Quranic root
عسل
ʿ · s · l
The root develops two principal semantic orientations: sweet honey and agitation or vigorous movement.
The lexical tradition distinguishes honey and what is derived from it from a second branch denoting quivering, rippling, agitation, and rapid movement; several figurative and derived usages develop from the honey branch.
- Maqāyīs · row 3208
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- 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.
عَسَلٌ
ʿasalun
- 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.
Honey, the sweet substance produced by bees.
In the Quran, used in the expression “purified honey” as one of the provisions described for Paradise.
- Mufradāt · row 976
- Lane · entry 3245
Selected Quran examples
Quran 47:15word 25
“honey”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 47:15عَسَلٍۢhoney
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 39 Classical meanings
عَسَلَ
To prepare or mix food with honey, making it sweet; also, to feed someone honey.
Form I verb; the object may be food or a person being provided with honey.
- Lane · entry 3240
عَسَلَ
To make someone an object of praise or love, or to dispose him to a good deed that wins praise.
A figurative extension comparing the pleasing effect of such a deed or reputation to honey.
- Lane · entry 3240
عَسَلَ
To extract honey from a bee-hive.
The verbal noun عَسْلٌ denotes the act of harvesting honey.
- Lane · entry 3240
عَسَلَ
To have sexual intercourse with a woman.
A figurative or euphemistic Form I usage; the evidence supports the construction without restricting it to any particular object class beyond the stated construction.
- Lane · entry 3240
عَسَلَ مِنْ طَعَامِهِ
To taste of someone’s food.
Used with مِنْ in the cited construction.
- Lane · entry 3240
عَسَلَ
To quiver or shake vigorously; of water, to become agitated and ripple.
Used of a spear and other things that quiver, and of water disturbed by wind; related nominal and intensive forms describe repeated quivering.
- Lane · entry 3240
- Lane · entry 3245
- Lane · entry 3253
عَسَلَ
To move rapidly, with wide steps or an agitated, bounding gait.
Used of a wolf, horse, fox, man, or guide, and in an idiom meaning to keep going quickly.
- Lane · entry 3240
عَسِلَ بِالشَّيْءِ
To keep or cleave to a thing.
The Form I verb is also reported with the vocalization عَسَلَ بِالشَّيْءِ.
- Lane · entry 3240
عَسَّلَ
To provide honey as food or travelling provision, make a condiment into honey, or give food to divert and satisfy a guest before a meal.
Form II causative usage; the guest-diversion expression may refer more generally to food used to allay hunger.
- Lane · entry 3241
عَسَّلَتِ النَّحْلُ
Of bees, to make honey.
Form II usage with bees as the subject.
- Lane · entry 3241
عَسَّلَ
To collect honey.
Reported as a Form II meaning, but the cited lexicographical report names no supporting authority.
- Lane · entry 3241
اِسْتَعْسَلُوا
To seek, request, or ask for honey as a gift.
Form X usage.
- Lane · entry 3242
عَسْلًا لَهُ
An imprecation wishing someone stumbling and ruin; also, reviling in blame.
An idiomatic expression whose interpretation varies between the cited explanations.
- Lane · entry 3243
عِسْلُ مَالٍ
A good manager and herder of cattle, camels, or other livestock.
Used in the possessive expression عِسْلُ مَالٍ or عِسْلُ مَالٍ.
- Lane · entry 3244
عِسْلُ
The like or equivalent of something.
Used in the expression هٰذَا عِسْلُ هٰذَا, “this is the like of this.”
- Lane · entry 3244
عَسَلٌ
Flowers or blossoms, by association with the flowers from which bees make honey.
A marked figurative usage.
- Lane · entry 3245
عَسَلٌ
The sweet, thick juice of fruit, especially the juice flowing from fresh ripe dates.
A figurative extension based on sweetness and honey-like consistency.
