mansion: النثرة · al-Nathra

Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62083

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 2582

ن

Level of existence: السماء الرابعة · the fourth heaven

Divine Name: النور · the Light (al-Nūr)

Lunar mansion: السماك · al-Simāk

Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64663

Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 8 line 2571 ↗

Nature (ch. 2)

الثمانية فحروفها حارة يابسة

The eightfold [rank]: its letters are hot and dry.

Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2580
Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac

English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic

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.

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

ك

With fatḥa ـَ

فهي إشارة إلى حقيقة العبودية الكاملة.

It is an indication of the reality of perfect servanthood.

With ḍamma ـُ

فهي العبد الأسود أو القبيح.

It is the black or ugly slave/servant.

With kasra ـِ

فهي إشارة إلى إضافة العبودية إليك، وقال مرة أخرى: فهي إشارة منك إليك بالعبودية.

It is an indication of attributing servanthood to you. On another occasion he said: it is an indication from you to yourself of servanthood.

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

ن

With fatḥa ـَ

فهي الخير الساكن في الذات الشاعل فيها.

It is the good that dwells in the self, kindling [al-shāʿil, as written] within it.

With ḍamma ـُ

فهي إشارة إلى الخير الكامل أو النور الساطع.

It is an indication of perfect good or radiant light.

With kasra ـِ

فهي إشارة إلى شيء يدركه المتكلم أو هو له.

It is an indication of something that the speaker perceives or that belongs to him.

al-Dabbāgh (d. 1132/1719), al-Ibrīz, ch. 2 §15, compiled by al-Lamaṭī
Two-letter nucleus3 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterم ك

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 30452 ↗

  • مكنالميم والكاف والنون كلمة واحدة المكن بيض الضب وضب مكونQ 18 · L30457
  • مكاالميم والكاف والحرف المعتل أصل صحيح يدل على معان ثلاثة أحدها شىء من الأصوات والآخر خشونة في الشيء والآخر ضرب من العسلL30461
  • مكثالميم والكاف والثاء كلمة تدل على توقف وانتظار ومكث مكثا ومكثا ورجل مكيث رزين غير عجول ومكث ومكث والتمكث الانتظار ( مكد … الميم والكاف والدال كلمة تدل Q 7 · L30472
In the sister scriptsHebrew מ כ נSyriac ܡ ܟ ܢ
Arabicم ك ن
Hebrewמ כ נ
Syriacܡ ܟ ܢ
Ancient South Arabian (musnad)𐩣 𐩫 𐩬
Phoenician𐤌 𐤊 𐤍

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

  • Classical lexiconAl-Khalīl gives makn, the eggs of the ḍabb.well attested

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

    Al-Khalīl gives makn, the eggs of the ḍabb. He analyses makān as a mafʿal pattern from being (kaynūna), 'a place for being'. Because the word was used so often, he says, it was inflected as if its m were radical, giving makkana lahu and tamakkana, just as tamaskana was formed from miskīn. His evidence is the accusative in huwa minnī makāna kadhā. Al-Jawharī adds makkanahu and amkanahu, 'to give power over', lā yumkinuhu, 'he cannot', and the hadith on makināt, which some Bedouin rejected for birds as against wakanāt. Ibn Fāris keeps only makn and makināt. Al-Rāghib contrasts the lexicographers' makān as 'the place containing a thing' with a mutakallim view of it as an accident, the containing surface surrounding the contained. Ibn Manẓūr extends makn to locusts and cites al-Kisāʾī's amkanat al-ḍabba, 'the ḍabb gathered her eggs inside her'. No Lane excerpt was supplied.

    Draws on: Kitāb al-ʿAyn · al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Maqāyīs · Mufradāt · Lisān al-ʿArab

  • Letters & soundThe data give no Akbarian letter values here.speculative

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

    The data give no Akbarian letter values here. Al-Dabbāgh reads mīm as 'all created beings', kāf as 'the reality of perfect servanthood' and nūn as 'the good dwelling in the self'. A symbolist might read the sequence as created beings given a firm footing, but this rests on the letter values alone. Mainstream linguistics treats such readings as suggestive at most, and here al-Khalīl's analysis of m as a pattern prefix undercuts any reading of mīm as a radical.

