Quranic root
صبغ
ṣ · b · gh
The root centers on coloring or altering a thing by applying a color.
From literal coloring, the lexicon extends to dipping or immersion and to things marked or changed through contact. In the Quranic expressions, صِبْغ denotes a food dip or seasoning, while صِبْغَةُ الله presents religious identity or divinely given disposition through the metaphor of dye permeating a garment.
- Maqāyīs · row 2749
- Mufradāt · row 814
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
صِبْغ
ṣibgh
- 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 sauce, condiment, or relish in which food is dipped, especially a fluid seasoning such as olive oil or vinegar.
In وَصِبْغٍ لِلْآكِلِينَ (23:20), the noun denotes a food accompaniment. It is interpreted specifically as olive oil or the olive in some explanations, while the broader lexical usage is a fluid seasoning or dip.
- Lane · entry 25322
- Mufradāt · row 814
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:20word 8
“and a relish”
صِبْغَة
ṣibghah
- 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.
Religion or a God-given religious disposition and identity; the divinely prescribed way or faith by which a person is marked and brought near to God.
In صِبْغَةَ اللَّهِ (2:138), the expression is explained as God's religion, fitrah, religious law, or what God has prescribed. Some explanations identify the prescribed mark specifically as circumcision. The dye image describes a quality that becomes manifest in, or permeates, the person who possesses it.
- Lane · entry 25326
- Mufradāt · row 814
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:138word 1
“(The) color (religion)”
Quran 2:138word 7
“at coloring”
Baptism or ritual immersion as a religious marking; by extension, God's conferral of faith understood as a baptism unlike the Christian baptism.
This is an alternative Quran-focused interpretation of صِبْغَةَ اللَّهِ (2:138), based on the use of صِبْغَة for baptism or the mode of immersion by which a child is admitted to a religious community. It is an interpretive reading of the Quranic construction, not a claim that the verse has only this meaning.
- Lane · entry 25326
- Mufradāt · row 814
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:138word 1
“(The) color (religion)”
Quran 2:138word 7
“at coloring”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 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 37 Classical meanings
صَبَغَ
To dye or color a thing, thereby altering its color.
Used of garments, cloth, hair, and similar objects.
- Lane · entry 25317
صَبَغَ
To moisten food with oil, grease, or sauce, or to dip or immerse an object in liquid.
Used in constructions for dipping a mouthful, hand, arm, or other object in a liquid.
- Lane · entry 25317
صَبَغَ
To baptize or ritually initiate a child by immersion into a religious community.
Reported particularly of Christian baptism and also of introducing a child into the Jewish community; this is a derived religious use of immersion.
- Lane · entry 25317
صَبَغَ
To color, alter, or embellish information or discourse.
Figurative use applied to changing the presentation of reported information or speech.
- Lane · entry 25317
صَبَغَ
To alter a person's standing in another's estimation, or, in a disputed idiom, to point someone out as capable of fulfilling a desired task.
The latter idiomatic report is explicitly rejected by one authority as a confusion with صَبَعَ; it is retained as a disputed Classical usage.
- Lane · entry 25317
صَبَغَ
To work in a field of knowledge or in a craft and become notable through it.
Used with knowledge, a branch of knowledge, or work as the field in which someone becomes accomplished.
- Lane · entry 25317
صَبَغَ
To become full, extended, or ample, with a related improvement in appearance.
Said of a camel's udder becoming full and goodly in color, a man's muscle becoming long, or a garment becoming long and ample.
- Lane · entry 25317
صَبَغَ
To put the head into food or pasture.
Applied especially to camels putting their heads into food, herbage, or pasture.
- Lane · entry 25317
صَبَّغَ
To dye garments thoroughly or repeatedly.
The intensive form can indicate muchness or repeated application of dye.
- Lane · entry 25318
صَبَّغَ
To begin to ripen or become colored, especially of dates.
Said of a date or palm whose dates have begun to ripen, including the appearance of ripening at the part near the base or stalk.
- Lane · entry 25318
صَبَّغَ
To cast a young one after its hair has grown.
A reported use of the she-camel; the more common competing expression uses سَبَّعَ.
- Lane · entry 25318
أَصْبَغَ
To render benefits or boons complete, full, or ample to someone.
A dialectal variant of أَسْبَغَ in the construction أَصْبَغَ اللهُ عليه النعم.
- Lane · entry 25319
تَصَبَّغَ
To become settled or established in religion, or to enter a good religious state.
