نبوTo rise up away from a thing, to recoil, turn aside, or fail to fit/agree with it. (root nbw)

Al-nabaʾ (النبأ), hamzated: news/report. One says 'so-and-so has a nabaʾ,' i.e., news. The verb: nabbaʾtuhu, anbaʾtuhu, istanbaʾtuhu (نبأته وأنبأته واستنبأته); the plural is al-anbāʾ (الأنباء). Al-nabʾah (النبأة) is al-naghyah (النغية), a faint sound that is doubted and not certain. Al-nabʾah, al-baghmah, al-ṭughyah, al-ʿaḍrah, and al-naghyah (النبأة والبغمة والطغية والعضرة والنغية) all have one meaning. Al-nubuwwah (النبوة) — were it not for what has come in ḥadīth, it would be hamzated. The Prophet (God's peace and blessings be upon him and his family) reports (yunbiʾu) news from God, Mighty and Glorious. Al-nabī (النبي) is also said [to mean] the clear road that takes you to where you wish [to go]. Regarding the saying of Aws ibn Ḥajar: "[It would have become mere crushed, fine gravel] ... in place of the nabī (النبي) of al-Kāthib" — this [nabī] is what is level ground [a particular kind of sand]. Al-thawr al-nābiʾ (الثور النابئ) is the [wild] bull that moves (yanbaʾu) from one land to another, i.e., departs. Al-nabʾah (النبأة) is the sound/barking of dogs and the like. ʿAdī ibn Zayd said concerning the bull: "And his is the fine ewe facing the riding-party, matched against al-nābiʾ al-mikhrāq [the swift-darting bull]."

Al-nabʾah (النبأة) is the faint sound. Dhū al-Rummah said: "By the faint sound (nabʾat al-ṣawt) there is no deception in his hearing." Ramā fa-anbaʾa (رمى فأنبأ) — he shot and [the arrow] merely grazed, when it neither tore nor scratched. Sayl nābiʾ (سيل نابئ) is a flood coming from another land; likewise rajul nābiʾ (رجل نابئ), a man come from elsewhere. The poet said: "But its blemish is every disheveled stranger (nābiʾ) brought to us by the decrees of fate from whence we know not." Abū Zayd said: nabaʾtu ʿalā al-qawm anbaʾu nabʾan wa-nubūʾan (نبأت على القوم أنبأ نبأ ونبوءا) — I came upon the people [suddenly]. He said: and nabaʾtu min arḍin ilā arḍin (نبأت من أرض إلى أرض) — I went out from one land to another; this is the meaning the bedouin intended by his saying 'yā nabiʾa Allāh' (يا نبئ الله), i.e., 'O one who went out from Mecca to Medina' — but [the Prophet] disapproved of his use of the hamzah. Nabaʾat bihi al-arḍ (نبأت به الأرض) — the land brought him forth. The poet said: "So guard your soul well, for calamities befall (yanbaʾna) a man in every valley." Al-nabaʾ (النبأ) is news; one says nabaʾa and nabbaʾa (نبأ ونبأ), meaning 'he informed.' From this al-nabīʾ (النبيء) is taken, because he informs (anbaʾa) concerning God, Exalted is He; it is [the pattern] faʿīl in the sense of fāʿil. Sībawayh said: there is no one among the Arabs but says tanabbaʾa Musaylimah (تنبأ مسيلمة) with the hamzah, except that they dropped the hamzah in al-nabī (النبي), just as they dropped it in al-dhurriyyah, al-bariyyah, and al-khābiyah — except the people of Mecca, who hamzate these words but not others, thereby differing from [the rest of] the Arabs. The diminutive of al-nabīʾ is nubayyiʾ, like nubayyiʿ; the diminutive of al-nubūʾah is nubayyiʾah, like nubayyiʿah. One says: 'The Arabs held Musaylimah's [claimed] nubayyiʾah to be a wicked pretended prophethood.' The plural of al-nabī is nubaʾāʾ (نبآء). The poet said: "O seal of the prophets (khātam al-nubaʾāʾ), you are sent with good — every guidance of the path guides you." It is also pluralized as anbiyāʾ (أنبياء), because once the hamzah was substituted and the substitution made obligatory, it was pluralized on the pattern of a word whose final radical is a weak letter, like ʿīd/aʿyād (عيد/أعياد), as we shall mention in the chapter on weak roots, God willing.

