Quranic root
حمي
ḥ · m · y
The root centers on generated heat and intensity, with extensions to ardor, indignation, and protective restriction.
Heat or vehemence develops figuratively into anger and zealous indignation, and by association into protecting or setting something apart from encroachment.
- Mufradāt · row 359
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 6
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَمَى
ḥamā
- 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 be heated intensely, especially by fire.
In the supplied Quranic occurrence, the construction describes metal being heated over fire. This is the heat sense, not the separate classical sense of protecting or prohibiting.
- Mufradāt · row 359
- Lane · entry 15775
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:35word 2
“it will be heated [on it]”
حَامٍ
ḥāmin
- Part of speech
- Active participle · specialized 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 stallion-camel whose back has been set apart and protected from riding or other use.
A specialized pre-Islamic designation for a breeding stallion regarded as protected; the Quranic usage refers to this customary category.
- Lane · entry 15791
- Mufradāt · row 359
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:103word 11
“a Hami”
حَامِيَةٌ
ḥāmiyahun
- Part of speech
- Active participle · feminine
- 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.
Intensely hot; burning with extreme heat.
Used adjectivally for something characterized by vehement heat. The lexical discussion also records حَامِيَةٌ for a hot spring in an alternate Quranic reading, but that reading is not included among the supplied QAC occurrences.
- Lane · entry 15791
- Mufradāt · row 359
Selected Quran examples
Quran 88:4word 3
“intensely hot”
Quran 101:11word 2
“intensely hot”
حَمِيَّةٌ
ḥamiyyahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
Indignant, disdainful zeal or partisan pride.
In the Quranic expression حَمِيَّةَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ, it denotes the heated indignation and pride associated with جاهلية, rather than ordinary protective care.
- Mufradāt · row 359
- Lane · entry 15775
- Lane · entry 15789
Selected Quran examples
Quran 48:26word 7
“disdain”
Quran 48:26word 8
“(the) disdain”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 5:103حَامٍۢ ۙa Hami
- 9:35يُحْمَىٰit will be heated [on it]
- 48:26ٱلْحَمِيَّةَdisdain
- 48:26حَمِيَّةَ(the) disdain
- 88:4حَامِيَةًۭintensely hot
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 33 Classical meanings
حَمَى
To protect, defend, or guard a person, thing, place, or interest; or to prohibit it from encroachment or use.
May describe protecting people or honor, making a place a protected reserve, or restricting a sick person from food or anything harmful.
- Lane · entry 15775
حَمِيَ
To become vehemently hot.
Used of a day, oven, sun, fire, iron, or—by a specified animal use—of a horse becoming heated and sweating.
- Lane · entry 15775
حَمِيَ
To become fierce or vehement, especially of a war or fight.
A figurative extension from intense heat, used of a severe conflict or event.
- Lane · entry 15775
حَمِيَ
To become hot with anger; to disdain or scorn something, or refuse to tolerate wrongful treatment.
The construction حَمِيَ عَنْهُ or حَمِيَ مِنْهُ expresses disdain, indignation, or refusal to submit to wrong.
- Lane · entry 15775
حَامَى
To exert oneself for someone, especially by honoring and entertaining a guest.
Attested in the construction حَامَيْتُ عَلَى ضَيْفِي.
- Lane · entry 15776
أَحْمَى
To make something vehemently hot or to heat it in fire.
Used of making the sun or fire hot, heating iron, or kindling fire upon a branding-iron.
- Lane · entry 15777
أَحْمَى
To excite someone to ardor for fighting.
A causative extension in which heat signifies martial eagerness.
- Lane · entry 15777
تَحَامَى
To guard against, keep aloof from, shun, or avoid someone or something.
The construction تَحَامَاهُ النَّاسُ describes people collectively avoiding or keeping away from an object or person.
- Lane · entry 15779
اِحْتَمَى
To protect or defend oneself, or become protected, from something.
The reflexive construction presents the subject as taking or receiving protection.
- Lane · entry 15780
اِحْتَمَى
To refrain or abstain from food or from something harmful.
Especially used of a sick person following a dietary restriction.
- Lane · entry 15780
اِحْمَوْمَى
To become black.
Used of such things as night or a mass of clouds.
- Lane · entry 15781
حُمَةٌ
The venom, poison, or painful sting of a scorpion, hornet, serpent, or similar stinging creature.
The word can denote either the poison or the sting through which it is delivered.
- Lane · entry 15782
حُمَةٌ
Vehemence of cold.
An independent nominal use, distinct from the venom sense.