    Draws on: al-Dabbāgh (Ibrīz) · sound symbolism

    • al-Dabbāgh, in Aḥmad b. al-Mubārak, al-Ibrīz
  • Root structureAl-Khalīl's analysis makes the productive verbal family a secondary root built on makān from k-w-n, and this bears more on the root's shape than any nucleus does.uncertain

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

    Al-Khalīl's analysis makes the productive verbal family a secondary root built on makān from k-w-n, and this bears more on the root's shape than any nucleus does. Among Ibn Fāris's m-k siblings, m-k-th, 'halting and waiting' (makīth, 'grave, unhurried'), can be set beside tamakkun as settledness. M-k-w, with its senses of sound, roughness and a kind of honey, has no evident bearing. Of the permutations, k-m-n (hiding, lurking) is attested and may be juxtaposed with eggs gathered hidden in the ḍabb's belly. K-n-m and n-k-m are attested but marginal, and m-n-k and n-m-k are unattested.

    Draws on: Ibn Fāris chapter siblings · permutations · al-Khalīl's derivation

    • Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs, s.v. مكث
    • al-Khalīl, Kitāb al-ʿAyn, s.v. مكن
  • Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident cognate exists for m-k-n as a primary root.plausible

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

    No confident cognate exists for m-k-n as a primary root. The closest parallel lies in its source, k-w-n. Hebrew mākôn, 'fixed place, site', and mĕkônâ, 'base, stand', are mafʿal-type nouns from kûn, and they correspond to Arabic makān. The Arabic verb makkana appears to be an inner-Arabic back-formation from makān, as al-Khalīl describes, and there is no sign of borrowing.

    Draws on: BDB · comparative Semitic

  • Quranic exegesisAt 6:6, 'We established them in the land as We have not established you', the exegetes read makkana as granting firm position, power and means.plausible

    How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.

    At 6:6, 'We established them in the land as We have not established you', the exegetes read makkana as granting firm position, power and means. Al-Zamakhsharī discusses the difference between makkanahu fī al-arḍ, 'to establish him in the land', and makkana lahu, 'to make room for him'. At 12:54 the king calls Joseph makīn amīn, which al-Ṭabarī glosses as holding standing and authority while being trusted. At 23:13 qarār makīn is the womb as a secure resting place. At 8:71 fa-amkana minhum means God gave the believers power over those who had betrayed Him, which the exegetes connect with the captives of Badr.

    Draws on: al-Ṭabarī · al-Zamakhsharī · al-Rāghib

  • Philosophy & kalāmImkān and mumkin are central modal terms.well attested

    The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.

    Imkān and mumkin are central modal terms. In Avicenna's scheme, the possible in itself (mumkin bi-dhātihi) has no preponderance of existence over non-existence and exists only when made necessary by another (wājib bi-ghayrihi). This underlies his proof of the Necessary Existent. The mutakallimūn argued along parallel lines from the contingency (jawāz) of the world to a specifying agent. Al-Ghazālī's Tahāfut contests whether possibility needs a substrate, as the philosophers claimed. Makān, 'place', received its Aristotelian definition as the inner surface of the containing body, which al-Rāghib's report reflects.

    Draws on: Avicenna · al-Ghazālī · kalām

  • Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam the originated thing needs an originator 'because of its possibility in itself' (li-imkānihi li-nafsihi).well attested

    The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.

    In Faṣṣ Ādam the originated thing needs an originator 'because of its possibility in itself' (li-imkānihi li-nafsihi). Its existence is therefore from another and bound to it by need, and our dependence on God for existence 'because of our possibility', together with His freedom from such need, is what establishes His eternity. The verb yumkin describes the universals, which cannot be removed from the intellect and cannot exist in concrete reality in a way that would end their intelligible status. In the Iṣṭilāḥ, tamkīn is 'for us, stability within variegation (talwīn)', with the common view given as 'the state of those who have arrived'. This places Ibn ʿArabī's tamkīn inside continual change of states, where the usual Sufi account makes it the end of such change.

    Draws on: Fuṣūṣ, Faṣṣ Ādam · Iṣṭilāḥ al-ṣūfiyya

    • Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
    • Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥ al-ṣūfiyya, s.v. al-tamkīn

Reference

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