Quranic root
بكر
b · k · r
The root centers on firstness and beginning: the first part of the day, what comes first, and what is newly or initially produced.
From the beginning of the day come meanings of going early and hastening; from firstness develop meanings of youth, virginity, first birth, first yield, and other figurative applications. A separate extension names the pulley and related ring forms.
- Maqāyīs · row 819
- Mufradāt · row 150
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 12
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
إِبْكَار
ʾibkār
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Early morning; the beginning of the day.
A verbal-noun expression for entering or being in the early part of the day.
- Lane · entry 36955
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:41word 20
“and (in) the morning”
Quran 40:55word 12
“and the morning”
بِكْر
bikr
- Part of speech
- Adjective / noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
Young; in the Quranic description of the cow, not yet having borne offspring.
In 2:68 this describes a cow in contrast with an old cow; the broader lexical idea is youth or an early reproductive state.
- Lane · entry 36950
- Mufradāt · row 150
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:68word 17
“young”
Virgin; not previously sexually approached.
The term can apply to a male or female; its Quranic plural أبكارًا is used of women who are virgins.
- Lane · entry 36950
- Mufradāt · row 150
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:36word 2
“virgins”
Quran 66:5word 17
“and virgins”
بُكْرَة
bukrah
- Part of speech
- Noun · adverbial time expression
- Quran occurrences
- 7 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.
Early morning; the first part of the day.
Used as a temporal noun and adverbially for the early part of a particular day.
- Lane · entry 36955
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:68بِكْرٌyoung
- 3:41وَٱلْإِبْكَـٰرِand (in) the morning
- 19:11بُكْرَةًۭ(in) the morning
- 19:62بُكْرَةًۭmorning
- 25:5بُكْرَةًۭmorning
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 27 Classical meanings
بَكَرَ
To hasten or apply oneself promptly to a need, task, destination, water, or meal.
Originally associated with going early in the day, and also extended to hastening at any time.
- Lane · entry 36942
- Lane · entry 36952
بَكَّرَ
To do, attend, or perform something at its earliest time.
Used especially of going to prayer or performing prayer at the beginning of its appointed time; also of a palm tree that bears early.
- Lane · entry 36943
- Lane · entry 36947
بَكَّرَ
To precede, go before, or take precedence.
An extended use of the idea of being early or first.
- Lane · entry 36943
بَكَّرَهُ
To make someone precede others or take precedence over them.
Causative construction with a person or group as the object of precedence.
- Lane · entry 36943
أَبْكَرَ
To have camels come to water early in the morning.
A specialized transitive use concerning the timing of a herd’s arrival at water.
- Lane · entry 36945
أَبْكَرَ
To cause another to go or come early, or to cause another to hasten to an undertaking.
A transitive counterpart of going early or hastening; the action may be understood temporally or as prompt application to a task.
- Lane · entry 36945
ابْتَكَرَ
To arrive early for the Friday prayer, especially in time for the opening portion of the sermon.
A conventional expression concerning early attendance at the mosque and the beginning of the Friday service.
- Lane · entry 36947
ابْتَكَرَ
To take or obtain the first portion of something, especially the first fruit to reach maturity; to eat the earliest ripe fruit.
Used with a first yield or first mature portion.
- Lane · entry 36947
- Lane · entry 36960
- Lane · entry 36962
ابْتَكَرَ
To take a girl’s virginity.
A specialized transitive use; one report further describes the act as occurring before puberty.
- Lane · entry 36947
ابْتَكَرَ
To use or take fresh dough for preparing bread.
A specialized usage referring to dough newly prepared for use.
- Lane · entry 36947
ابْتَكَرَتْ
For a woman to bear her first offspring, in some usage specifically a male at her first birth.
A specialized intransitive or prepositional construction concerning first childbirth.
- Lane · entry 36947
بَكْر
A youthful male camel or young camel in an early age category; figuratively, a young man or young woman.
Authorities differ over the precise camel-age range denoted.
- Lane · entry 36948
بِكْر
Unpierced, unused, or not previously employed: specifically an unpierced pearl, a bow used for the first time, an unkindled fire, or a rain cloud likened to a virgin.
These are figurative or extended applications of untouched or first-use status.
- Lane · entry 36950
بِكْر
A female in a first reproductive state: one not yet having borne offspring, or, of a woman or she-camel, one that has borne only once.
The source explicitly applies the term to women, cows or heifers, and she-camels in these reproductive conditions.
- Lane · entry 36950
بِكْر
A grapevine that has produced fruit for the first time.
A figurative application of first production to a vine.
- Lane · entry 36950
أَبْكَار
Young offspring, especially young children or young bees; also honey associated with young bees or, in one usage, virgin girls.
Plural and collective applications extend the idea of youth or virginity to offspring and their products.
- Lane · entry 36950
بِكْر
The first-born child or offspring of a mother and father, whether male or female; also the first-born of animals.
The term may be applied beyond human offspring, including camels and other animals.
- Lane · entry 36950
بِكْر
The first of something, a first occurrence, or an action not previously preceded by its like.
It can describe a matter being referred for the first time or a newly undertaken need or task.
- Lane · entry 36950
ضَرْبَةٌ بِكْر
A blow or stroke that kills or succeeds at once without requiring a second strike.
A conventional figurative expression for an immediately decisive action.
- Lane · entry 36950
بَكْرَة
A sheave or pulley: a round piece with a rope-groove and a central axle.
The word can refer to the sheave itself or, by synecdoche, to a complete pulley.
- Lane · entry 36954
بَكْرَة
A small ring or bead-like ring attached to the ornamental part of a sword or scabbard.
Usually occurring in the plural for the set of ornamental rings.
- Lane · entry 36954
بَكْرَة
An assembly, company, or congregated body; collectively, all together without anyone remaining behind.
The expression جَاؤُوا عَلَى بَكْرَةِ أَبِيهِمْ is an idiom for coming together or in complete succession.
- Lane · entry 36954
بَكُور
Rain or a cloud that comes early in its season, at the end of the night, or at the beginning of the day.
A descriptive adjective for rain or clouds that arrive early.
- Lane · entry 36957
بَكُور
Early-producing or early-maturing; something that reaches fruit, growth, or maturity before others.
Applied to palm trees, fruit, land that produces vegetation quickly, and fruit that ripens first.
- Lane · entry 36957
- Lane · entry 36960
- Lane · entry 36962
بَوَاكِير
Winds that announce coming rain.
A plural figurative extension associated with signs that arrive before the rain.
- Lane · entry 36962
تَبَاكِير
The colors appearing on palm trees when their fruit begins to ripen.
A plural term for early signs of the fruit’s ripening.
- Lane · entry 36965
بَكَارَة
Virginity or maidenhead.
An abstract noun referring specifically to a woman’s virginity in the cited definitions.
- Lane · entry 36959
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
بِكْر has distinct Quranic branches: youth or an early reproductive state in 2:68, and virginity in أَبْكَارًا in 56:36 and 66:5.
Classical sources report variant age specifications for بَكْر when applied to camels; the entry therefore states the shared youthful meaning without fixing one age range.