موتIbn Fāris's own gloss for m-w-t is not among the excerpts given here; the constant sense … (root mwt)

Mayyit (ميت) is originally mawyit (مويت), like sayyid (سيد) and suwayd (سويد); the wāw was assimilated into the yāʾ and the yāʾ was doubled. It is also said [the original forms were] mayyawt (ميوت) and sayyawd (سيود). It is then lightened, and one says mayt (ميت). Al-maytah (الميتة), on land and at sea, is that [animal] whose ritual slaughter (dhakāh) could not be carried out. Al-maytah (الميتة) also means death itself (al-mawt bi-ʿaynihi); one says 'he died a bad death' (māta mītata sūʾ). Al-mawtah (الموتة) is madness. Muʾtah (مؤتة) is a place-name. One says 'death (al-mawtān) fell upon the livestock' (waqaʿa fī l-māli l-mawtān), meaning death among camels and flocks. Mawtān al-arḍ (موتان الأرض) is land that has not yet been brought to life [cultivated]. Amāta l-rajul (أمات الرجل) is said when a relative of a man has died, so he is [called] mumīt (مميت). A man described as mawtān al-fuʾād (موتان الفؤاد) is one who is neither intelligent nor perceptive. A man who 'sells al-mawtān' (يبيع الموتان) sells things that have no soul [inanimate goods].

Al-mawt (الموت) is the opposite of life (al-ḥayāh). One says māta yamūtu (مات يموت), and also yamātu (يمات). The rājiz-poet said: "My little daughter, mistress of daughters, live on—for we cannot be sure that you will tamātī (تماتي, die)." So [the active form is] mayt (ميت) or mayyit (ميت). A group is mawtā (موتى) or amwāt (أموات), and mayyitūn (ميتون) or maytūn (ميتون). The origin of mayyit (ميت) is mawyit (مويت) on the pattern fayʿil, which was then assimilated; then it is lightened and one says mayt (ميت). A poet combined both forms in one verse: "It is not the one who died and found rest who is truly mayyit (dead); rather the [true] mayyit is the dead among the living." Both masculine and feminine are treated the same with this word; God Almighty said: 'that We may bring to life thereby a dead (maytan) land' and did not say maytatan. Al-Farrāʾ said: of one who has not yet died one says 'he is māʾit (مائت) soon' or mayyit (ميت); but one does not say of someone who has [already] died 'this is māʾit.' Al-maytah (الميتة) is that which has not had ritual slaughter (dhakāh) performed on it. Al-mītah (الميتة, with kasrah) is like al-jilsah and al-rikbah [nouns of manner]; one says 'so-and-so died a good death' (māta fulānun mītatan ḥasanatan). Their saying 'mā amwatahu' (ما أموته, 'how dead he is!') is actually meant as 'how dead his heart is,' because any verb that does not admit degrees is not [normally] used in the exclamatory form (taʿajjub). Al-mawāt (الموات, with ḍammah) is death. Al-mawāt (الموات, with fatḥah) is that which has no spirit in it. Al-mawāt is also land that has no human owner and from which no one derives benefit. A man is [described as] mawtān al-fuʾād (موتان الفؤاد), a woman as mawtānah al-fuʾād (موتانة الفؤاد). Al-mawtān (الموتان, with fatḥ/taḥrīk) is the opposite of al-ḥayawān; one says 'buy al-mawtān and do not buy al-ḥayawān,' meaning buy land and houses, not slaves and animals. Al-Farrāʾ said: al-mawtān of land is that which has not yet been brought to life [cultivated]. In the hadith: 'The dead land (mawtān al-arḍ) belongs to God and His Messenger; whoever revives any of it, it becomes his.' Al-mawtān (الموتان, with ḍammah) is a death that occurs among livestock; one says 'death (mawtān) fell upon the livestock.' [One says] amātahu Allāhu (أماته الله) and mawwatahu (موته) — doubled [the middle radical] for intensification. And it was said: "So ʿUrwah died a restful death, while here am I, dying every day." Amātat al-nāqah (أماتت الناقة) is said when a she-camel's young dies, so she is mumīt (مميت) or mumītah (مميتة). Abū ʿUbayd said: likewise for a woman [whose child dies]; its plural is mamāwīt (مماويت). Ibn al-Sikkīt [said]: amāta fulān (أمات فلان) is said when a son or sons of his have died. Al-mutamāwit (المتماوت) describes an ascetic who feigns [piety] for show. [The phrase] mawt māʾit (موت مائت) is like layl lāʾil (ليل لائل, 'a very dark night')—a word taken from the same root to intensify it. Al-mustamīt (المستميت) with regard to a matter is one who gives himself over to it freely. Ruʾbah said: "The foam of the sea has a crackling sound, and the night above the water is mustamīt (مستميت, still)." Al-mustamīt also means one who courts death and does not care about dying in war. Al-mawtah (الموتة, with ḍammah) is a kind of madness and epileptic fit that afflicts a person; when he recovers, it returns to him... [entry continues]

