Quranic root
شنأ
sh · n · ʾ
The root centers on aversion: hating, finding something odious, and withdrawing from it.
The core sense develops from abhorrence and avoidance into hatred, hostility, and descriptions of persons who hate or are hated; a related branch denotes scrupulous withdrawal from impurity.
- Maqāyīs · row 2702
- Mufradāt · row 790
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- 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.
شَانِئٌ
shāniʾun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
One who hates; an enemy or hostile detractor.
An active-participle noun referring to the person characterized by hatred, as in the Quranic construction شَانِئُكَ / شَانِئَكَ, “your hater” or “your enemy.”
- Lane · entry 39329
- Mufradāt · row 790
Selected Quran examples
Quran 108:3word 2
“your enemy”
شَنَآنٌ
shanaʾānun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 2 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.
Hatred or hostile aversion, especially hatred directed toward a people.
Used in the Quranic construction شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ, where the hatred of a people is presented as an attitude that may affect conduct. The supplied Quran occurrences are 5:2 and 5:8.
- Lane · entry 39326
- Mufradāt · row 790
Hatefulness or being odious.
A reported Quranic reading or grammatical analysis treats the form associated with شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ as an epithet meaning “hateful” or “odious,” rather than as the verbal noun “hatred.”
- Lane · entry 39326
- Mufradāt · row 790
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 17 Classical meanings
شَنِئَهُ
To hate, or to hate vehemently; in the passive, to be hated or rendered hateful.
The verb has several transmitted infinitive forms. The passive description may apply even to someone otherwise beautiful or comely.
- Lane · entry 39319
شَنِئَ لَهُ حَقَّهُ
To acknowledge and deliver a person’s right or due; to produce what is owed and thereby clear oneself of the matter.
Used in constructions with لَهُ, إِلَيْهِ, or بِهِ; the transmitted explanations combine acknowledgment, payment or production, and discharge from an obligation.
- Lane · entry 39319
تَشَانَؤُوا
To hate one another; to be mutually hostile.
Reciprocal Form VI usage.
- Lane · entry 39320
شَنْءٌ
Hatred, especially vehement hatred or hatred mixed with enmity and bad disposition.
The lexical discussion lists شَنْءٌ, شِنْءٌ, شُنْءٌ and related infinitival or nominal variants as forms used for this meaning.
- Lane · entry 39321
- Lane · entry 39319
شَنَاءَةٌ
A hateful or odious person, or someone evil in disposition.
Used as an epithet for a man, describing him as rendered hateful or as an object of hatred, even if other qualities make him loved.
- Lane · entry 39323
شَنُوءَةٌ
Scrupulous withdrawal or keeping oneself far from unclean things; continual purification. It can also describe a person who practices such abstinence.
The word is used both as a substantive and as an epithet for one who keeps aloof from impurity. The related form شُنُوءَةٌ is also reported.
- Lane · entry 39324
شَنُوءَةٌ
Mutual hatred or hostility.
A reported interpretation, especially in an explanation of the tribal name Azd Shanu'a; this is distinct from the better-known sense of withdrawal from impurity.
- Lane · entry 39324
شَنُوءَةٌ
Pure lineage together with manly virtue and good conduct.
A reported use connected with the phrase رجل شَنُوءَةٍ and with an alternative explanation of the tribal name.
- Lane · entry 39324
شَنُوءَةٌ
What is regarded as sordid or contemptible in words and actions.
A rare reported use attributed through a secondary citation in the lexical tradition.
- Lane · entry 39324
شَنْآنٌ
An epithet for a man who hates, or who is hated or odious.
The transmitted authorities differ over whether the epithet denotes the hater or the hated person; the feminine forms شَنْآنَةٌ and شَنْأَى are also reported.
- Lane · entry 39326
شَنْآنُ الشِّتَاءِ
In a metaphorical expression, the cold of winter; alternatively, ease and repose.
The expression is explained through the idea that winter cold is hated, while another interpretation takes the intended meaning to be mutual hatred or, figuratively, ease and repose.
- Lane · entry 39326
لَا أَبَا لِشَانِئِكَ
Literally, “may there be no father to your hater”; idiomatically, an expression of praise equivalent to لَا أَبَا لَكَ.
A conventional metonymical expression; شَانِئِكَ here means “your hater.”
- Lane · entry 39329
شَوَانِئُ الْمَالِ
Livestock or property freely given away rather than grudgingly retained.
In this expression the plural active participle is used with passive force, as though the property were hated and therefore liberally relinquished.
- Lane · entry 39330
مَشْنَأٌ
Foul or ugly in appearance, especially in the face.
An epithet that may apply even when the person is made an object of love by good qualities; the form is reported as usable across number and gender.
- Lane · entry 39331
مَشْنَأٌ
One who hates people, one whom people hate, or one who does much for which hatred is incurred.
These are alternative transmitted explanations of the intensive form; the evidence does not reduce them to a single direction of the hatred relation.
- Lane · entry 39331
مَشْنُوْءٌ
Hated, rendered hateful, or made an object of hatred.
An adjectival passive description that may apply even to someone beautiful or comely; the variants مَشْنُوٌّ and مَشْنِىٌّ are reported with the same sense.
- Lane · entry 39333
مَشْنِيْئَةٌ
A kind of liquid or soft food, such as broth or porridge, taken by sipping or spooning.
A technical culinary use occurring in a transmitted report; its irregular morphological derivation does not establish that the food itself means “hated.”
- Lane · entry 39334
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form شَنَآنٌ has a reported alternative reading or grammatical analysis as an adjective meaning “hateful” or “odious”; the standard QAC form is presented separately from that reported interpretation.
Lane’s Quran references in the lexical discussion use historical citation notation and are not converted into modern verse locations unless independently supplied by QAC.