Quranic root
شأم
sh · ʾ · m
The root is oriented around the left-hand side or direction.
From the left-side orientation, the lexicon develops related geographical senses for al-Shām and the northern region, as well as figurative senses of ill fortune and inauspiciousness.
- Maqāyīs · row 2544
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مَشْأَمَةٌ
mashʾamahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
The left side, direction, or relative location.
In the Quranic construction أصحاب المشأمة, the word has a literal spatial association with the left side or direction.
- Lane · entry 37627
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:9word 2
“(of) the left”
Quran 90:19word 6
“(of) the left (hand)”
The occupants of the left; those whose records are given into their left hands.
A Quranic designation in أصحاب المشأمة, contrasted with أصحاب الميمنة and understood as referring to those assigned to the left or receiving their records in their left hands.
- Lane · entry 37627
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:9word 2
“(of) the left”
Quran 56:9word 5
“(of) the left”
Quran 90:19word 6
“(of) the left (hand)”
The occupants of a low or ignoble station.
An explicitly reported interpretive reading of أصحاب المشأمة in the Quranic passages where the expression occurs.
- Lane · entry 37627
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:9word 5
“(of) the left”
Those characterized by misfortune or ill fortune.
An explicitly reported interpretive reading of أصحاب المشأمة, connecting the designation with unfortunateness rather than merely physical leftness.
- Lane · entry 37627
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:9word 5
“(of) the left”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 56:9ٱلْمَشْـَٔمَةِ(of) the left
- 56:9ٱلْمَشْـَٔمَةِ(of) the left
- 90:19ٱلْمَشْـَٔمَةِ(of) the left (hand)
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 14 Classical meanings
شُئِمَ، شَأَمَ، شَؤُمَ، تَشَأَّمَ، تَشَاءَمَ
To be or become unlucky; to cause ill fortune to befall someone; or to regard someone or something as an evil omen.
The evidence includes constructions with عَلَى and بِهِ, including finding a person or thing unlucky, becoming unlucky through it, and auguring evil from it.
- Lane · entry 37618
- Lane · entry 37622
- Lane · entry 37623
شُؤْمٌ
Unluckiness, inauspiciousness, ill fortune, or an evil omen; more generally, evil or misfortune.
A nominal expression for the state or consequence of being unlucky, opposed to good fortune; it can also denote an evil omen or a cause of unluckiness.
- Lane · entry 37626
شَائِمْ، تَشَأَّمَ
To take the direction of the left hand.
A directional construction, opposed to taking the direction of the right hand.
- Lane · entry 37620
- Lane · entry 37622
أَشْأَمَ
To desire the left.
A Form IV usage contrasted with أَيْمَنَ, to desire the right.
- Lane · entry 37621
شَأَمَ، شَامَ، أَشْأَمَ، تَشَاءَمَ
To go to or come to al-Shām, or to send or direct someone there.
The evidence includes both intransitive movement toward Syria and causing others to journey there, as well as taking the direction of al-Shām.
- Lane · entry 37618
- Lane · entry 37620
- Lane · entry 37621
- Lane · entry 37623
تَشَأَّمَ
To assert a relationship to the people of al-Shām.
A conventional Form V usage concerning claimed affiliation with the people of Syria.
- Lane · entry 37622
الشَّأْمُ
Al-Shām, the country or region known as Syria; by extension, the northern region.
The geographical sense may be used for the northern region of Arabia, contrasted with al-Yaman to the south.
- Lane · entry 37625
شَأْمَةٌ
A mole on a person's body.
This is a separate nominal usage from the directional and ill-fortune senses.
- Lane · entry 37627
شِئْمَةٌ
Nature, innate disposition, temperament, or another inherent quality.
The pronunciation with hamza is reported, though its status is treated as unusual by one authority.
- Lane · entry 37628
شَامِيٌّ، شَامٍ، شَامِيَّةٌ
Syrian; of or relating to al-Shām; northern.
The feminine forms apply to a woman or feminine referent, and the geographical adjective is normally formed without retaining the hamza of the country name.
- Lane · entry 37629
أَشْأَمُ
More or most unlucky, inauspicious, or unfortunate.
It may be used substantively in the sense of شُؤْمٌ; in a poetic expression it characterizes boys as bearers of ill luck, and in a proverb an expression with this form is explained idiomatically of the tongue.
- Lane · entry 37633
أَشْأَمُ
The left hand or arm.
A lexicalized directional adjective, opposed to أَيْمَنُ and equivalent in this use to الشِّمَالُ.
- Lane · entry 37633
مَشْؤُومٌ
Unlucky or inauspicious; bringing ill fortune; an unlucky omen.
Used as both an epithet and a substantive, of a person or thing and of an omen; plural forms are also reported.
- Lane · entry 37635
شُومٌ
Black camels.
Reported as a plural without a singular by some authorities; another analysis treats the form as شِيمٌ, the plural of أَشْيَمُ.
- Lane · entry 37626
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic expression أصحاب المشأمة is explicitly given several interpretive readings: literal leftness, receipt of records in the left hand, low or ignoble station, and unfortunateness. These are retained as distinct Quran-attested senses rather than treated as interchangeable contextual glosses.