- Lane · entry 15782
حِمًى
A thing or area prohibited from approach or use; especially protected pasture, land, or water reserved from the public.
The term may describe a formally or customarily protected reserve whose grazing or approach is restricted.
- Lane · entry 15785
حِمْيَةٌ
Protection or restriction; especially abstinence from food or drink that is harmful.
Also used as the verbal noun for protecting or prohibiting a place and for imposing a therapeutic dietary restriction.
- Lane · entry 15786
حِمَاءٌ
A formula meaning ‘a ransom for you’ or ‘may such a person or thing ransom you.’
Occurs in the idiomatic expressions حِمَاءٌ لَكَ and حِمَاءً لَكَ.
- Lane · entry 15787
حَمِيٌّ
Protected or guarded from evil; of a sick person, restricted from injurious food or drink.
An adjectival description of one who is protected or placed under a prohibition.
- Lane · entry 15788
حَمِيٌّ
Unwilling to bear, endure, or tolerate wrongful treatment.
Also used in the expression حَمِيُّ الأَنْفِ for a person who refuses submission to wrong.
- Lane · entry 15788
حَمِيَّةٌ
Care for what is sacred, inviolable, honorable, or connected with religion, together with the resolve to defend it.
This protective-care sense is distinct from the Quranic expression for disdainful or partisan pride.
- Lane · entry 15789
حُمَيَّا
The vehemence or onset of anger, spirit, or emotional force.
Can denote the beginning or outburst of anger and vehement temperament.
- Lane · entry 15790
حُمَيَّا
The assault, force, or intoxicating influence of wine upon the head; also the onset or attack of pain.
Used of the fumes of wine mounting into the head and, by extension, of pain taking hold.
- Lane · entry 15790
حُمَيَّا
The flush, sprightliness, or impetuosity of youth.
Used in the construction حُمَيَّا شَبَابِهِ for the exuberance of someone's youth.
- Lane · entry 15790
حُمَيَّا
A protector, defender, or guardian of what one possesses or manages.
A person responsible for safeguarding property or something under his superintendence.
- Lane · entry 15790
حَامٍ
A lion.
A separate appellational use of the active-participial form.
- Lane · entry 15791
حَامٍ
A protector or defender; also a protecting party or the last defenders accompanying a retreating group.
May describe a strenuous defender of companions, a defending company, or those covering a party's departure.
- Lane · entry 15791
حَامِيَةٌ
Mighty, forceful, or impetuous in valor.
A figurative use of heat and boiling force, applied to people described through a hot, boiling vessel.
- Lane · entry 15791
حَامِيَةٌ
A large or heavy stone, or set of stones, used to case and protect the sides of a well.
The plural may refer collectively to matching casing stones or to large masses placed in the lower or damaged portions of a well casing.
- Lane · entry 15792
حَامِيَةٌ
The rim or side portions of a solid hoof.
Used of the circuit, right and left edges, or corresponding side parts of the hoof.
- Lane · entry 15792
حَامِيَةٌ
The sides of a mountain.
Attested in the plural form حَوَامٍ.
- Lane · entry 15792
حَامِيَةٌ
A hearthstone, specifically one of the three stones supporting a cooking pot.
Attested as a singular noun with the corresponding plural form.
- Lane · entry 15792
حَامِيَةٌ
One's own way or chosen course.
Used idiomatically in مَضَيْتُ عَلَى حَامِيَتِي, ‘I went my own way.’
- Lane · entry 15792
أَحْمَى
More resistant, more unyielding, or less willing to submit than another.
Used in the comparative construction أَحْمَى أَنْفًا مِنْ فُلَانٍ.
- Lane · entry 15793
مُحْمَوْمٌ
Black; of a night or mass of clouds, dark and heaped up.
A descriptive passive-participial form applied especially to dense darkness or piled clouds.
- Lane · entry 15796
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Mufradat discussion records حَامِيَةٌ as an alternate reading in 18:86, but that reading is not among the supplied QAC occurrences and is therefore not added to the form's count or examples.
The Mufradat row also contains homographic or differently rooted material concerning حَمَإ/حَمْأ (black mud) and أَحْمَاءُ المرأة (the husband's relatives); these usages are not confidently assignable to canonical root حمي and are excluded from the lexical senses here.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
Mufradat row 359 includes the Quranic expression مِنْ حَمَإٍ مَسْنُونٍ and related حَمْأ material, as well as أَحْمَاءُ المرأة. These appear to involve different final radicals or separate homographic lexical items, so they remain unassigned to canonical root حمي.