Quranic root
صفو
ṣ · f · w
The root centers on freedom from admixture: clarity, purity, and the extraction of what is clear or choice.
From physical clarity and smoothness, the root develops meanings of taking the pure or best portion, selecting or singling out, reciprocal sincerity, and several specialized terms for abundance, cessation, and smooth stone.
- Maqāyīs · row 2807
- Mufradāt · row 842
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 17
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَصْفَى
ʾaṣfā
- 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 choose or single someone out in preference to others for something.
Transitive construction with the person chosen and the thing or distinction assigned to that person; the Quranic occurrences express being chosen for or given a particular distinction.
- Lane · entry 26180
Selected Quran examples
Quran 43:16word 6
“and He has chosen (for) you”
اِصْطَفَى
āiṣṭafā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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 select, single out, or prefer; to designate someone or something as chosen.
In divine selection, the selection may be understood as bringing the chosen one into being free from admixture or as choosing and judging in preference to others. The form may take a person, group, or thing as its object and may occur with عَلَى to mark preference.
- Lane · entry 26183
- Mufradāt · row 842
Selected Quran examples
صَفْوَان
ṣafwān
- 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 smooth, hard stone or rock; also a collective term for smooth stones.
The Quranic noun denotes a smooth rock or stony surface, characterized by hardness and freedom from material that clings to it.
- Lane · entry 26185
- Mufradāt · row 842
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:264word 21
“(that of a) smooth rock”
مُصْطَفًى
muṣṭafan
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
One selected, preferred, or chosen.
The supplied Quran occurrence is a masculine plural inflection, presented here under the singular passive-participle citation form.
- Lane · entry 26183
- Mufradāt · row 842
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:47word 4
“the chosen ones”
مُصَفًّى
muṣaffan
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Purified, clarified, or cleared of admixture and impurities.
A passive participle describing something after particles, turbidity, or other admixture have been removed.
- Lane · entry 26178
- Lane · entry 26201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 47:15word 26
“purified”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:130ٱصْطَفَيْنَـٰهُWe chose him
- 2:132ٱصْطَفَىٰhas chosen
- 2:247ٱصْطَفَىٰهُhas chosen him
- 2:264صَفْوَانٍ(that of a) smooth rock
- 3:33ٱصْطَفَىٰٓchose
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
صَفَا
To become clear, limpid, or pure, especially of wine, water, a beverage, or a thing; also to become free of cloud or turbidity.
The verb is also used figuratively of life, the mind, the heart, and affection when they are free from disturbance or admixture.
- Lane · entry 26177
صَفَتْ
Of a she-camel, ewe, or she-goat: to abound in milk.
This is a specialized use applied to female livestock.
- Lane · entry 26177
صَفَا / صَفْوٌ
To take the clear, pure, best, or choice portion of something.
The verb may be used of taking the clear part from a cooking-pot; the corresponding nouns denote the clear or choice portion of a thing.
- Lane · entry 26177
- Lane · entry 26186
صَفْوٌ / صَفَاءٌ
Clearness, limpidness, or purity; the state of being free from turbidity or admixture.
This is the abstract noun corresponding to physical or figurative clarity.
- Lane · entry 26186
- Lane · entry 26194
صَافٍ / صَافِيَةٌ
Clear, limpid, or pure; free from turbidity or rust, and by extension bright or clean.
The adjective may describe a substance, atmosphere, pasture free of dried rubbish, a colour, or a sword; the feminine form is also used substantively.
- Lane · entry 26187
- Lane · entry 26198
- Lane · entry 26199
صَفَّى
To winnow a heap of trodden-out grain.
A specialized active Form II use involving removal of unwanted material from grain.
- Lane · entry 26178
صَافَى / تَصَافَى
To behave toward one another with purity and sincerity of mind, love, affection, or brotherly feeling.
These reciprocal forms describe mutual sincerity and are synonymous with reciprocal forms built on خَلَصَ.
- Lane · entry 26179
- Lane · entry 26182
- Lane · entry 26194
أَصْفَى
To make a thing belong exclusively to someone, or to assign or appropriate it purely to that person.
This transitive use focuses on exclusive assignment rather than merely choosing among alternatives.
- Lane · entry 26180
أَصْفَى
To content or satisfy a household with something little or scanty.
A specialized Form IV use with a household as the recipient and a small provision as the means.
- Lane · entry 26180
أَصْفَى
Of a ruler or governor: to take what is in a person's house, or to take all that person's property.
This is a conventional appropriation or seizure use, distinct from ordinary selection.
- Lane · entry 26180
أَصْفَى
To become destitute or devoid of property, education, or polite accomplishments.
