Quranic root
عشو
ʿ · sh · w
A root oriented toward darkness and reduced clarity, with branches involving evening or night, impaired or feigned sight, and movement or judgment in conditions of limited visibility.
The lexical development extends from the darkness and lack of perceptual clarity of night into the evening time, approaching a fire for guidance, turning away or pretending not to see, and acting amid perplexity or uncertainty.
- Maqāyīs · row 3220
- Mufradāt · row 978
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 14
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَشَا
ʿashā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To turn away from or disregard something.
In the Quranic construction عَشَا عَنْ, with the object expressed as the remembrance or admonition of God.
- Lane · entry 3363
Selected Quran examples
Quran 43:36word 2
“turns away”
To be blind to something, or to act as though one does not see it.
A Quranic interpretive use of عَشَا عَنْ; the expression presents disregard in the imagery of impaired or feigned sight.
- Lane · entry 3363
- Mufradāt · row 978
عَشِيّ
ʿashiyy
- Part of speech
- Noun · adverbial use
- Quran occurrences
- 10 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 latter part of the day: afternoon or evening, extending in some contexts toward nightfall.
Used as a temporal noun and adverb; Quranic contexts may render it as afternoon, evening, or, in an evening–night pairing, at night.
- Lane · entry 3384
- Mufradāt · row 978
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:31word 4
“in the afternoon”
Quran 19:62word 11
“and evening”
عَشِيَّة
ʿashiyyah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
An evening, or the late part of a particular day.
The form عَشِيَّة commonly specifies the evening belonging to one particular day.
- Lane · entry 3384
- Mufradāt · row 978
Selected Quran examples
Quran 79:46word 7
“an evening”
عِشَاء
ʿishāʾ
- 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.
Nightfall; the beginning or early darkness of night.
The term can denote the period from sunset toward the onset of deeper night and is used for the early-night time.
- Lane · entry 3382
- Mufradāt · row 978
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:16word 3
“early at night”
The nightfall prayer.
A conventional religious use, especially in the expression صَلَاةُ العِشَاءِ or elliptically العِشَاءُ.
- Lane · entry 3382
- Mufradāt · row 978
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:58word 27
“(of) night”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 3:41بِٱلْعَشِىِّin the evening
- 6:52وَٱلْعَشِىِّand the evening
- 12:16عِشَآءًۭearly at night
- 18:28وَٱلْعَشِىِّand the evening
- 19:11وَعَشِيًّۭاand (in) the evening
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 37 Classical meanings
عَشَا
To eat the evening meal; of camels, to eat the evening pasture or evening feed.
An intransitive Form I use.
- Lane · entry 3363
عَشَاهُ / عَشَا الإِبِلَ
To feed someone the evening meal or feed, or to pasture camels by night.
A transitive use involving a person or animals.
- Lane · entry 3363
عَشَا إِلَى
To repair or betake oneself by night toward a person, object, or fire, seeking its light or guidance.
The fire-related construction may include approaching from afar in weak light and hoping to obtain guidance or good.
- Lane · entry 3363
عَشَا عَنِ النَّارِ
To turn away from the fire or its light and go elsewhere.
A construction with عَنْ expressing departure from the source of light.
- Lane · entry 3363
عَشِيَ
To become weak-sighted, especially in darkness, or to become blind.
The lexical evidence includes reduced sight by night, poor sight by day and night, and complete loss of sight.
- Lane · entry 3363
عَشِيَ عَلَيْهِ
To wrong, injure, treat unjustly, or tyrannically.
A figurative or extended Form I construction with عَلَى.
- Lane · entry 3363
عَشَّوَ
To pasture camels with evening feed so that they reach the water already fed.
A Form II causative or arranged-pasturing use.
- Lane · entry 3364
عَشَّى عَنِ الأَمْرِ
To act gently, cautiously, or deliberately in an affair.
A figurative Form II construction.
- Lane · entry 3364
عَشَّى الطَّيْرَ
To kindle a fire for birds so that they become dim-sighted and can be captured.
A specialized causative hunting practice.
- Lane · entry 3364
أَعْشَوَ
To give.
A rare, marked, and apparently figurative attribution in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 3365
أَعْشَاهُ
To render someone weak-sighted or otherwise affected by impaired sight.
A causative Form IV use.
- Lane · entry 3365
تَعَشَّوَ
To feed oneself with the evening meal; of animals, to feed or pasture themselves in the evening.
A reflexive or middle Form V use.
- Lane · entry 3366
تَعَشَّاهُ
To give someone a firebrand.
A specialized transitive Form V use.
- Lane · entry 3366
تَعَاشَى
To pretend to be weak-sighted or unable to see.
