Quranic root
أيم
ʾ · y · m
The evidence preserves three distinct lexical branches under these radicals: smoke, a snake, and a person without a spouse. The Quranic form belongs to the marital branch.
Within the marital branch, the basic state of having no spouse extends to widowhood and remaining unmarried, with derived forms expressing causation, continued singleness, or marriage to a previously spouse-less woman. The smoke and snake branches are lexically distinct homonymous developments.
- Maqāyīs · row 181
- Mufradāt · row 70
- Lane · entry 7622
- Lane · entry 7623
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَيِّم
ʾayyim
- Part of speech
- Noun · plural in Quran
- 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.
A person without a spouse—especially a woman without a husband, and also a man without a wife.
The Quranic form is plural أَيَامَى. It can include those who have never married as well as those who have lost a spouse, and the lexical evidence applies it to both women and men.
- Lane · entry 7632
- Mufradāt · row 70
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:32word 2
“the single”
A free woman.
A reported interpretation of the plural in Quran 24:32, according to which أَيَامَى denotes free women rather than, or in addition to, people without spouses.
- Lane · entry 7632
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 24:32ٱلْأَيَـٰمَىٰthe single
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 10 Classical meanings
إِيَام / آمَ
Smoke; to smoke a bee-hive so that the bees leave it and the honey may be taken.
A lexical branch distinct from the marital and snake branches.
- Maqāyīs · row 181
أَيِّم / أَيْم
A snake, described in one account as white and identified in another with the jinn-snake.
A lexical branch distinct from the marital branch.
- Maqāyīs · row 181
- Mufradāt · row 70
آمَ / تَأَيَّمَ
To be without a spouse, including to become widowed or to remain unmarried.
Applied to a woman without a husband or a man without a wife. The Form V usage can specify remaining some time without marrying; an idiom also describes the loss of a wife and cattle, with resulting strong desire for milk.
- Lane · entry 7622
- Lane · entry 7625
- Mufradāt · row 70
أَيَّمَ / أَأَمَ
To cause someone to have no spouse; to make a woman a widow.
The widow-making sense is specifically associated with killing her husband.
- Lane · entry 7623
ائْتَامَ
To take as wife a woman who has no husband.
The object is characterized as an أَيِّم at the time of marriage.
- Lane · entry 7626
أَيْمَ
A contraction meaning “what thing?” in an interrogative expression.
This is a particle-like contraction of أَيُّ مَا, not the marital lexical branch.
- Lane · entry 7627
أَيْمَانُ / أَيْمَى
A man whose wife has died, or a woman whose husband has died.
In the paired expression أَيْمَانُ عَيْمَانُ / أَيْمَى عَيْمَى, the term is associated with the death or loss of both spouse and cattle, leaving a strong desire for milk.
- Lane · entry 7631
أَيِّم
A female relation, such as a daughter, sister, or maternal aunt.
أَيَامَى is also reported as a plural for female relations in this usage.
- Lane · entry 7632
مَأْيَمَة
A cause of widowing; said of war that kills men and leaves wives without husbands.
A conventional descriptive noun for the effect of war on married women.
- Lane · entry 7634
- Mufradāt · row 70
مُؤْيَمَة
A rich or financially sufficient woman who has no husband.
The wealth or sufficiency qualification is part of this specialized lexical usage.
- Lane · entry 7635
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic plural أَيَامَى in 24:32 has a reported alternative interpretation as “free women” in addition to the ordinary lexical interpretation of people without spouses.
The root-level sources distinguish the marital, smoke, and snake branches as separate lexical lines; the latter two are not Quranic meanings of أَيَامَى.