Quranic root
بدو
b · d · w
The root centers on something becoming apparent, exposed, or manifest.
From the notion of appearing in an open, uncovered space developed the designation of the desert and its inhabitants; the same semantic field also includes an opinion arising or changing in the mind.
- Maqāyīs · row 719
- Mufradāt · row 101
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 31
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَدَا
badā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 11 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 appear, become apparent, or come into view; to become manifest or evident.
An intransitive use describing something previously hidden or unapparent becoming perceptible or clear.
- Lane · entry 35845
- Mufradāt · row 101
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:47word 18
“And (will) appear”
For an opinion or decision to arise in someone’s mind, especially as a view different from an earlier one.
Used in the construction بَدَا لَهُ فِي الأَمْرِ, literally that something appeared to him concerning the matter; the Quranic usage concerns a decision arising after the relevant signs had been seen.
- Lane · entry 35845
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:35word 2
“(it) appeared”
أَبْدَى
ʾabdā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 15 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 make something apparent, show it, exhibit it, manifest it, or disclose it.
A transitive causative use with a thing, matter, thought, or feature as its object; the Quran also uses it for making something ordinarily concealed visible.
- Lane · entry 35848
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:271word 2
“you disclose”
Quran 24:31word 20
“(to) display”
بَادٍ
bādin
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
A person of the open country: a desert-dweller or one coming from the desert, outside settled habitation.
The singular بَادٍ and the Quranic plural بَادُونَ designate people associated with the bādiyah, in contrast with settled towns or permanent settlements.
- Lane · entry 35865
- Mufradāt · row 101
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:25word 16
“and the visitor”
Quran 33:20word 11
“living in (the) desert”
بَادِيَ الرَّأْيِ
bādiya ālrraʾyi
- Part of speech
- Adverbial expression
- 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.
At the first or outward appearance of an opinion; hence, according to an initial, superficial, or possibly inconsiderate judgment.
A conventional construction, بَادِيَ الرَّأْيِ, describing the first impression or apparent judgment rather than a considered conclusion.
- Lane · entry 35865
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:27word 19
“immature in opinion”
بَدْوٌ
badwun
- 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 desert or open-country way of life, and the region outside settled habitation.
Used in opposition to settled urban or village life; in the Quranic construction مِنَ الْبَدْوِ, it denotes the desert country or its way of life.
- Mufradāt · row 101
- Lane · entry 35867
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:100word 29
“the bedouin life”
مُبْدٍ
mubdin
- Part of speech
- Active 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 who makes something apparent or discloses it.
The active participle of أَبْدَى; in the Quranic occurrence it is used with a concealed matter as its object.
- Lane · entry 35848
Selected Quran examples
Quran 33:37word 19
“(was to) disclose”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:33تُبْدُونَyou reveal
- 2:271تُبْدُوا۟you disclose
- 2:284تُبْدُوا۟you disclose
- 3:29تُبْدُوهُyou disclose it
- 3:118بَدَتِ(has become) apparent
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 32 Classical meanings
بَدَانِي
To begin with someone by doing something.
A lexical alternative to بَدَأَنِي.
- Lane · entry 35845
بَدَا
To go out from settled land to the desert or its pasturing places, or to dwell in the desert.
Describes departure from permanent sources of water or cultivated and settled areas toward open-country pasture, and can also mean remaining there.
- Lane · entry 35845
بَدَا
To void excrement.
A specialized usage explained as going out from tents or houses into the open country.
- Lane · entry 35845
بَدَا لَهُ
To desire or intend to do something, in a figurative usage of the construction in which a course of action presents itself.
A tropical interpretation of بَدَا لَهُ أَنْ يَفْعَلَ; it is distinct from the literal arising of an opinion.
- Lane · entry 35845
بَدِيَتِ الأَرْضُ
The land to produce or contain truffles.
Used of land in which بَدَاةٌ, truffles, are found.
- Lane · entry 35845
بَدِيَتِ الأَرْضُ
The land to contain dust or earth.
A lexical use of the verb with dust or earth as what the land contains.
- Lane · entry 35845
بَدَّى
To make known a want or need that has arisen.
The object is a need or want that has presented itself to the person.
- Lane · entry 35846
بَدَّى
To send a horse or other beast out to a place of pasture.
The reported usage concerns sending an animal to pasture, apparently in the desert.