The nūn, bāʾ, and the weak letter form a sound root indicating elevation of a thing above another, or a turning-away/withdrawal from it. Nabā baṣaruhu ʿan al-shayʾ (نبا بصره عن الشيء), yanbū (ينبو) — his eyesight was averted from/turned away from the thing. Nabā al-sayfu ʿan al-ḍarībah (نبا السيف عن الضريبة) — the sword glanced off [what it struck] and did not cut into it. Nabā bihi manziluhu (نبا به منزله) — his dwelling did not suit him; likewise his bed. One says nabā janbuhu ʿan al-firāsh (نبا جنبه عن الفراش) — his side recoiled from the bed. A poet said: "Indeed my side recoils from the bed, like the shying of captives atop the hillocks." It is said that the Prophet's name (God's peace and blessings be upon him and his family), al-nabī (النبي), is from al-nubuwwah (النبوة), meaning elevation, as though he were exalted above all other people by the raising of his rank. They also call the road al-nabī (النبي). A poet said: "It would have become mere crushed, fine gravel in place of the nabī (النبي) of al-Kāthib."

...that the covenant not be made binding upon them; rather their due is that it be extended to them urgently, in a spirit of amicable courtesy, and that one show them the consideration they show him, making covenants with them to the degree they covenant [with him]. Intabadha fulān (انتبذ فلان) — so-and-so withdrew, in the manner of one who cares little for his own standing among people. God, Exalted, said: "Then she carried him and withdrew (fa-ntabadhat) with him to a remote place" (Qurʾān, Maryam 19:22). Qaʿada nubdhatan wa-nabdhatan (قعد نبذة ونبذة) — i.e., in a secluded spot. Ṣabī manbūdh and nabīdh (صبي منبوذ ونبيذ) — a foundling child, like your saying malqūṭ and laqīṭ (ملقوط ولقيط); except that manbūdh is said with regard to the one who cast him away, while malqūṭ/laqīṭ is said with regard to the one who picked him up. Al-nabīdh (النبيذ) is dates or raisins put with water in a vessel [to steep]; it then became the name for a specific beverage. ¶ Al-nabī (النبي) without hamzah: grammarians said its origin has the hamzah but the hamzah was dropped, citing as evidence the saying 'Musaylimah nabīʾ sūʾ' (مسيلمة نبيئ سوء). Some scholars said it is from al-nubuwwah (النبوة), i.e., elevation, and he was called nabī for the loftiness of his station above all other people, as indicated by His saying: "And We raised him to a lofty place" (Qurʾān, Maryam 19:57). Thus al-nabī without hamzah is more emphatic than al-nabīʾ with hamzah, since not everyone informed (munbaʾ) is of lofty rank and station. For this reason, when someone said to him (peace and blessings be upon him), 'O nabīʾ Allāh (يا نبيء الله)' [with hamzah], he said: 'I am not nabīʾ Allāh, but rather nabī Allāh,' when he perceived that the man addressed him with the hamzah in order to diminish him. Al-nubuwwah and al-nabāwah (النبوة والنباوة) mean elevation; from this one says nabā bi-fulānin makānuhu (نبا بفلان مكانه) — his place did not suit him, like saying qaḍḍa ʿalayhi maḍjaʿuhu (قض عليه مضجعه) [his sleeping-place was uncomfortable]. Nabā al-sayfu ʿan al-ḍarībah (نبا السيف عن الضريبة) — it recoiled from it and did not cut through; and nabā baṣaruhu ʿan kadhā (نبا بصره عن كذا) — his sight turned away from such a thing, by analogy with that.

