Quranic root
حفر
ḥ · f · r
The root has two principal semantic orientations: digging or removing material downward, and the beginning or original state to which something returns.
From excavation come terms for pits, excavated material, digging tools, and the hoof understood as striking or digging the ground. A secondary development concerns erosion, deterioration, and return to an initial state; the latter is Quranically attested in حَافِرَة.
- Maqāyīs · row 1403
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَافِرَةٌ
ḥāfirahun
- 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.
The first or original state, creation, or condition to which one is returned; in the Quranic context, restoration after death.
In فِي الْحَافِرَةِ, the expression is understood as return to the initial condition, with the Quranic discussion specifying interpretations such as renewed life, return to the former worldly condition, or restoration to the first creation.
- Lane · entry 15001
- Mufradāt · row 343
Selected Quran examples
Quran 79:10word 5
“the former state”
The burial ground or graves—the place in which the dead are laid.
This is an alternative Quranic interpretation of فِي الْحَافِرَةِ in 79:10, treating the term as the place of burial rather than the state of return itself.
- Mufradāt · row 343
Selected Quran examples
Quran 79:10word 5
“the former state”
حُفْرَةٌ
ḥufrahun
- 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.
A pit, hollow, or cavity dug in the ground.
In وَكُنْتُمْ عَلَى شَفَا حُفْرَةٍ مِنَ النَّارِ, the noun denotes a dug hollow or pit; the surrounding phrase describes being on its brink.
- Lane · entry 14997
- Mufradāt · row 343
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:103word 23
“(of) pit”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 34 Classical meanings
حَفَرَ
To dig, excavate, hollow out, or clear the ground, a well, a river, or a similar channel; also, to dig for an animal in order to bring it out.
The verb is used transitively with the ground and excavated objects, and may also be used of burrowing or digging into a hole.
- Lane · entry 14989
حَفَرَ
Of a torrent, to furrow or channel a valley.
A figurative extension of digging, applied to the action of flowing water on a valley.
- Lane · entry 14989
حَفَرَ
To approach sexually or have sexual intercourse.
A figurative construction likening the action to a man digging a river.
- Lane · entry 14989
حَفَرَ
To fathom or determine the full extent of something, especially in the expression describing rain whose extent cannot be known.
A figurative idiomatic use applied to exceptionally deep or extensive rain.
- Lane · entry 14989
حَفَرَ
To investigate an affair and become acquainted with it.
A figurative extension of penetrating or digging into a matter.
- Lane · entry 14989
حَفَرَ
To emaciate or render lean.
The usage is extended to effects attributed to pregnancy, a copious flow of milk, or prolonged suckling; these are attestations of the result, not restrictions on the object.
- Lane · entry 14989
حَفَرَ
Of a child, to shed the milk teeth, or for the milk teeth to loosen before falling out.
A specialized dental use of the Form I verb.
- Lane · entry 14989
- Mufradāt · row 343
حَفَرَ
Of teeth or the mouth, to become eroded, cankered, or otherwise unsound.
The condition may involve erosion or scaling of the roots, tartar-like incrustation, or cankering.
- Lane · entry 14989
- Mufradāt · row 343
حَفِرَ
To be or become in a bad, corrupt, or unsound condition.
A broader figurative or intransitive extension of deterioration.
- Lane · entry 14989
حَافَرَ
Of a jerboa, to go deep into its hole, beyond the reach of being dug out.
A Form III use describing deep burrowing.
- Lane · entry 14990
أَحْفَرَ
To assist someone in digging a well.
The construction takes the person assisted and the object dug.
- Lane · entry 14991
أَحْفَرَ
Of a colt, to shed or loosen its milk teeth before their replacement.
The usage refers especially to the successive pairs of incisors and neighboring teeth as they become loose and fall out.
- Lane · entry 14991
- Mufradāt · row 343
تَحَفَّرَ
Of a torrent, to make hollows in the ground.
A Form V development describing the formation of depressions by flowing water.