- Lane · entry 3245
عَسَلٌ
A sweet or honey-like plant exudate, including certain gums, tree resins, and a manna-like substance from shrubs.
Applied to named plant substances because of resemblance or association with honey; some cited exudates are not themselves sweet.
- Lane · entry 3245
عَسَلٌ
A good or righteous deed whose resulting praise is considered sweet.
A figurative noun usage derived from the pleasantness associated with honey.
- Lane · entry 3245
عَسِلٌ
Vehement in beating, with a hand or arm that is raised, falls, or returns rapidly.
An epithet applied to a man.
- Lane · entry 3246
عَسَلَةٌ
A source, origin, ancestry, parentage, or stock; by extension, a person’s known kindred or property base.
Occurs in idioms built on مَضْرِبُ عَسَلَةٍ and related expressions.
- Lane · entry 3248
عَسَلِيٌّ
Honey-coloured; a thing having the colour of honey.
Also used for the honey-coloured distinctive mark or garment historically associated with Jews.
- Lane · entry 3249
عَسِيلٌ
A small broom or feather used by a perfumer to gather or detach perfume.
Refers to a hair broom or feather used on the perfumer’s paved floor or with a compound of perfumes.
- Lane · entry 3251
عَسِيلٌ
The penis of an elephant or camel.
A specialized anatomical noun.
- Lane · entry 3251
عُسَيْلَةٌ
Semen, whether that of a man or the seminal fluid of a man and woman.
A figurative usage of the diminutive form.
- Lane · entry 3252
عُسَيْلَةٌ
The sweetness or pleasurable experience of sexual intercourse.
A euphemistic expression in the cited prophetic formulation.
- Lane · entry 3252
العُسَيْلَتَانِ
The male and female genital organs.
A figurative plural expression based on their being the means of sexual pleasure.
- Lane · entry 3252
عَسَّالَةٌ
Bees, collectively.
A substantivized collective noun.
- Lane · entry 3254
عَسَّالَةٌ
The hive or container in which bees make honey.
Refers to a structure such as a vessel in which bees establish honey production.
- Lane · entry 3254
عَاسِلٌ
A gatherer of honey from a hive or its place.
An active participial noun for the person who harvests honey.
- Lane · entry 3255
عَاسِلٌ
A place containing honey, such as a hive.
A possessive epithet describing a place by what it contains.
- Lane · entry 3255
عَاسِلٌ
A good or righteous person, or one who has a deed for which he is praised.
A figurative epithet; the form is explained as having the sense of one made an object of praise.
- Lane · entry 3255
العَاسِلُ
A wolf.
The designation is associated with the wolf’s characteristic manner of running.
- Lane · entry 3255
عَنْسَلٌ
A swift she-camel.
The form is analyzed as derived from عَسَلَانٌ, the noun of rapid movement.
- Lane · entry 3256
أَعْسَالٌ
Resemblances, characteristics, and natural dispositions inherited from one’s father.
Used in the expression هُوَ عَلَى أَعْسَالٍ مِنْ أَبِيهِ.
- Lane · entry 3257
تَعْسِيلَةٌ
A light sleep.
Marked in the source as a vulgar or postclassical usage.
- Lane · entry 3258
مَعْسَلَةٌ
A habitation of bees or beehive, whether manufactured or a natural cavity where bees deposit honey.
A place associated with honey production.
- Lane · entry 3259
مُعَسَّلٌ
Made or preserved with honey.
Used adjectivally, for example of ginger prepared with honey.
- Lane · entry 3260
مَعْسُولٌ
Honeyed or sweet in speech; by extension, faithful or reliable in promises.
Used of discourse, a person pleasing in expression or voice, and promises regarded as veracious.
- Lane · entry 3261
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic noun عَسَلٌ is the literal honey sense; the root’s separate agitation-and-rapid-movement branch should not be conflated with it.
The Form II meaning “to collect honey” is retained as a tentative Classical report because the supplied source explicitly notes that it gives no authority.