New Revised and Expanded Edition The Concise Arabic-English Lexicon of Verbs in Context Compiled by Ahmed Taher Hassanein Dalal Yassin Abo El Seoud Kamar Mostafa Abdou The American University in Cairo Press Cairo New York First published in 2011 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 1 0018 www.aucpress.com Copyright© 2011 Ahmed Taher Hassanein, the Estate of Kamar Abdou, and Dalal Abou El Seoud All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Oar el Kutub No. 13823/09 ISBN 978 977 416 342 5 Dar el Kutub Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hassanein, Ahmed Taher The Concise Arabic-English Lexicon of Verbs in Context/ Ahmed Taher Hassanein, Kamar Mostafa Abdou, Dalal Abou El Seoud. - Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2011 p. em. ISBN 978 977 416 342 5 1. Arabic language--Grammar, Comparative and general-Verb I. Abdou, Kamar Mostafa (jt. auth.) II. ntle 497.256 1 2 3 4 56 14 13 12 11 Printed in Egypt Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction lX ~.lit\ XV The Lexicon I Index 485 v Acknowledgments We thank all our students and colleagues who inspired us and encouraged us to reproduce this lexicon. Our deep appreciation goes to Mark Linz, director of the American University in Cairo Press, Neil Hewison, associate director for editorial programs, and all of their team, who spared no effort in their help with this work. We also thank Ramsis Habashi for his dedication and accurate typing of the lexicon. Our deep appreciation goes to Dr. Kamar Mostafa Abdou, one of the authors of the first edition of this lexicon, who has passed away, and who will always be remembered for all her efforts in the field of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language. vii Introduction The teaching ofA rabic traditionally focuses on one of the most remarkable features of the Arabic language: words derived from a single root that is usually composed of three radicals or letters. With the most basic set of verbs-those known as Form I-the three radicals alone are the written form of the past tense of a verb and, often, its verbal noun. Because this Form I verb can then be modified by prefixes, insertions, and a doubled middle radicals to create other verbs-those of Forms II through X-the regularity of these patterns has led to the conventional wisdom that, once a root meaning is known, it is not difficult, in some cases, to infer the meanings or connotations of other verbs created from the same root. As authors we have also included some quadrilateral verbs that are widely used in Modern Standard Arabic. Four radical verbs are represented by 'Q' 'Q1' (with one extra letter added) and 'Qz' (with two extra letters added). The Concise Arabic-English Lexicon of Verbs in Context first took shape as a list compiled primarily to help Arabic language students at the American University in Cairo overcome the problems they encountered using traditional Arabic dictionaries. Unlike such dictionaries, which commonly display verb forms haphazardly, this lexicon arranges them into the ten verb forms that are commonly adapted by institutions that teach Arabic as a Foreign Language. Our teaching experience had shown us that those difficulties-common to learners of Arabic as a second language, as well as native speakers-would be lessened if they had a collection of verbs ordered in the conventional system, with each of the three essential units-past tense, present tense, and verbal nouns- fully vocalized for every single word written. Since our goal was to ease the learning process while promoting comprehension of present-day usage, the list naturally omitted unusual or disused verbs. This lexicon also avoids propagating the misleading assumption that the meanings of the verbs derived from one three-radical root are all logical extensions of the meaning of the Form I root. In modern Arabic usage this concept appears to be refuted almost as often as it is demonstrated, and its inevitable contradictions always confuse students. How could the root c' ix '.J u-<o, for example, which means 'to come' in Form I'~', lead in Form II'~' to the meaning 'to prepare' and in Form III 'Y..,b.' to the meaning 'to lecture?' What was the logical relationship between any of those and the meaning 'to bring,' created by Form IV ';.;;,..;.1', and how could this be tied in with the state of 'being civilized' expressed by Form V '~'? For that matter, what was the link between any one of the other forms and the startling meaning of Form VIII '~\' 'to be about to die'? Only in the tenth Form '~I' did our students perceive a meaning-'to fetch' that showed a satisfying reflection of another form. Fetching something, they agreed, was a kind of bringing, close to ':;...;i' in Form IV. In the other cases the meanings of the derived forms were far from apparent, and only the most imaginative students could perceive them as a logical extension of the basic 'to come' meaning of the Form I root. At this point, with English meanings attached to our first list of modern verb usages, we realized that students would need sentences showing exactly how the verbs were used. And, with the addition of these examples, the modest glossary we first visualized soon evolved into the present lexicon, a word list distinguished not only by a fully vocalized presentation of past and present tenses and verbal nouns of every root, but also by fully vocalized sentences providing a context that encourages students to discern meanings by reading Arabic, with the assistance of brief English definitions. The brevity of these English definitions is one of the two features that have led us to call this lexicon 'concise.' By reducing the English to the fewest words possible, the attention of students is to be focused not on English but on the Arabic usage and its context. The second concise feature is in the number ofv erbs included. Although there are about s,ooo Arabic verbs derived from more than z,ooo roots, we have limited the collection to those we consider most essential to reading and speaking Modern Standard Arabic today-a selection that also serves to reinforce the vocabulary of the widely used Modern Standard Arabic textbooks and the like. Thus, our lexicon is a basic reference tool for beginner, intermediate and advanced students as they develop a sound working vocabulary in modern standard Arabic. Although students will supplement it with a wider range of resources as their language skills lntrodudion x improve, the regular use of the lexicon will strengthen their vocabulary and the early reading skills they require to progress in their study. English definitions The English definitions included in this book were selected to provide the translations that will most concisely cover the full meaning of the modern use of the Arabic verbs. In almost all cases, the English term is only one of several possible translations, but others will often suggest themselves immediately to English-speaking students. Under'~.)' in Arabic-English dictionaries, for example, such definitions as 'reply,' 'answer,' 'send back,' 'return,' 'give back,' and 'repel' represent English synonyms that students would naturally use to describe conversations, correspondence, and even the volleys of a tennis match. When students need to jog their memories for an elegant translation, dictionaries can supply the necessary range of options, but while they are first learning the meaning of a new Arabic verb, they will find it more useful to concentrate on the briefest possible English definition. The definitions range from formal to colloquial usages. Many of the formal terms, derived largely from Latin, have been chosen because they express the Arabic meaning very precisely-reflecting an era when Arabic and Latin, as the leading languages of scholarship, naturally enriched each other in cultural and commercial exchanges in the lands around the Mediterranean. Less formal equivalent English expressions-usually several words rather than one-are ones students use in everyday speech. Making the substitutions appropriate for a formal or an informal context should present no difficulty. In a few cases, today's colloquial American English provides a strikingly apt fit with Arabic. For example, the colloquial expression to 'stake out' a place in order to catch someone by surprise better fits the verb 'Jjt.:.' than the more conventional translation 'ambush,' which includes both the waiting and the catching while the Arabic verb refers primarily to the waiting. One difficulty in providing English definitions for Arabic words, however, is the result of the differing climates in which these languages originally flourished. Our English translation for'~\' uses a phrase-'to be wetted' -that is both inadequate and inelegant. This verb, which could xi Introduction