A Form VI use; the lexical evidence also records it in Quran-related exegetical discussion without assigning it a separate QAC form.
- Lane · entry 3367
تَعَاشَى عَنْ
To pretend ignorance of something or deliberately disregard it.
A figurative Form VI construction, like pretending not to see.
- Lane · entry 3367
اعْتَشَى
To travel at the time of nightfall.
A Form VIII temporal use.
- Lane · entry 3368
اسْتَعْشَاهُ
To find someone deviating from the right course or acting wrongfully toward others.
A Form X evaluative construction.
- Lane · entry 3369
اسْتَعْشَى نَارًا
To guide oneself by means of a fire.
A Form X fire-and-guidance construction.
- Lane · entry 3369
عِشْوٌ
A bowl of milk drunk when the sheep or goats return from pasture in the evening.
A specialized pastoral noun.
- Lane · entry 3370
عَشًا
Weakness, poor quality, or loss of sight.
A verbal noun used substantivally for impaired sight, including darkness affecting the eye and blindness.
- Lane · entry 3372
عَشٍ
An animal, especially a camel, that exceeds others in eating the evening pasture or feed.
A possessive-style epithet applied to a male camel; a related feminine form is used for a she-camel.
- Lane · entry 3373
عَشْوَة
Darkness, especially the first darkness of night or the early part of the night; also, nightfall in an adverbial expression.
The extent of the period is variously described, from the onset of darkness to part of the first quarter of the night.
- Lane · entry 3374
عَشْوَة
A confused or dubious affair into which one ventures, or a state of perplexity or trial.
Used in expressions for embarking on an unclear matter.
- Lane · entry 3374
عُشْوَة
A fire seen from afar at night and approached for its light, or a firebrand.
A noun for the visible fire or the portable flame itself.
- Lane · entry 3375
عَشْوَى
A state of perplexity and having little guidance.
A noun for confused circumstances or an unclear course of affairs.
- Lane · entry 3377
عَشَوِيّ
Of or relating to the time called عَشِيَّة or عَشِيّ.
A temporal relational adjective.
- Lane · entry 3378
عُشْوَان
A species of date or palm tree that is late in bearing.
A botanical term.
- Lane · entry 3379
عَشْيَان
A man eating the evening meal.
A personal descriptive noun.
- Lane · entry 3380
عَشَاء
The evening meal or supper; of camels, the evening pasture or evening feed.
This is the fatḥa-initial meal term, distinct from the Quranic عِشَاء for nightfall and its prayer.
- Lane · entry 3381
عَشِيّ
Clouds arriving late in the evening or at eventide.
A specialized use of the temporal adjective or noun.
- Lane · entry 3384
عَشِيّ
An epithet for a camel that continues eating the evening pasture for a long time.
A specialized animal epithet.
- Lane · entry 3384
عَاشٍ / عَوَاشٍ
Camels, sheep, or goats that pasture by night.
The plural or substantivized use denotes animals characterized by night grazing.
- Lane · entry 3390
عَاشِيَة
A person or animal that looks and moves by night toward the fire of a person who entertains guests.
A fire-seeking descriptive use related to night travel and hospitality.
- Lane · entry 3390
أَعْشَى
Weak-sighted; sightless by night while seeing by day, or having poor sight by night and day.
An adjective for impaired sight, with feminine عَشْوَاء.
- Lane · entry 3391
عَشْوَاء
An epithet for a creature that advances or strikes without seeing where it goes; especially a she-camel that does not see what is before her and strikes things with her forefeet.
The same epithet is also applied to an eagle that strikes without regard to where it lands.
- Lane · entry 3391
رَكِبَ العَشْوَاء / خَبَطَ خَبْطَ عَشْوَاء
To pursue or undertake an affair at random, without insight, certainty, or concern for the result.
A figurative idiomatic extension of the heedless movement of the عَشْوَاء.
- Lane · entry 3391
مُتَعَشًّى
A place where one eats the evening meal or supper.
A place noun.
- Lane · entry 3392
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic verb form is the supplied يَعْشُ. Its Quranic usage has closely related interpretations of turning away and being blind to or pretending not to see; these are retained as separate senses because the distinction affects interpretation.
The temporal ranges of عَشِيّ and عِشَاء vary somewhat in Classical descriptions. The Quranic entries state the supported late-day, evening, and nightfall uses without treating every broader temporal proposal as a separate Quranic sense.
The vocalized meal term عَشَاء is kept distinct under broader Classical meanings from the Quranic عِشَاء for nightfall and the nightfall prayer.
Historical Lane Quran citation notation was not converted into modern verse locations; Quran examples use only independently supplied QAC locations.