Quranic root
عصو
ʿ · ṣ · w
The evidence suggests an orientation around holding or bringing things together: the staff is explained through the hand and fingers gathered around it, while a related verbal branch denotes gathering a people or party. Striking with a staff is another prominent concrete branch.
From the concrete staff or rod, usage extends to striking, taking or supporting oneself with it, and idioms of union and disunity. The same lexical record also preserves separate verbal branches for binding, hardening, flying, and related actions; these are not all meanings of the noun عصا.
- Lane · entry 3528
- Lane · entry 3534
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 12
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَصَا
ʿaṣā
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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 staff, stick, or rod.
A count noun for a physical staff or rod; the Quranic forms include the singular عَصَا and the plural عِصِيّ, including staffs used by Moses and by the magicians.
- Lane · entry 3534
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:18word 3
“(is) my staff”
Quran 20:66word 6
“and their staffs”
Quran 26:63word 6
“with your staff”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:60بِّعَصَاكَwith your staff
- 7:107عَصَاهُhis staff
- 7:117عَصَاكَ ۖyour staff
- 7:160بِّعَصَاكَwith your staff
- 20:18عَصَاىَ(is) my staff
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 31 Classical meanings
عَصَاهُ
To strike or beat someone with a staff, stick, or rod.
A transitive verbal construction, with the implement commonly introduced by بِ.
- Lane · entry 3528
عَصِيَ بِهَا / عَصَا
To take or use a staff; by extension, to use another implement, such as a sword, as one uses a staff, including striking with it.
The source records several weak-verb variants and constructions with بِ.
- Lane · entry 3528
عَصَوْتُ القَوْمَ
To gather people or a party together, for good or for evil.
A transitive verbal construction with the people or party as object.
- Lane · entry 3528
عَصَوْتُ الجُرْحَ
To bind a wound.
A transitive construction referring to a wound.
- Lane · entry 3528
عَصَا
To become hard.
An intransitive use, including of something that becomes hard; the form is reported as related to عَسَا.
- Lane · entry 3528
عَصَا
To fly.
A use said of a bird.
- Lane · entry 3528
عَصَّاهُ العَصَا
To give someone a staff.
A Form II construction in which the staff is the thing given.
- Lane · entry 3529
عَاصَوَ
To contend with someone in striking or beating with a staff; figuratively, to act roughly toward, oppose, or contend with him.
The source combines the staff-related physical contest with the broader sense of opposition or rough treatment.
- Lane · entry 3530
أَعْصَى
Of a grapevine, to put forth rods or shoots.
The subject is a grapevine and the protruding growths are described as rods or staffs.
- Lane · entry 3531
تَعَصَّى
To strike or beat with a staff, or to make use of a staff.
A Form V staff-related construction.
- Lane · entry 3532
اعْتَصَى عَلَى العَصَا
To lean on, support oneself upon, or remain upon a staff.
The staff is expressed with عَلَى as the object of support.
- Lane · entry 3533
اعْتَصَى بِالسَّيْفِ
To use a sword as a staff.
A Form VIII construction with the sword treated as the supporting or staff-like implement.
- Lane · entry 3533
اعْتَصَى الشَّجَرَةَ
To cut a staff, stick, or rod from a tree.
The tree is the object from which the staff is obtained.
- Lane · entry 3533
أَلْقَى عَصَاهُ / رَفَعَ عَصَاهُ
In idiom, to settle, rest, and cease traveling; with the staff taken up, to depart after staying.
The two contrasting expressions describe settling at a destination and leaving a place of stay.
- Lane · entry 3534
لَا تَرْفَعْ عَصَاكَ عَنْ أَهْلِكَ
In this expression, to discipline one's household.
An idiomatic expression concerning continued household discipline.
- Lane · entry 3534
عَبِيدُ العَصَا
People subject to beating or kept in awe by the threat of force.
An idiom in which the staff represents coercive authority.
- Lane · entry 3534
مَا هُمْ إِلَّا عَبِيدُ العَصَا
Low, base, or vile persons.
A figurative use of the expression عَبِيدُ العَصَا with a depreciatory evaluation.
- Lane · entry 3534
لَيِّنُ العَصَا / ضَعِيفُ العَصَا / صَلِيبُ العَصَا
In idiom, a supple or weak staff denotes gentleness, good management, or mild handling; a hard staff denotes ungentle handling.
These expressions evaluate a person's management or tending, especially in the treatment of animals; the supple and weak forms are commendatory and the hard form discommendatory.
- Lane · entry 3534
عَصَا المَلَامَةِ
To exceed the usual bounds in censuring someone.
A figurative expression using the staff as an instrument of blame.
- Lane · entry 3534
يُصَلِّي عَصَا فُلَانٍ
To manage, order, or regulate another person's affairs.
A figurative expression based on straightening a staff by turning it over a fire.
- Lane · entry 3534
بَيْنَ العَصَا وَلِحَائِهَا
Not to meddle between close friends or in what does not concern one.
A prohibitive idiom concerning inappropriate interference.
- Lane · entry 3534
قَشَرَ لَهُ العَصَا
To reveal to someone what was in one's mind.
A figurative expression for disclosing one's inner thought or intention.
- Lane · entry 3534
شَقَّ العَصَا
To separate from or contravene a collective body, causing schism, disunity, or discord.
Used of a community, tribe, or other collective body; the staff metaphorically represents union.
- Lane · entry 3534
طَارَتْ عَصَا بَنِي فُلَانٍ شِقَقًا
For the members of a group to become scattered in different directions.
A proverbial expression describing the dispersal of a group or family.
- Lane · entry 3534
عَصَا العَبْدِ
A stick used to stir the hot ashes in which bread is baked.
A specialized name for a particular household implement.
- Lane · entry 3534
العَصَا
The bone of the shank.
An anatomical metaphor based on resemblance to a staff.
- Lane · entry 3534
العِصِيّ
The bones in a wing.
A plural figurative use based on the form or arrangement of the bones.
- Lane · entry 3534
العُصِيّ / العِصِيّ
Certain stars having a staff-like form.
A figurative plural designation; the specific stars are not identified in the supplied evidence.
- Lane · entry 3534
العَصَا
The tongue.
A figurative noun use, apparently based on the tongue's use in admonition or reproach.
- Lane · entry 3534
العَصَا
A woman's muffler or head covering.
A specialized nominal use for the garment called خِمَار.
- Lane · entry 3534
عَصَا الرَّاعِي
A plant known as the pastor's rod or knot-grass, identified with بَطْبَاط.
A botanical name; the supplied evidence also records male and female forms of the plant.
- Lane · entry 3534
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The supplied Mufradat record is shared between ESw and ESy; its staff-related material is compatible with this entry, but its discussion of disobedience is not assigned to ESw.
No Maqayis entry was supplied, so the root-level orientation is limited to the direct lexical evidence in the packet.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
mufradat:row:980 combines the staff noun with the separate عصى/عصيان disobedience branch and is explicitly marked shared between ESw and ESy. The disobedience material cannot be assigned confidently to ESw from this packet.