- Lane · entry 14992
اِسْتَحْفَرَ
To ask or desire another person to dig a well, pit, channel, or similar excavation.
The Form X verb expresses seeking or requesting the digging action.
- Lane · entry 14994
اِسْتَحْفَرَ
Of a river, rivulet, or canal, to become due for digging or clearing out.
An intransitive Form X use applied to a channel requiring excavation or maintenance.
- Lane · entry 14994
حَفْرٌ
Emaciation or leanness.
A nominal use corresponding to the verbal sense of rendering lean.
- Lane · entry 14995
حَفْرٌ
Erosion, scaling, decay, or cankering of the roots or surfaces of the teeth.
The term can denote tartar-like accumulation, erosion of the roots, yellowness, or another unsound dental condition.
- Lane · entry 14995
حَفَرٌ
A well widened beyond its ordinary measure.
A specialized nominal description of an unusually expanded well.
- Lane · entry 14996
حَفَرٌ
The earth removed from an excavation, or an excavated place such as a moat or well.
The noun may denote either the material taken out or the place that has been dug.
- Lane · entry 14996
حُفْرَةٌ
A hollow or cavity in the ground, including a natural hollow or a burrow.
Unlike the Quranic pit sense, this broader Classical use does not require that the cavity have been made by human digging.
- Lane · entry 14997
حَفِيرٌ
Dug, excavated, hollowed out, or cleared; especially, a newly dug well.
A derived description of something made by excavation.
- Lane · entry 14998
حَفِيرٌ
A grave.
A specialized nominal use distinct from the general sense of something excavated.
- Lane · entry 14998
حَفِيرَةٌ
Material dug out of a mine.
A specialized use for excavated mineral or earth material.
- Lane · entry 14999
حَفَّارٌ
A grave-digger.
An intensive agent noun for one who digs graves.
- Lane · entry 15000
حَافِرٌ
A digger or one who digs.
An agent noun derived from the basic digging sense.
- Lane · entry 15001
حَافِرٌ
The solid hoof of a horse, mule, or ass.
The name is understood by comparison with the hoof's striking or digging the ground.
- Lane · entry 15001
حَافِرٌ
Camels and horses, by reference to their hoofs.
A synecdochic collective use in which the hoof stands for the animal possessing it.
- Lane · entry 15001
حَافِرٌ
A human foot characterized as ugly.
A figurative use applied specifically when the foot's unattractive appearance is intended.
- Lane · entry 15001
حَافِرٌ
In the idiom عِنْدَ الْحَافِرَةِ or عِنْدَ الْحَافِرِ, immediately, at the outset, or upon the first exchange; traditionally, with ready payment.
The expression may refer to payment before leaving the place of sale, the first words spoken, the first meeting, or the first fall of a horse's hoof on dug ground at a race; it consequently extends to priority generally.
- Lane · entry 15001
حَافِرٌ
The route by which one came, in the expression for returning by one's former path.
In رَجَعَ عَلَى حَافِرَتِهِ, the term denotes retracing the way of arrival or departure.
- Lane · entry 15001
حَافِرٌ
A former condition of youth, in the expression for becoming old and decrepit or returning to second childishness.
This is a conventional figurative use related to returning to an earlier state, but it is distinct from the Quranic resurrection interpretation.
- Lane · entry 15001
مِحْفَرٌ
A spade or other implement for digging.
The related forms مِحْفَرَةٌ and مِحْفَارٌ denote the same type of digging tool.
- Lane · entry 15003
مُحَفَّرَةٌ
Furrowed, rutted, or hollowed by the passage of people or animals.
Applied to roads or paths much marked by repeated foot traffic.
- Lane · entry 15005
مَحْفُورٌ
Having a pimple or small pustule in the gum.
A specialized description of a child affected by this gum condition.
- Lane · entry 15007
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic expression فِي الْحَافِرَةِ in 79:10 has two materially distinct established interpretations: return to the first or original state, and being in the burial ground or graves.