- Lane · entry 35846
مُبَادَاةٌ
Going out into the field to encounter another in battle or war.
A military use of the verbal noun.
- Lane · entry 35847
مُبَادَاةٌ
Showing open enmity or hostility toward another.
The construction مُبَادَاةٌ بِالعَدَاوَةِ means openly displaying hostility.
- Lane · entry 35847
مُبَادَاةٌ
Showing or revealing an affair to people or to another person.
A transitive construction meaning to make an affair open or known.
- Lane · entry 35847
مُبَادَاةٌ
Measuring or comparing two things with each other.
Used in the construction بَادَى بَيْنَهُمَا.
- Lane · entry 35847
أَبْدَى
To show open enmity or hostility toward someone.
A figurative extension of making one’s hostile attitude openly visible.
- Lane · entry 35848
أَبْدَى
Of clear water, to show its bottom.
Used of the bottom becoming visible because the water is clear.
- Lane · entry 35848
أَبْدَى فِي مَنْطِقِهِ
To deviate from the right way in one’s speech.
An idiomatic use referring to faulty or wayward expression.
- Lane · entry 35848
تَبَدَّى
To eat the morning meal.
A dialectal usage reported for the common speech of Yemen; it is synonymous with تَغَدَّى.
- Lane · entry 35849
تَبَادَى
To affect the manner of, or imitate, the people of the desert.
A reciprocal-form usage concerning adopting Bedouin behavior or appearance.
- Lane · entry 35850
بَدًا
Excrement from the anus.
A noun denoting the bodily waste itself.
- Lane · entry 35852
بَدًا
A human joint.
The plural is أَبْدَاءٌ; this is a distinct anatomical noun from the excrement sense.
- Lane · entry 35852
بَدْوٌ
The first part or beginning of a thing.
Used in expressions meaning first of all or at the outset; the form is related in spelling to the root’s appearance vocabulary but has its own lexical value.
- Lane · entry 35853
بَدَاةٌ
Truffles.
A noun synonymous with كَمْأَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 35855
بَدَاةٌ
Dust or earth.
A distinct noun sense from بَدَاةٌ meaning truffles.
- Lane · entry 35855
بَدْوَةٌ
Either side of a valley.
A geographical noun for one of the valley’s two sides.
- Lane · entry 35856
بَدَوِيٌّ
Of, belonging to, or relating to the desert; as a substantive, a Bedouin or desert Arab.
The relational adjective is opposed to the townsman or villager.
- Lane · entry 35857
بَدَاءٌ
An opinion that arises in the mind, especially one different from a former opinion.
A noun derived from بَدَا لَهُ فِي الأَمْرِ; it may describe someone subject to successive opinions, whether approvingly or disparagingly.
- Lane · entry 35859
بِدَاءٌ
The morning meal.
A dialectal usage of Yemen, synonymous with غَدَاءٌ.
- Lane · entry 35860
بَدِيٌّ
A well, especially one that is not ancient.
A lexical adjective or noun used of a newly established or non-ancient well.
- Lane · entry 35861
بَدَاءَةٌ
A want or need that appears or becomes apparent.
The plural denotes wants or needs that emerge and become noticeable.
- Lane · entry 35862
بَدَاوَةٌ
The first thing that appears or becomes apparent.
A noun for the initial manifestation of something.
- Lane · entry 35863
بَادِي بَدِي
A calamity or misfortune.
An idiomatic expression formed from two nouns.
- Lane · entry 35865
بَادِيَةٌ
The desert or open country; land without towns, villages, or cultivated soil.
Also denotes the places to which people migrate from permanent water sources while seeking pasture; it is opposed to settled country.
- Lane · entry 35867
رَكِيٌّ مُبْدٍ
A well whose water is showing and uncovered by dust or earth.
The expression describes a well with visible water, opposed to one whose water is covered or hidden.
- Lane · entry 35869
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Lane citation for بَادِيَ الرَّأْيِ uses historical Quran citation notation and has not been converted into a modern verse location; the example shown uses the independently supplied QAC occurrence at 11:27:19.
The contextual gloss attached to the Mufradat heading باد discusses بَادَ يَبِيدُ, a different lexical root despite the matching spelling, and is not used as evidence for this root.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
Mufradat row 88 concerns بَادَ يَبِيدُ, 'to perish or disperse in the desert,' rather than the ب د و root; it is therefore left unassigned.