Al-nabaʾ (النبأ) is news; its plural is anbāʾ (أنباء). One says 'so-and-so has a nabaʾ,' i.e., news. His saying, Mighty and Glorious: "About what are they asking one another? About the great news (al-nabaʾ al-ʿaẓīm)" (Qurʾān, al-Nabaʾ 78:1–2). It is said [this refers] to the Qurʾān; it is [also] said to the Resurrection; and it is said to the matter of the Prophet, peace be upon him. One says anbaʾahu iyyāhu wa-bihi (أنبأه إياه وبه), and likewise nabbaʾahu (نبأه) — transitive both with and without a preposition — meaning 'he informed him.' Sībawayh related: 'anā anbuʾuka' (أنا أنبؤك) by vowel-assimilation. Regarding the verse: "ilā Hindin matā tuslī tanbī" (إلى هند متى تسلي تنبي) — the hamzah of tanbiʾī (تنبئي) was genuinely substituted until the hamzah became a weak letter, so that tanbī (تنبي) parallels taqḍī (تقضي). Ibn Sīdah said: the verse was found thus, and it is undoubtedly defective. Istanbaʾa al-nabaʾ (استنبأ النبأ) — he sought out/inquired into the news. Nābaʾtu al-rajula wa-nābaʾanī (نابأت الرجل ونابأني) means anbaʾtuhu wa-anbaʾanī (أنبأته وأنبأني) — I informed him and he informed me. Dhū al-Rummah said, satirizing a people: "Blue-eyed, when you become their neighbors they steal what even a slave would steal, or if you exchange news (nābaʾtahum) with them, they lie." It is also said: nābaʾtuhum (نابأتهم) means 'I left their protection and grew distant from them.' His saying, Mighty and Glorious: "Then the tidings (al-anbāʾ) will be obscured for them that Day, so they will not ask one another" (Qurʾān, al-Qaṣaṣ 28:66). Al-Farrāʾ said: one might ask — God, Exalted, said elsewhere: "and they will turn to one another, questioning" (Qurʾān, al-Ṣāffāt 37:27) — so how does He say here "fa-hum lā yatasāʾalūn" (فهم لا يتساءلون)? The exegetes say: it means the proofs were obscured for them that Day, so they fell silent — that is the meaning of "fa-hum lā yatasāʾalūn." Abū Manṣūr said: He called the proofs 'anbāʾ' (أنباء), plural of al-nabaʾ, because the proofs are reports from God, Mighty and Glorious. Al-Jawharī [said]: al-nabīʾ (النبيء) is 'the one who informs concerning God, Mighty and Glorious' — a Meccan usage — because he informs (anbaʾa) concerning Him; it is [the pattern] faʿīl in the sense of fāʿil. Ibn Barrī said: the correct view is that one should say faʿīl in the sense of mufʿil, like nadhīr (نذير) in the sense of mundhir (منذر), and alīm (أليم) in the sense of muʾlim (مؤلم). In al-Nihāyah: [it is] faʿīl in the sense of fāʿil, for intensification, from al-nabaʾ meaning news, because he informed concerning God, i.e., reported. He said: both full pronunciation of the hamzah and its lightening are permissible; one says nabaʾa, nabbaʾa, and anbaʾa (نبأ ونبأ وأنبأ). Sībawayh said: there is no one among the Arabs but says 'tanabbaʾa Musaylimah' (تنبأ مسيلمة) with the hamzah, except that they dropped the hamzah in al-nabī (النبي), just as they dropped it in al-dhurriyyah, al-bariyyah, and al-khābiyah — except for the people of Mecca, who hamzate these words but not others, differing thereby from [the rest of] the Arabs. He said: hamzating al-nabīʾ is an inferior dialectal usage, meaning due to its rarity of use, not because analogy forbids it. Do you not see the saying of our master the Messenger of God, peace be upon him — when it was said to him 'yā nabīʾa Allāh' (يا نبيء الله) [with hamzah], he said: 'Do not mispronounce my name; I am only nabī Allāh.' In another version: he said, 'I am not nabīʾ Allāh, but rather I am nabī Allāh.' That was because he, peace be upon him, disapproved of the hamzah in his name and rejected it from the one who said it, since that person did not realize what he was calling him, so he [the Prophet] was wary of letting that stand... [entry continues]