Used with فِي الدِّينِ or صِبْغَةً حَسَنَةً.
- Lane · entry 25320
اِصْطَبَغَ
To be or become dyed or colored with something.
The coloring material is introduced with بِـ or a related prepositional construction.
- Lane · entry 25321
اِصْطَبَغَ
To use a sauce, vinegar, or similar seasoning to make bread savory, or to prepare such a sauce.
The verb describes using the seasoning with bread or making the seasoning itself; the source distinguishes this construction from directly making bread the object with vinegar.
- Lane · entry 25321
صِبْغ
A dye or coloring substance used for coloring clothes and similar objects.
This is the ordinary material noun; it is distinct from the Quranic food-seasoning use of the same form.
- Lane · entry 25322
صِبْغ
In the idiom حَدِيثَةُ الصِّبْغِ, a woman newly taken as a concubine or bride.
An idiomatic use apparently alluding to the recent application of henna dye.
- Lane · entry 25322
صِبْغ
In the expression بِصِبْغِ الثَّمَنِ, a price higher than the proper or cost price.
Used in an idiom meaning that something was acquired for a raised price rather than its prime cost.
- Lane · entry 25322
صَبَغ
A horse whose whole fetlock is white without joining the whiteness of the leg marking called التَّحْجِيل.
A specialized equine marking term.
- Lane · entry 25323
صُبْغَة
Whiteness at the extremity of the tail of a sheep, goat, or ewe.
A specialized animal-coloration term corresponding to the epithet صَبْغَاء.
- Lane · entry 25325
صُبْغَة
A date that has become ripe in part but not throughout.
A specialized term for a partly ripened date.
- Lane · entry 25325
صِبْغِيّ
A seller of dyes.
The relational form is also attested as a designation for this occupation.
- Lane · entry 25327
صَبِيغ
Dyed; a dyed garment or piece of cloth.
The form may also be used collectively of dyed garments.
- Lane · entry 25329
صِبَاغَة
The craft or art of dyeing.
Denotes the occupation or technical practice of the dyer.
- Lane · entry 25330
صَبَّاغ
A dyer of garments.
Occupational noun.
- Lane · entry 25331
صَبَّاغ
A liar or one who colors and alters information or discourse with falsehood.
Figurative extension from the dyer's coloring; also used in a reported saying about dyers and goldsmiths, with an alternative explanation based on broken promises.
- Lane · entry 25331
صَابِغ
A she-camel having a full udder of goodly color.
Specialized description of a camel and its udder.
- Lane · entry 25332
صَابِغَة
Camels that put their heads into pasture or herbage.
A participial description of camels feeding with their heads lowered into the pasture.
- Lane · entry 25332
أَصْبَغ
Having a white marking in the forelock, tail, or ear; applied to horses, birds, and sheep or goats according to context.
The marking may be at an extremity or across the whole of the named part; the feminine صَبْغَاء is used especially of a dark sheep or goat with a white tail-tip.
- Lane · entry 25333
أَصْبَغ
A species of weak birds.
A specialized zoological use.
- Lane · entry 25333
أَصْبَغ
A man who voids his excrement in his clothes when beaten or frightened.
A rare, specialized description applied to a man.
- Lane · entry 25333
صَبْغَاء
A desert plant or grass with white fruit or with green upper portions and white shaded portions.
The term covers reported descriptions of a plant resembling panic grass and of a bunch of herbage showing this green-and-white contrast.
- Lane · entry 25333
أَصْبَغ
The greatest or most powerful of torrents.
A substantivized epithet used as a noun.
- Lane · entry 25333
مُصْبِغ
A palm tree whose dates are showing signs of ripening.
A specialized participial description of a palm.
- Lane · entry 25334
مَصْبَغَة
A dye-house.
A place noun recorded in later or current usage.
- Lane · entry 25335
مُصَبِّغ
Dyed extensively or repeatedly; much dyed.
The doubled form can indicate intensive application or application to many garments.
- Lane · entry 25336
مُصَبِّغ
A she-camel that casts her young after its hair has grown.
A rare participial use; مُسَبِّغ is reported as the more common form for this meaning.
- Lane · entry 25337
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
صِبْغَةَ اللَّهِ has several explicitly reported Quranic interpretations, including religion or fitrah and a baptismal reading; they are presented as distinct supported readings rather than collapsed into one exclusive translation.
The idiomatic صَبَغُونِي فِي عَيْنِكَ usage is disputed in the Classical evidence and may reflect confusion with صَبَعَ; it is retained only with that qualification.