Quranic root
همم
h · m · m
A root orientation involving melting or dissolving, flowing, and creeping movement, extended by analogy to consuming anxiety and to an intention formed in the mind.
From concrete imagery of melting, flowing, and creeping, the lexicon develops senses of anxiety as something that dissolves or consumes, intention as what is held in the mind, and related terms for aspiration, old age, difficulty, and importance.
- Maqāyīs · row 4931
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 9
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
هَمَّ
hamma
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 8 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 intend, purpose, or desire to do something; to be minded or resolved toward an act.
Used for an inward inclination or purpose and, with constructions such as hamma bi- and hamma an-, for being about to undertake an act. The intention may remain unrealized; Quranic contexts range from inclination and desire to firm resolve or plotting.
- Lane · entry 17155
- Mufradāt · row 1534
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:122word 2
“inclined”
Quran 5:11word 9
“determined”
Quran 12:24word 2
“she did desire”
Quran 9:74word 12
“and planned”
أَهَمَّ
ʾahamma
- 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 cause anxiety, disquiet, or grief; to make someone troubled or preoccupied.
Transitive. In the Quranic construction at 3:154, a person's own self is the source of the anxiety or preoccupation affecting them.
- Lane · entry 17156
- Mufradāt · row 1534
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:154word 14
“worried [them]”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 3:122هَمَّتinclined
- 3:154أَهَمَّتْهُمْworried [them]
- 4:113لَهَمَّتsurely (had) resolved
- 5:11هَمَّdetermined
- 9:13وَهَمُّوا۟and determined
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 17 Classical meanings
هَمَّ
Of a thing, to threaten to fall or to be on the point of occurring.
An intransitive construction, exemplified as said of a wall threatening to fall.
- Lane · entry 17155
هَمَّهُ
To disquiet or trouble someone; to cause care or anxiety.
A transitive Form I usage distinct from the Quran-attested Form IV causative entry.
- Lane · entry 17155
اِهْتَمَّ
To be anxious, disquieted, or grieved by an affair.
Typically used with an affair or matter as the cause of the distress.
- Lane · entry 17158
اِهْتَمَّ
To attend to, undertake, manage, or care for an affair or person.
The construction may express practical attention, supervision, care, or regard rather than distress.
- Lane · entry 17158
اِهْتَمَّ
To explore or scour a country.
A specialized construction used with a place or country.
- Lane · entry 17158
هَمٌّ
Purpose or intention; an initial or, in some usage, a strong determination.
The term may mark the beginning of resolve or a more settled resolution, according to the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 17160
هَمٌّ
An object or thing intended, meant, desired, or determined upon in the mind.
Used for the intended object or aim, not only for the mental state of intending.
- Lane · entry 17160
هَمٌّ
Anxiety, care, distress, sorrow, or trouble of mind.
Often described as distress arising from harm or annoyance expected to happen; some authorities distinguish this prospective distress from غَمٌّ, while others treat the two as equivalent.
- Lane · entry 17160
هَمَّكَ
To concern or trouble someone.
Attested in the idiomatic expression هَمَّكَ مَا هَمَّكَ, meaning what concerns or troubles you.
- Lane · entry 17160
هَمَّكَ
In a reported usage, to melt someone or something.
A separately reported lexical use with brief attestation.
- Lane · entry 17160
هِمٌّ
A decrepit, old, weak, or extremely aged man.
The feminine counterpart is given as هِمَّةٌ.
- Lane · entry 17161
هِمَّةٌ
Purpose, aspiration, enterprise, or ambition, especially high ambition.
The word can denote a firmly rooted drive toward elevated aims and away from base ones.
- Lane · entry 17163
هُمَامٌ
An aspiring ruler or a magnanimous, courageous, and liberal chief.
A laudatory personal designation associated with aspiration and high-minded leadership.
- Lane · entry 17164
هَمْهَامٌ
A wild bird of the crow kind.
- Lane · entry 17165
هَامَةٌ
A venomous or noxious creeping creature, especially a scorpion or serpent; also, tropically, a louse.
The term may cover noxious reptiles and similar creeping creatures; its application to a louse is described as tropical.
- Lane · entry 17166
مُهِمٌّ
A difficult, arduous, distressing, or important affair.
The plural مُهِمَّاتٌ denotes difficult or important affairs.
- Lane · entry 17167
مُنْهَمٌّ
Described as dissolving or melting, specifically of hailstones.
A reported specialized description in the phrase بَرَدٌ مُنْهَمٌّ; the attestation is presented as approximate.
- Lane · entry 17168
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Lane's supplied material is indexed under the contracted root هم, while the canonical QAC root is the geminate root همم.
The Form I Quranic translations vary from inclination and desire to determination and plotting, but the lexical evidence supports one intention-to-act branch rather than separate senses.
The مُنْهَمٌّ hailstone description is retained as a reported, apparently tentative Classical usage.