Quranic root
صرع
ṣ · r · ʿ
The root centers on something being thrown or falling to the ground through an act of grappling or force.
From this core come throwing down and being prostrate, wrestling, fallen branches and bodies, places of falling, and extensions involving paired or corresponding things that meet or fall together.
- Maqāyīs · row 2784
- Mufradāt · row 828
- 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.
صَرِيعٌ
ṣarīʿun
- Part of speech
- Adjective · singular citation
- 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.
Fallen or prostrate on the ground.
The Quranic occurrence is the plural صَرْعَىٰ, describing people lying fallen after the destructive event.
- Lane · entry 25834
- Mufradāt · row 828
Selected Quran examples
Quran 69:7word 11
“fallen”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 69:7صَرْعَىٰfallen
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 23 Classical meanings
صَرَعَ
To throw down or prostrate on the ground; also to lay low or bend down by force.
Used transitively of a person or animal and extended to things such as trees or plants; the act, manner, or result of throwing down may be expressed by related nouns.
- Lane · entry 25820
- Lane · entry 25821
- Lane · entry 25829
- Lane · entry 25831
- Lane · entry 25835
صَرْعٌ
Epilepsy or falling sickness, a recognized disease involving seizure-like prostration.
The lexical description also compares the disease with madness or diabolical possession, without making those conditions identical to the disease itself.
- Lane · entry 25820
- Lane · entry 25827
- Lane · entry 25834
صَرِيعٌ
A person afflicted with epilepsy or with diabolical possession or madness.
This is the adjectival or nominal description of one affected by the condition, distinct from the name of the disease itself.
- Lane · entry 25820
- Lane · entry 25834
صَرْعٌ
A kind, species, state, condition, or manner of being.
A general nominal use for a type or condition of a thing, including expressions for having two distinct kinds or states.
- Lane · entry 25827
صَرْعَةٌ
A state or condition, especially the condition of one who has been thrown down.
Also used for a single act or episode of throwing down, but that eventive nuance belongs to the broader throwing-down branch.
- Lane · entry 25829
صَرْعَانِ
Two camels alternating at the water, one arriving as the other returns.
The expression reflects alternation between two heavily recurring groups of camels.
- Lane · entry 25827
صَرْعَانِ
The two alternating periods or extremities of the day, such as morning and evening.
Reported applications include day and night, the forenoon and afternoon, and the periods around sunrise and sunset.
- Lane · entry 25827
صَرْعٌ
A thing corresponding to, opposite, or standing over against another.
Used in the expression صَرْعُ كَذَا for what is opposite or corresponding to something.
- Lane · entry 25827
صِرْعٌ
Either of two opposite conditions in which a person or affair may stand.
The idiom عَلَى أَيِّ صِرْعَيْ أَمْرِهِ describes uncertainty about which of two opposed states or outcomes applies.
- Lane · entry 25828
صِرْعٌ
A like, equal, or similar person or thing; a peer.
Used for two persons or things regarded as counterparts or equals.
- Lane · entry 25828
صِرْعٌ
A strand of a rope.
A concrete nominal use with a plural reported as صُرُوعٌ.
- Lane · entry 25828
صُرْعَةٌ
A person who is often thrown down or defeated by others.
The term contrasts with the agentive wrestler or thrower and can describe repeated vulnerability to being prostrated.
- Lane · entry 25830
صُرَعَةٌ
One who throws down or prostrates opponents, especially frequently or vehemently; figuratively, one who masters himself when angry.
The literal use concerns wrestling or overpowering opponents; the figurative moral use concerns self-control in anger.
- Lane · entry 25832
- Lane · entry 25833
- Lane · entry 25839
- Lane · entry 25845
تَصَرَّعَ
To humble, abase, or lower oneself before another.
A figurative Form V construction used with لِـ or إِلَى; it denotes self-abasement rather than physical prostration.
- Lane · entry 25823
صَارَعَ
To wrestle with another, each trying to throw the other down.
The reciprocal Form III construction denotes a contest between two parties; the mutual Form VI construction expresses the same wrestling activity.
- Lane · entry 25822
- Lane · entry 25824
صَرِيعٌ
Overcome or prostrated by wine.
A figurative extension of physical prostration, used of a person overcome by the effect of wine.
- Lane · entry 25834
صَرِيعٌ
Slain and lying prostrate.
A figurative or extended use of the word for one thrown down, especially in descriptions of the dead.
- Lane · entry 25834
- Lane · entry 25842
صَرِيعٌ
A drooping twig or rod that falls toward the ground; also a branch lying fallen.
One reported use concerns a softened twig suitable for rubbing and cleaning the teeth.
- Lane · entry 25834
صَرِيعٌ
A bow whose wood has dried on the tree without being pared.
The lexical description distinguishes this reported use from a related term for a bow that has merely dried.
- Lane · entry 25834
صَرِيعٌ
A whip from which nothing has been pared.
A specialized material description parallel to the reported use for an unpared bow.
- Lane · entry 25834
مَصْرَعٌ
A place of throwing down or prostrating on the ground; a place of slaughter by extension.
The locative noun may denote the place where people fall or are thrown down, and metaphorically the place where a group is slaughtered.
- Lane · entry 25840
مِصْرَاعٌ
Either leaf or half of a folding door or comparable curtain.
The dual مِصْرَاعَانِ denotes the two leaves meeting at the entrance; the sense is extended from the idea of two parts falling or meeting together.
- Lane · entry 25821
- Lane · entry 25843
مِصْرَاعٌ
A hemistich of poetry; in a narrower construction, one of the two rhyming halves of a verse.
The poetic term is derived by comparison with the two leaves of a folding door.
- Lane · entry 25821
- Lane · entry 25843
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The sole Quranic form is the plural صَرْعَىٰ; the public headword صَرِيعٌ is its normalized singular lexical citation form.
The Quranic sense is the general state of being fallen or prostrate; the separately listed meanings for epilepsy, slaughter, intoxication, and other extensions are broader Classical Arabic uses and are not assigned to the Quranic occurrence.