Quranic root
بور
b · w · r
The root centers on two attested orientations: destruction, ruin, or disabling stagnation, and testing or examination.
The destruction branch extends from extreme stagnation to فساد and ruin, while the testing branch is concretely illustrated by bringing a she-camel to a stallion to determine pregnancy and then extends to examining or assaying something.
- Maqāyīs · row 876
- Mufradāt · row 165
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 5
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَارَ
bāra
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 perish, be ruined, or prove vain and ineffectual.
In the Quran, the verb describes a thing, work, enterprise, or plan coming to ruin or failing; the negative construction in 35:29 expresses not perishing.
- Lane · entry 37436
- Mufradāt · row 165
Selected Quran examples
Quran 35:10word 24
“(will) perish”
Quran 35:29word 16
“it will perish”
بَوَار
bawār
- 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.
Destruction, perdition, or ruin resulting from utter stagnation.
An abstract noun; in دار البوار it denotes an abode of destruction or perdition.
- Lane · entry 37447
- Mufradāt · row 165
Selected Quran examples
Quran 14:28word 12
“(of) destruction”
بُور
būr
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Ruined, perishing, or in a state of perdition.
In the Quranic constructions, it describes people as ruined or perishing. The form can function as an epithet for singular or plural and is not a separate sense merely because its grammatical number or gender varies.
- Lane · entry 37440
- Mufradāt · row 165
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:18word 21
“ruined”
Quran 48:12word 20
“ruined”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 14:28ٱلْبَوَارِ(of) destruction
- 25:18بُورًۭاruined
- 35:10يَبُورُ(will) perish
- 35:29تَبُورَit will perish
- 48:12بُورًۭاruined
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 18 Classical meanings
بَوْر / بُور
Uncultivated, unsown, or fallow land; land left unplanted or in a bad agricultural state.
Used of land, including land left fallow to be sown later.
- Lane · entry 37436
- Lane · entry 37439
بَارَ
To become unsaleable or difficult to sell; of a market, to become stagnant in trade.
A commercial and market construction derived from the idea of uselessness through neglect.
- Lane · entry 37436
بَارَتِ الأَيِّمُ
Of a woman without a husband, to remain undesired or undemanded in marriage.
A conventional construction describing prolonged failure to receive a marriage proposal.
- Lane · entry 37436
بُور
Bad or corrupt, destitute of good.
A broader Classical adjectival use, especially of a person, distinct from the Quranic description of being ruined or in perdition.
- Lane · entry 37440
بُور
Deficiency, detriment, or a defective state.
Used in the collocation حُورٌ وَبُورٌ and related expressions of loss or impaired condition.
- Lane · entry 37440
بَائِر
Erring, failing to apply oneself rightly, or not following right direction.
Especially attested in the collocation رَجُلٌ حَائِرٌ بَائِرٌ; the lexical relation is reported in connection with either sluggishness, perdition, or imitative pairing.
- Lane · entry 37449
بَارَ النَّاقَةَ
To bring a she-camel to a stallion to determine whether she is pregnant.
The test involves the stallion smelling the female; the construction is specialized to determining whether she is pregnant or not.
- Lane · entry 37436
بَارَهُ
To try, assay, prove by experience, or examine someone or something.
May involve examining what is in a person's mind or discovering the state of a matter through testing.
- Lane · entry 37436
مِبْوَر
A stallion-camel able to determine whether a female is pregnant.
A specialized noun for the knowledgeable stallion in the pregnancy-testing construction.
- Lane · entry 37450
أَبَارَ
To cause someone or something to perish; to destroy.
A Form IV causative use.
- Lane · entry 37437
مُبِير
A destructive person who acts excessively in destroying others.
An agentive or personal description of destructive conduct.
- Lane · entry 37451
اِبْتَوَرَ
To assert truthfully that one has had sexual intercourse with a woman.
A specialized derived-form use reported in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 37436
اِبْتَوَرَ
To have sexual intercourse with a woman by force.
A specialized construction referring to forcible intercourse.
- Lane · entry 37436
اِبْتَوَرَ
To charge or upbraid a person with something that is not in him.
A specialized derived-form use concerning a false attribution or accusation.
- Lane · entry 37436
بَارِيّ
A woven reed mat, especially a rough mat or حصير.
An Arabicized nominal usage; the plural is بَوَارِيّ.
- Lane · entry 37441
بَارِيّ
A road.
A separately reported Arabicized usage, given as a synonym of طَرِيق.
- Lane · entry 37441
بُورِيّ
A fish, especially a species of mullet.
The name is explained as deriving from the Egyptian town بُورَة.
- Lane · entry 37442
بَوَارِيّ
A seller of reed mats of the بَارِيّ kind.
An occupational noun derived from the mat term.
- Lane · entry 37448
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
بُور has competing Classical analyses: it may be treated as a plural or quasi-plural of بَائِر, or as a verbal-noun epithet applicable across number and gender; these analyses do not require separate Quranic senses.
The derived-form discussion associated with the testing and sexual-conduct material transmits variant spellings, including اِبْتَوَرَ and ابتار; the specialized meanings are retained under the normalized headword اِبْتَوَرَ. The contrasting form ابتهر is not assigned to this root.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The Lane passage in lane-unit:bwr:37436:g2:sub3 mixes the normalized form اِبْتَوَرَ with variant transcriptions ابتار and discusses a contrast with ابتهر. The meanings assigned to اِبْتَوَرَ are supported by the passage, but the exact orthographic transmission of the derived form remains uncertain.