For Pacifica - random quotes on Arabic and Qur'an
- Thread starter Bestiola
- Start date
I couldn't see how عزمانا could make any morphological sense so again googling the few preceding words I found عزماتها and incidentally found that Wikisource also has the text!
Here https://ar.m.wikisource.org/wiki/تحفة_النظار_في_غرائب_الأمصار_وعجائب_الأسفار/الجزء_الأول/صفحة:_2
I think it makes more sense to consider عدات as the plural of عِدة from verb وعد which is a pledge, a commitment, a promise, etc. They vied in détermination for allegiance to the Caliph. Unless I'm missing something.
I stayed puzzled for a while as I was trying to read the last two letters as the enclitic pronoun, but then it occurred to me that the ending could actually be اً. Then I found this word and thought it must be it.
Last edited:
What would ها- be referring to? The writers? They vied in their determination? The determination certainly doesn't belong to the house...
That will be more handy to copy from.
You’re perfectly right, I hadn’t thought of that possibility. Although syntactically it wouldn’t work to have two verbal nouns in a row describing how the action is done (no idea what those are formally called, neither in English nor in Arabic).
I would have said that’s very unlikely before we encountered a similar instance earlier... so yes I’m thinking that may be it (the writers’ resolve).
Besides, since تسابُق doesn't have the اً ending, it must be in construct state and the verbal noun that follows must be genitive... Stupid me. Trying to make sense of the next word, I forgot the preceding one.
One of my books called them adverbs of manner, but I don't really like that term because to my mind they're nouns rather than adverbs, though used adverbially. I would call them adverbial accusatives or accusatives of manner, perhaps. Now maybe "adverb of manner" really is the official term; I don't know. I may be thinking in an overly Indo-European way distinguishing between adverbs and nouns used adverbially.
I think the book also gave an Arabic term but I don't remember it. I'll look it up in a bit.
الحال
Right, that rings a bell. In French, wouldn’t it be a ’complément circonstantiel de manière’?
Sounds plausible.
This is apparently an older term; the current preferred term in Grevisse is complément adverbiale de manière non essentielle.
وقَصَدَ السائحون استطلاع معناها المنيف
I'm unsure how to interpret معنى. I've found definitions along the lines of "meaning", "idea", "concept", which don't seem to make sense here. I've also found "institution", "institute", which I thought might be it. The French translation says "qualités".
I'm unsure how to interpret معنى. I've found definitions along the lines of "meaning", "idea", "concept", which don't seem to make sense here. I've also found "institution", "institute", which I thought might be it. The French translation says "qualités".
Grevisse can't possibly be more recent than me though
unless his works are still re-edited and updated. I learned about 'compléments circonstanciels' in French school in the late 90's, but I know that the terminology keeps changing.Yes qualités is a common translation in older texts, even though I've only fever seen it in the plural and to describe a woman's charms (معانيها).
In MSA it only means 'meaning'.
وفي القطع بتفضيلها تَسَاوَتْ* بديهة عقل الجاهل والعالم
What does بديهة mean here? The French translation says "les impromptus", but I'm not sure what that means in this context. Improvised speeches? Circumstances?
*Variant reading (from the French book) تساورت, which it translates as "se livrer combat".
What does بديهة mean here? The French translation says "les impromptus", but I'm not sure what that means in this context. Improvised speeches? Circumstances?
*Variant reading (from the French book) تساورت, which it translates as "se livrer combat".
It is an updated edition.Grevisse can't possibly be more recent than me though
Yes, apparently the ه actually replaces an original ء so it comes from root а بدء which conveys the idea of starting or beginning something (this kind of substitution often happens in old Arabic verbs I’ve noticed). Here it seems to refer to the first thing that springs to mind as you try to jugde something you see for the first time. I guess both تساوت and تساورت would make sense. The first one would mean that both the ignorant’s mind and the learned’s mind com up with equally superlative descriptions of the place, while the second one could mean that they contend with each other to come up with the most beautiful praise of the place, although the dictionary does ascribe a rather violent meaning to تساور (to assault each other in a mutual fight) so it might sound a bit overkill in comparison with تساوت
The 2008 edition. I like that it shows examples and counter examples when a rule isn't always uniformly agreed on.
Yes, Grevisse had always done this, unlike Littré, and I really like his 'Bon Usage' for that very reason. I think he'd always had an axe to grind with the purists.