Quranic root
غطش
gh · ṭ · sh
The root centers on darkness and analogous obscurity.
Its semantic field extends from night becoming dark or being made dark to dim sight, obscured travel, and figurative feigning of blindness.
- Maqāyīs · row 3432
- Mufradāt · row 1057
- 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.
أَغْطَشَ
ʾaghṭasha
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
To make the night dark; to darken it.
Causative Form IV, with the night as the object in the Quranic construction.
- Lane · entry 29502
- Mufradāt · row 1057
Selected Quran examples
Quran 79:29word 1
“And He darkened”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 79:29وَأَغْطَشَAnd He darkened
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 11 Classical meanings
غَطَشَ
Of the night, to become dark.
An intransitive use describing the night becoming dark.
- Lane · entry 29501
غَطِشَ
To suffer an eye-affection involving dim or weak sight and frequent tearing.
Also used of the eye or sight becoming dim and weak-sighted.
- Lane · entry 29501
أَغْطَشَ
To enter into or upon the darkness of night.
Attested in the plural construction أَغْطَشُوا.
- Lane · entry 29502
تَغَاطَشَ
To feign heedlessness or blindness toward a thing.
The feigned blindness may be visual or intellectual; the construction is used with عَنْ for the matter disregarded.
- Lane · entry 29504
غَطَشٌ
Darkness, blackness, or confused obscurity of night.
One reported usage places it after غَبَشٌ.
- Lane · entry 29506
غَطَشٌ
Weakness or dimness of sight accompanied by frequent tearing.
A noun for the eye-affection also described by غَطِشَ.
- Lane · entry 29506
غَطْشَى
A dark or trackless desert in which the routes are obscure and the right way cannot be found.
Used adjectivally in the expression فَلَاةٌ غَطْشَى.
- Lane · entry 29508
أَغْطَشُ
Dark, especially when applied to night.
An adjectival epithet; related coordinated adjectival forms are treated as the same lexical branch.
- Lane · entry 29511
أَغْطَشُ
Having the eye-affection called غَطَشٌ.
Used as a personal epithet for someone affected by dim or weak sight.
- Lane · entry 29511
تَغْطِيشٌ
An epithet denoting dim or weak sight.
Used as an epithet applied to sight rather than as a general statement of night-darkening.
- Lane · entry 29511
مُتَغَاطِشٌ
One who feigns blindness toward a thing.
An active participial adjective corresponding to تَغَاطَشَ.
- Lane · entry 29513
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form IV Quranic use means causing the night to become dark; the related Form I intransitive use is kept separate.
The supplied transcription of Lane entry 29511 contains omitted coordinated Arabic around some alternative forms, so only the explicitly recoverable lexical branches are assigned.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
Some alternative coordinated headwords in Lane entry 29511 cannot be mapped with complete certainty because of transcription omissions; they are not promoted to separate meanings beyond the explicit dark-night, eye-affection, and sight-epithet branches.