Quranic root
عون
ʿ · w · n
The root centers on aid and support: assistance given, assistance exchanged mutually, and assistance requested from another.
The supplied evidence shows derived forms for giving aid, mutual cooperation, seeking aid, and being the one whose aid is sought. It also preserves separate form-specific branches such as عَوَان for intermediate age and figurative extensions from that sense; these are not treated as a universal meaning of every root derivative.
- Mufradāt · row 1028
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 11
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَعَانَ
ʾaʿāna
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
To aid, help, or assist someone; to help someone accomplish an affair.
Transitive. It may occur with عَلَى in the construction “to aid someone in accomplishing an affair.”
- Lane · entry 5370
- Mufradāt · row 1028
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:95word 7
“but assist me”
Quran 25:4word 9
“and helped him”
تَعَاوَنَ
taʿāwana
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VI
- Form
- VI
- 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.
اِسْتَعَانَ
āistaʿāna
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form X
- Form
- X
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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.
To seek, request, or beg for aid or assistance.
It may be construed with بِـ for seeking aid from a person or using something as a means, and may specify the affair for which aid is sought.
- Lane · entry 5374
- Mufradāt · row 1028
Selected Quran examples
عَوَان
ʿawān
- Part of speech
- Adjective / 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.
Intermediate in age; neither young nor old.
In the Quranic occurrence, it describes a cow as being of middle age, between youth and advanced age.
- Lane · entry 5378
- Mufradāt · row 1028
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:68word 18
“middle aged”
مُسْتَعَان
mustaʿān
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
One whose aid is sought; an entity appealed to for assistance.
Passive-participial noun from اِسْتَعَانَ, naming the person or power from whom assistance is requested.
- Lane · entry 5374
- Mufradāt · row 1028
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:18word 15
“(is) the One sought for help”
Quran 21:112word 7
“the One Whose help is sought”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 1:5نَسْتَعِينُwe ask for help
- 2:45وَٱسْتَعِينُوا۟And seek help
- 2:68عَوَانٌۢmiddle aged
- 2:153ٱسْتَعِينُوا۟Seek help
- 5:2وَتَعَاوَنُوا۟And help one another
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 23 Classical meanings
عَانَ
To become intermediate in age, reaching the state described as عَوَان.
Reported of a woman or a cow.
- Lane · entry 5367
عَوَّنَ
Of a he-ass, to mate with his she-ass repeatedly or frequently.
- Lane · entry 5368
عَوَّنَ
To encroach on another person’s share or portion.
- Lane · entry 5368
عَاوَنَ
To aid, help, or assist someone, being aided by that person in return.
An explicit synonym of أَعَانَ in the supplied evidence.
- Lane · entry 5369
اِسْتَعَانَ
To shave the pubic hair.
A separate Classical Arabic usage from the aid-seeking verb.
- Lane · entry 5374
عَوْن
Aid, help, or assistance; also anything that aids another.
The noun may function quasi-verbally and govern like a verbal noun.
- Lane · entry 5375
عَوْن
An aider, helper, or assistant; by extension, a servant or an armed attendant, guard, or official.
Applied to a person, and also used for an attendant serving a ruler or similar authority.
- Lane · entry 5375
أَبُو عَوْن
Dates and salt; in one reported pronunciation, salt alone.
The salt designation is explained metaphorically as something whose aid is sought in eating food.
- Lane · entry 5376
عَانَة
A herd of wild asses; also a she-ass.
Its plural is reported as عُون or عَانَات.
- Lane · entry 5377
عَانَة
A name for certain white stars beneath the stars called السُّعُود.
A reported figurative or transferred astronomical use.
- Lane · entry 5377
عَانَة
The pubic hair or the place where it grows above the anterior pudendum.
The term may refer to the hair itself or, by extension, its place of growth.
- Lane · entry 5377
عَانَة
In the idiom عَلَى عَانَةِ بَكْرِ بْنِ وَائِلٍ, the collective body of a tribe and those under its protection; hence, its manager or regulator.
Idiomatic and context-bound usage.
- Lane · entry 5377
عَانَة
A share of water allotted to land.
A dialectal usage attributed to the dialect of ʿAbd al-Qays.
- Lane · entry 5377
عَوَان
A previously married woman, one who has had a husband.
A Classical specialization distinct from the general sense of intermediate age.
- Lane · entry 5378
عَوَان
Figuratively, recurring after an earlier occurrence: a war in which fighting has occurred once and is occurring again, or a blow delivered opportunistically and requiring repetition.
Used in the expressions حَرْبٌ عَوَانٌ and ضَرْبَةٌ عَوَانٌ.
- Lane · entry 5378
عَوَان
Land watered by rain lying between two portions of land that have not been so watered.
- Lane · entry 5378
عَوَانَة
A tall palm-tree; also a palm standing alone apart from others.
A dialectal usage attributed to Oman or the Azd.
- Lane · entry 5378
عَوَانَة
A small creeping creature, described as smaller than a hedgehog, or a sand worm that turns repeatedly in the sand.
A rare zoological usage with variant descriptions.
- Lane · entry 5380
عَانِيَّة
Wine from ʿĀnah, a town on the Euphrates.
Used substantivally for the wine and in expressions concerning its vintners.
- Lane · entry 5383
صَاحِبُ المَعُونَةِ
An official appointed to rectify the affairs of the common people and aid the wronged against the wrongdoer.
A post-Classical administrative title, treated here as a lexical phrase rather than as the ordinary noun عَوْن.
- Lane · entry 5386
دَارُ المَعُونَةِ
The mansion or residence of the شِحْنَة in Cairo.
A historical proper designation.
- Lane · entry 5386
مِعْوَان
A man who aids, helps, or assists people frequently or particularly well.
The plural is مَعَاوِين.
- Lane · entry 5387
مُتَعَاوِنَة
Fully mature and well-developed or proportioned; applied to a fleshy or symmetrical woman, and to a hackney whose strength and age have reached full development.
Reported descriptions vary between fleshiness, symmetry, and full physical maturity.
- Lane · entry 5388
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form IV, Form VI, and Form X Quran groups are displayed under normalized perfect-tense dictionary citations rather than their inflected Quran surface forms.
Lane's printed Quran reference associated with عَوَان uses an older citation convention; the example location 2:68 is used because it is independently supplied by QAC and the Quran-focused evidence.