[Q. 2:94], 'and they will never wish for it' [Q. 62:7]. Al-umniyyah (الأمنية) is the image formed in the mind from wishing for something (tamannī l-shayʾ). Since lying (al-kadhib) is the imagining of something without reality and its expression in speech, wishing (al-tamannī) became like the starting-point of lying, so it became valid to describe lying by the term tamannī. In line with this is what was related of ʿUthmān (may God be pleased with him): 'I have not sung nor have I wished falsely (tamannaytu) since I became Muslim.' And His saying: 'and among them are unlettered folk who do not know the Book, only amāniyy (أماني, [false] wishes)' [Q. 2:78]—Mujāhid said its meaning is 'only lies'; others said 'only recitation devoid of understanding,' since recitation without understanding of the meaning is, for its reciter, like a wish (umniyyah) held on mere conjecture. And His saying: 'We did not send before you any messenger or prophet but that when he wished/recited (tamannā), Satan cast something into his umniyyah (أمنيته)' [Q. 22:52], meaning 'into his recitation.' It has already been shown that tamannī may arise from conjecture and supposition, but may also arise from reflection and rest on a true foundation. Since the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace) often hastened toward what the Trustworthy Spirit brought down upon his heart, until it was said to him: 'Do not hasten with the Qurʾān' [Q. 20:114], and 'Do not move your tongue with it to hasten it' [Q. 75:16], his recitation in that respect was termed tamannin, and it was noted that Satan has power over the like of this in his umniyyah—consistent with the statement: 'Haste is from Satan.' And 'mannaytanī kadhā' (منيتني كذا) means 'you gave me a false hope (umniyyah) by making something appear [desirable] to me'; God Almighty said, reporting his [Satan's] words: 'and I will surely lead them astray, and I will surely fill them with false hopes (la-umanniyannahum)' [Q. 4:119]. ¶ The types of death according to the types of life: The first is that which corresponds to the faculty of growth (al-quwwah al-nāmiyah)... [entry continues]

Al-Azharī, from al-Layth: Al-mawt (الموت, death) is one of the created things among God Almighty's creation. Others say: al-mawt and al-mawtān are the opposite of life. Al-mawāt (الموات, with ḍammah) is death. One says māta yamūtu mawtan (مات يموت موتا), and yamātu (يمات)—the latter a Ṭayyiʾ dialectal form; [a poet] said: "My daughter, O mistress of daughters, live on, for it is not certain that you will tamātī (تماتي, die)." And they also said: mitta tamūtu (مت تموت). Ibn Sīdah said: this has no parallel among weak [hollow] verbs. Sībawayh said: it underwent weakening from the pattern faʿala-yafʿilu but was not transformed as such verbs usually are; its parallel among sound verbs, he said, is faḍula-yafḍulu, which does not follow the common, regular pattern for faʿala. Kurāʿ said: māta yamūtu—its origin is mawita (موت, with kasrah) yamūtu; its parallel is dumta tadūmu (دمت تدوم), originally dawima (دوم). The noun from all this is al-mītah (الميتة). A man is [described as] mayt (ميت) or mayyit (ميت); it is also said: al-mayyit is one who has [already] died, while al-mayt and al-māʾit are one who has not yet died. Al-Jawharī related from al-Farrāʾ: one says of someone not yet dead 'he is māʾit (مائت) soon,' or mayyit (ميت); but they do not say of one who has died 'this is māʾit.' It is said: this is an error, and rather mayyit applies both to one who has already died and to one who will die; God Almighty said: 'Indeed you are mayyit (ميت) and indeed they are mayyitūn (ميتون)' [Q. 39:30]. ʿAdī ibn al-Riʿlāʾ combined both usages, saying: "It is not the one who died and found rest who is truly mayyit; rather the [true] mayyit is the dead among the living. Truly the dead is one who lives in wretchedness, gloomy of mind, with little hope— while some people merely suck at muddy remnants [of water], and others have their throats [immersed] in water." Thus he made [the wretched living] like the dead. A group is [described as] mawtā (موتى) or amwāt (أموات), and mayyitūn (ميتون) or maytūn (ميتون). Sībawayh said: its proper mode of pluralization was with wāw and nūn, since the tāʾ marbūṭah is frequently added to its feminine form; but since the pattern fayʿil corresponds to fāʿil in number of letters, vocalic pattern, and quiescence, they broke it into the plural pattern [fāʿil] sometimes takes, treating it as a weak form, like shāhid/ashhād. The discussion of mayt (ميت, lightened) is the same as for mayyit (ميت), since it is a lightened form of it. The feminine is mayyitah (ميتة), maytah (ميتة), or mayt (ميت), and the plural likewise. Sībawayh said: [the feminine plural] agrees with the masculine, as it agreed with it in some earlier cases; he said: it is as if [the feminine] were a broken plural of mayyit. In the noble revelation: 'that We may bring to life thereby a dead (maytan) land' [Q. 25:49]—al-Zajjāj said: he used the masculine maytan because al-baldah and al-balad [town/land, fem. and masc.] have the same meaning; and God amātahu (أماته, caused him to die). Al-Tahdhīb: The grammarians said: mayyit (ميت)—its proper unassimilated form would be mawyit (ميوت) on the pattern fayʿil, then they assimilated the wāw into the yāʾ. It is said: an objection was raised, namely that if it were as they said, it should be [analyzed differently]. They replied: we know its analogical form is thus, but we abandoned analogy here for fear of ambiguity, so we reverted it to the form of fayʿil, since mayyit follows the pattern of fayʿil. Others said: rather, it was originally mawyit (مويت), like sayyid (سيد) [from] suwayd (سويد); we assimilated the yāʾ into the wāw, then transposed it, and so said mayyit (ميت). Some said: it was pronounced mayyit (ميت), and they did not say [the alternate form], because... [entry continues]