Quranic root
حدب
ḥ · d · b
The root centers on elevation, protuberance, or something raised above its surroundings.
The evidence presents a possible development from a hump or protuberant back to elevated terrain and other raised or swelling forms. The affectionate sense is explained through the image of bending protectively over someone.
- Maqāyīs · row 1313
- Mufradāt · row 301
- 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.
حَدَبٌ
ḥadabun
- 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.
Elevated or high ground; high terrain.
In the Quranic expression مِنْ كُلِّ حَدَبٍ, “from every elevated ground,” describing the raised terrain from which they emerge or descend.
- Lane · entry 13733
- Mufradāt · row 301
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:96word 9
“elevation”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 21:96حَدَبٍۢelevation
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 24 Classical meanings
حَدِبَ
To be or become humpbacked; to rise or grow high, becoming protuberant or convex.
Used of a person or body, and also of a thing that rises or becomes gibbous or convex.
- Lane · entry 13725
حَدِبَ
To be affectionate, favorable, kind, or devoted toward someone.
Used with عَلَيْهِ. A specified use describes a woman devoting herself to caring for her child or children after her husband’s death.
- Lane · entry 13725
حَدِبَ
To repel from and defend someone.
Used with عَنْهُ.
- Lane · entry 13725
تَحْدِيبٌ
The act of elevating or raising the back; also, making a thing gibbous or convex.
The convex-making sense is reported with a qualification that it is absent from one consulted lexical copy.
- Lane · entry 13726
أَحْدَبَ
To render someone humpbacked.
A transitive causative use.
- Lane · entry 13727
أَحْدَبَ
To render someone affectionate, favorable, or kind.
A figurative causative use.
- Lane · entry 13727
تَحَدَّبَ
To cling or cleave to something.
Used with بِهِ.
- Lane · entry 13728
إِحْدَوْدَبَ
Of sand, to be or become curved or winding, or curved, winding, and long.
A specialized description of the form of sand.
- Lane · entry 13732
حَدَبٌ
An elevated or swelling mass, including wind-heaped sand, scattered or heaped plants, elevated or rolling waves, and the rise, swell, or abundance of a torrent.
These are extended physical applications of the elevation or swelling notion beyond the Quranic ground sense.
- Lane · entry 13733
حَدَبٌ
A slope in a declivity.
A terrain term also compared with the raised forms of waves and sand.
- Lane · entry 13733
حَدَبٌ
A mark or swelling left on the skin, such as a weal or thickened welt caused by beating.
A physical mark or swelling on the skin.
- Lane · entry 13733
حَدَبٌ
The intensity of winter cold.
A figurative or intensified description of severe seasonal cold.
- Lane · entry 13733
حَدَبٌ
A certain plant, identified in one report as نَصِيّ.
A plant name, distinct from the terrain noun.
- Lane · entry 13733
حَدِبٌ
Affectionate, favorable, or kind toward someone.
An adjective used with عَلَى, as in being affectionate toward one’s brother.
- Lane · entry 13734
أَرْضٌ حَدِبَةٌ
Land abounding in the plant called حَدَب.
A descriptive expression for plant-rich land.
- Lane · entry 13734
حَذَبَةٌ
A hump on the back.
The cited headword is written with ذ in this entry.
- Lane · entry 13735
حَدَابِ
A year of drought, barrenness, or dearth, especially severe drought.
An indeclinable expression for a drought year.
- Lane · entry 13736
أَحْدَبُ
Humpbacked; having a prominent or protuberant back with a hollow or receding chest and belly.
The feminine is حَدْبَاءُ and the plural is حُدْبٌ.
- Lane · entry 13738
أَحْدَبُ
Humped, gibbous, or protuberant in descriptive applications: of a bier or elevated apparatus, a tract of sand, or a lean camel or beast whose hips and back bones protrude.
These are descriptive applications of the physical shape adjective. In one poetic bier expression, the phrase may instead denote a distressing condition.
- Lane · entry 13738
أَحْدَبُ
A difficult or distressing affair or state; substantively, vehemence, severity, hardship, or distress.
Used of a difficult affair or affairs and also as a substantive expression for severity or hardship.
- Lane · entry 13738
الأَحْدَبُ
The name of a vein penetrating into or lying within the bone of the forearm.
An anatomical term.
- Lane · entry 13738
سَنَةٌ حَدْبَاءُ
A severe, cold year.
A conventional description of a harsh year.
- Lane · entry 13738
وَسِيقٌ أَحْدَبُ
A quick driving.
A specialized expression describing rapid driving.
- Lane · entry 13738
أَحْدَبُ
More or most affectionate, favorable, or kind.
A comparative or superlative use describing relative affection or favor toward a group.
- Lane · entry 13738
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The sole Quranic occurrence is the noun حَدَبٌ meaning elevated ground; the bodily, affectionate, defensive, anatomical, and other branches are broader Classical Arabic uses of related headwords or constructions.
The Form II convex-making sense is reported with an explicit qualification about its presence in lexical copies.