Quranic root
عنو
ʿ · n · w
The root's semantic orientation is subjection or being held under constraint, with a parallel line of bringing something forth or making it manifest.
The lexical field connects humility and captivity with restraint, coercive or surrendered taking, and the emergence or display of what is concealed. Naming or titling is also treated as an indication of something else; these are related developments, not a single meaning of every form.
- Mufradāt · row 1014
- Lane · entry 5063
- Lane · entry 5070
- Lane · entry 5071
- 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.
عَنَا
ʿanā
- 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 become lowly, humble, submissive, or obedient.
In the Quranic expression وَعَنَتِ الْوُجُوهُ لِلْحَيِّ الْقَيُّومِ, the faces—by extension, the persons—are humbled and submissive before God. The expression may evoke the submission of captives or the posture of prostration.
- Lane · entry 5063
- Mufradāt · row 1014
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:111word 1
“And (will be) humbled”
To suffer weariness, hardship, or toil.
This is an alternative interpretation of the Quranic expression at 20:111, taking the form in connection with the sense of undergoing exertion or affliction rather than simply describing humility.
- Lane · entry 5063
- Mufradāt · row 1014
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 20:111۞ وَعَنَتِAnd (will be) humbled
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 30 Classical meanings
عَنَا
To become or remain a captive; to be confined in captivity, especially with hardship or humiliation.
The verb may describe remaining among people as a prisoner or being held fast in confinement.
- Lane · entry 5063
عَنَا
To take possession of something by force; in another attested usage, to take it by peaceful surrender.
The two applications are explicitly reported as contrary usages of the same verb.
- Lane · entry 5063
عَنَا
To put forth or produce something, or to make it apparent or show it.
Used of land bringing forth plants or herbage, and of something failing or succeeding to appear or be yielded to someone.
- Lane · entry 5063
عَنَا
Of events, to befall someone; of an affair, to prove difficult or distressing to him.
The lexical use covers both the occurrence of events and the resulting difficulty or trouble.
- Lane · entry 5063
عَنَا
Of a dog, to come to a thing and smell it.
Used with the thing approached and sniffed.
- Lane · entry 5063
عَنَا
Of a waterskin, to fail to retain water and let it escape; of blood, to flow.
The waterskin usage emphasizes water appearing or leaking from the vessel.
- Lane · entry 5063
عَنَا
To stand or rise to a standing position.
A reported additional verbal usage of the Form I stem.
- Lane · entry 5063
عَنَّى
To imprison or confine someone for a long time, straitening him; to restrain or suppress.
The restraining sense also applies to suppressing or checking voices and other outward activity.
- Lane · entry 5064
عَنَّى
To smear a camel with عَنِيَّة, a medicinal preparation.
The object is specifically the camel treatment called عَنِيَّة.
- Lane · entry 5064
أَعْنَى
To render someone lowly, humble, or submissive.
This is the causative Form IV counterpart of becoming lowly or submissive.
- Lane · entry 5065
أَعْنَى
To make someone remain captive or stick fast in captivity.
The causative construction places the person in, or keeps him in, confinement.
- Lane · entry 5065
أَعْنَى
Of rain, to water land so that it produces vegetation; of a man, to find land with abundant pasture.
The two constructions describe either causing growth or encountering land whose growth and grazing are plentiful.
- Lane · entry 5065
تَعَنَّى
To become smeared with عَنِيَّة, the camel treatment.
Used especially of a camel treated with the preparation.
- Lane · entry 5066
عَنْوَنَ
To put a title or superscription on a book or writing.
The verb also occurs with the meaning of writing the book's title or heading.
- Lane · entry 5067
عِنْوٌ
A side, region, quarter, or tract of a country or of the sky.
The plural may refer to the sides of the face.
- Lane · entry 5069
عِنْوٌ
A party or group of people from different tribes.
This is another singular use associated with the plural أَعْنَاءٌ.
- Lane · entry 5069
عَنْوَةٌ
Force, constraint, or the taking of something by force.
It may describe a city or possession taken through conflict and superior power.
- Lane · entry 5070
عَنْوَةٌ
Love or affection; submission or concession; or taking by peaceful surrender.
The word is explicitly reported with usages contrary to the coercive sense, including surrender or concession motivated by affection.
- Lane · entry 5070
عَنْوَةٌ
Lowliness, humility, or submissiveness.
A verbal noun or substantive associated with the Form I sense of becoming lowly.
- Lane · entry 5070
عَنْوَةٌ
A state of captivity or confinement.
This is the substantive use associated with becoming or remaining captive.
- Lane · entry 5070
عَنْوَةٌ
The act of putting forth or producing something, or of making it apparent.
This substantive use follows the corresponding Form I usages of bringing forth and showing.
- Lane · entry 5070
عُنْوَانٌ
The title, superscription, or inscription of a book or writing; an address or heading.
By extension, anything serving as an indication or identifying mark of another thing is an عُنْوَان, including a visible mark on the forehead.
- Lane · entry 5071
عَنِيَّةٌ
A camel preparation made chiefly from inspissated urine, sometimes mixed with dung or other substances, and used to treat mange or scab.
The word may also be used for related tar-like or medicinal substances applied to affected camels.
- Lane · entry 5073
عَانٍ
Lowly, humble, or submissive.
The adjective is also associated with the condition of one held under another's power.
- Lane · entry 5074
عَانٍ
A captive or confined person.
The feminine and plural forms may be used for female captives or persons treated like captives.
- Lane · entry 5074
عَوَانٍ
Women in a condition of captivity or treated like captives.
The usage is explained through confinement in the homes of their husbands or through being wronged without defense; the source presents these as explanations of the application.
- Lane · entry 5074
عَوَانٍ
Workers or laborers; also, as a substantive application, the legs or limbs of riding beasts.
The same form is tentatively extended to collectors of imposts, understood as workers for oppressors.
- Lane · entry 5074
عَانٍ
Flowing, said of blood or water.
An adjectival use describing a liquid in motion.
- Lane · entry 5074
مُعَنًّى
A stallion camel of mean origin that is confined when excited by lust, or whose legs are bound for that purpose.
The confinement prevents or avoids his use as a breeding or riding animal.
- Lane · entry 5077
مُعَنًّى
A camel deliberately disabled so that it cannot be ridden or otherwise used.
The reported practice involved displacing a vertebra's projections and wounding the hump when the owner's herd reached a specified number; its explanation is associated either with fatigue or confinement from free use.
- Lane · entry 5077
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic occurrence is the inflected form عَنَتِ, while the public citation headword is normalized to عَنَا. The verse has an alternative interpretation involving hardship or toil in addition to the primary sense of humility and submission.