An intransitive figurative use, construed with مِنْ for what one has become devoid of.
- Lane · entry 26180
أَصْفَى
Of a man: to become exhausted of semen through sexual intercourse, or to cease sexual intercourse.
A specialized intransitive use connected with sexual activity and its cessation.
- Lane · entry 26180
أَصْفَتْ
Of a hen: to cease laying eggs.
The usage is explained metaphorically as becoming clear or emptied of eggs.
- Lane · entry 26180
أَصْفَى
Of a poet: to cease composing or uttering poetry.
A figurative intransitive use modeled on the cessation of eggs or the reaching of bare stone.
- Lane · entry 26180
أَصْفَى
Of a people: to have abundant milk in their camels and sheep or goats.
The subject is a group whose livestock is producing plentiful milk.
- Lane · entry 26180
أَصْفَى
Of a digger: to reach stone that prevents or stops further digging.
The construction is used of reaching صَفًا, understood as hard stone or rock forming an obstacle.
- Lane · entry 26180
تَصَفَّى
To become cleared or clarified.
An intransitive Form V development of the basic clarity meaning.
- Lane · entry 26181
اِصْطَفَى
To take or reckon a thing as clear, limpid, or pure.
This is a Classical use of Form VIII focusing on taking the pure portion or treating something as purified, distinct from selecting a person or thing in preference to others.
- Lane · entry 26183
صِفْوَةٌ
A chosen or elect person; a choice one or favourite.
The noun can describe a person regarded as the choice one among others.
- Lane · entry 26186
صَفَاةٌ
In idiomatic expressions, a hard or unreceptive person from whom no good is obtained; also, to assail or impugn someone's character.
These are conventional figurative applications of the unyielding smooth-stone image.
- Lane · entry 26185
بِنْتُ صَفًا
An echo.
A rare idiomatic interpretation attributed in the cited lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 26185
الصَّفَا
A named place in Mecca.
As a place-name, the word may be treated as masculine or feminine according to whether it denotes the place or the location.
- Lane · entry 26185
صِفْوَةٌ
A small quantity of water or wine in a vessel.
In the expression فِي الإِنَاءِ صِفْوَةٌ مِنْ مَاءٍ or خَمْرٍ, the noun denotes a small amount rather than the pure portion.
- Lane · entry 26190
يَوْمٌ صَفْوَانُ / صُفَيَّةُ
A clear, very cold day without clouds or atmospheric thickness; also a named cold day.
صَفْوَانُ is used for the second of the cold days and صُفَيَّةُ for the first in the cited naming tradition.
- Lane · entry 26192
- Lane · entry 26197
صَافٍ
A certain fish, traditionally said to chew the cud.
A specialized zoological noun, with the plural صَوَافٍ.
- Lane · entry 26198
صَوَافِيَ
In a reported Quranic variant reading, animals regarded as belonging purely or exclusively to God.
This is an alternative reading reported for the passage conventionally cited by Lane as Kur. xxii. 37; the cited notation is not converted here into a modern verse location, and the reading is not a canonical QAC form in this packet.
- Lane · entry 26198
صَوَافِي
Property, towns, or lands appropriated exclusively by a ruler for specially favoured persons, or possessions left without owners or heirs.
A substantive plural usage in administrative and political vocabulary; the cited authorities give more than one account of the exact legal scope.
- Lane · entry 26199
صَفِيٌّ
The portion of spoil chosen by a chief or commander for himself before or apart from the general division.
The term may refer to a specially selected indivisible or choice item; its plural is صَفَايَا.
- Lane · entry 26195
صَفِيٌّ
A she-camel, ewe, or she-goat abounding in milk.
The adjective can also denote a she-camel whose milk continues throughout the year.
- Lane · entry 26195
صَفِيٌّ
A palm-tree abounding in fruit.
A specialized agricultural use of the adjective, with the same plural pattern reported for the livestock sense.
- Lane · entry 26195
مِصْفَاةٌ
A strainer or clarifying implement used to effect the removal of impurities.
The noun is identified with a رَاوُوق and has the plural مَصَافٍ.
- Lane · entry 26200
صَفَاءٌ
In later or modern usage, serenity, freedom from trouble, contentment, happiness, or pleasure.
This is a later figurative extension rather than the basic physical sense of clarity.
- Lane · entry 26194
صَفِيٌّ
A friend who regards another with reciprocal purity or sincerity of love, affection, or brotherly feeling.
A specialized noun or adjective for a person standing in such a sincere friendship; the plural is أَصْفِيَاءُ.
- Lane · entry 26195
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The reported alternative reading صَوَافِيَ is retained as a separate Classical lexical item; it is not counted as a canonical QAC form in this packet.