المَصْدَر
al-maṣdar
The verbal noun
The noun that names the event itself, stripped of any time — the source the verb is derived from.
- المَصْدَرُal-maṣdarVerbal noun
- The noun signifying the ḥadath — the event — without indicating a time: ḍarb (striking), ʿilm (knowing), khurūj (going out).
The verb ḍaraba tells you of a striking and of a past time together. Take the time away and what remains — ḍarb, “striking” — is the maṣdar. The Basrans hold it to be the origin from which the verb is derived; the Kufans held the reverse. The difference is old and well known, and the student should know that it is a difference.
Its patterns
The maṣdar of the triliteral verb is heard, not derived by rule: it is learned from the Arabs and recorded in the lexicon. The maṣdar of the augmented verb, by contrast, is measured — ikrām from akrama, taʿlīm from ʿallama, istighfār from istaghfara.
عَلَّمَ ← تَعْلِيمًا
Sources
- شذا العرف في فنّ الصرفShadhā al-ʿArf fī Fann al-Ṣarf
The standard modern primer of Ṣarf; the patterns and their names below follow its arrangement.
- ألفية ابن مالكAlfiyyat Ibn Mālik
In the glossary
Related entries
Weighing a word against fāʾ–ʿayn–lām, so that its root letters and its added letters can be told apart at a glance.
Read entryThe noun derived from the verb to name the one who does the act: kātib, the one writing.
Read entryThe change that comes over the end of a word because of the governor that enters upon it — whether the change is pronounced or only intended.
Read entry