Quranic root
أمو
ʾ · m · w
In the supplied lexical record, the root centers on أَمَةٌ, a female slave, with related derived actions of becoming enslaved, enslaving, and taking a female slave.
The noun is discussed with disputed historical analyses involving an underlying و. The packet does not provide evidence for a more general root-wide semantic development beyond this lexical family.
- Lane · entry 7273
- Lane · entry 7268
- Lane · entry 7269
- Lane · entry 7270
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَمَة
ʾamah
- 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.
A female slave; an enslaved woman.
The Quran occurrences include both the singular أَمَة and the plural إِمَاء. The term denotes a woman whose legal or social condition is slavery, in contrast with a free woman.
- Lane · entry 7273
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:221word 6
“And a bondwoman”
Quran 24:32word 7
“and your female slaves”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 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 7 Classical meanings
أَمَا
To become a slave or become enslaved.
A Form I defective verb; the evidence records several variant conjugational patterns.
- Lane · entry 7268
أَمَا
To mew or utter a cry, said of a cat.
A distinct Form I usage associated with the cat's cry.
- Lane · entry 7268
أَمَّى
To enslave someone; to make someone a slave.
A transitive Form II causative use.
- Lane · entry 7269
تَأَمَّى
To take a female slave for oneself.
A Form V reflexive or benefactive construction expressing personal acquisition of a female slave.
- Lane · entry 7270
ائْتَمَى بِهِ
To follow another's example or imitate him; to adopt a thing as a rule of conduct.
Used with بِهِ for following or imitating a person, and with بِالشَّيْءِ for adopting something as a rule or model.
- Lane · entry 7271
أَمَة
A handmaid, as a deferential designation for a human being in relation to God.
A theological or honorific application of the female-slave term; it is not a separate Quran-attested sense in the supplied occurrences.
- Lane · entry 7273
أَمَوِيّ
Of, relating to, or belonging to a female slave.
Nisba adjective derived from أَمَة.
- Lane · entry 7274
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
No Maqāyīs or Mufradāt evidence was supplied for this root, so the root-level development is necessarily limited.
The historical analysis of the noun's original form is explicitly disputed in the lexical evidence.
A doubtful imprecation reading in the noun entry is not treated as a separate meaning because the passage itself proposes that it may instead contain أَمْت.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
Lane reports an imprecation containing أَمَة but suggests that the reading may actually be أَمْت; the uncertain reading is therefore not assigned as a lexical sense.