Quranic root
هنأ
h · n · ʾ
The root centers on obtaining or experiencing good without hardship, trouble, or harmful consequence.
This orientation develops into meanings of pleasant and wholesome food, enjoyable provision, gifts and nourishment, and finding beneficial herbage. The tar term may be associated with healing; the expression for a portion of the night is explicitly treated as outside the main semantic branch.
- Maqāyīs · row 4948
- Mufradāt · row 1536
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 4
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
هَنِيءٌ
hanīʾun
- Part of speech
- Adjective / noun
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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.
Pleasant and easy to enjoy, without hardship or harmful consequence; wholesome.
In the Quran it occurs in the accusative form هَنِيئًا with food, drink, or provision being consumed or enjoyed, including the construction هَنِيئًا مَرِيئًا, emphasizing both enjoyment and a wholesome result.
- Lane · entry 10675
- Mufradāt · row 1536
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:4word 13
“(in) satisfaction”
Quran 52:19word 3
“(in) satisfaction”
Quran 69:24word 3
“(in) satisfaction”
Quran 77:43word 3
“(in) satisfaction”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:4هَنِيٓـًۭٔا(in) satisfaction
- 52:19هَنِيٓـًٔۢا(in) satisfaction
- 69:24هَنِيٓـًٔۢا(in) satisfaction
- 77:43هَنِيٓـًٔۢا(in) satisfaction
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 31 Classical meanings
هَنُؤَ / هَنِئَ
To come or happen without inconvenience; to be pleasant, enjoyable, easy to swallow, or free from harmful consequence.
Used of food, things, or events that bring enjoyment without trouble; the same pleasantness may be expressed as something pleasing to a person, including pleasing news.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنِئَ / هَنْأَى
Of livestock, to feed on good herbage and, in related usage, to become satiated with food or herbage.
هَنْأَى specifically describes camels that have found good herbage but are not yet satiated; other attestations describe eating or becoming satiated.
- Lane · entry 10666
- Lane · entry 10673
هَنِئَ بِهِ
To rejoice in someone or something.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَأَهُ
To make something pleasant or enjoyable to someone; to cause someone to enjoy it.
The subject may be God, health, or another cause of enjoyment.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَأَهُ
To feed someone or give him to eat.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَأَهُ
To give or bestow something, especially plentifully.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَأَ الطَّعَامَ
To make food good by properly preparing or seasoning it.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَأَ مَالَهُ
To put one's property into a right or good state.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَأَ القَوْمَ
To nourish or maintain people, satisfy their wants, and provide for them.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَأَهُ
To aid, succour, or defend someone.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَأَ الإِبِلَ
To smear camels with hināʾ, a tar or liquid pitch, as a remedy or preservative against mange or scab.
The associated material is called هِنَاءٌ.
- Lane · entry 10666
لِيَهْنِئْكَ
A formula of congratulation wishing someone joy in a favorable matter.
Used in expressions such as لِيَهْنِئْكَ الفَارِسُ, literally wishing that the horseman give the person joy, and applied to congratulating someone on the horseman's exploits.
- Lane · entry 10666
هَنَّاهُ
To make someone think of pleasant things or desired objects; to grant him enjoyment in something.
One reported usage concerns pleasant and desired thoughts intruding into prayer; when God is the agent, the sense is to grant enjoyment in the thing.
- Lane · entry 10667
هَنَّاهُ بِالأَمْرِ
To congratulate someone on an achievement, possession, or other favorable matter.
The associated formula is لِيَهْنِئْكَ, ‘may it give you joy.’
- Lane · entry 10667
تَهَنَّأَ
To give many gifts.
- Lane · entry 10669
تَهَنَّأَ بِكَذَا
To pride oneself on something.
This use is reported with a qualification that it may be a mistaken form for تَهَيَّأَ, but it is retained as an attributed lexical use.
- Lane · entry 10669
اِسْتَهْنَأَهُ
To ask someone for aid, succour, or defence.
- Lane · entry 10671
اِسْتَهْنَأَهُ
To ask someone for a gift.
- Lane · entry 10671
اِسْتَهْنَأَهُ
To concede or give someone a portion of his dues or rights.
- Lane · entry 10671
هِنْءٌ
A gift.
- Lane · entry 10672
هِنْءٌ
A portion of the night.
This is a specialized use explicitly treated as outside the root's main semantic branch.
- Lane · entry 10672
هِنْءٌ
The act of smearing with hināʾ.
A verbal noun associated with smearing camels with tar or liquid pitch.
- Lane · entry 10672
هِنَاءٌ
Tar or liquid pitch, or a kind of it.
Used as the substance with which camels are smeared.
- Lane · entry 10674
هِنَاءٌ
A raceme of a palm tree.
Cited as a dialectal variant of إِهَانٌ or a form produced from it by transposition.
- Lane · entry 10674
هَنِيءٌ
Something that comes or happens without inconvenience; an unalloyed gratification.
This broader Classical use describes a favorable occurrence or received benefit; Quranic consumption and provision are represented separately under the Quranic form.
- Lane · entry 10675
هَنِيئًا
An optative expression wishing that something be enjoyed without trouble and produce a wholesome result.
Used in formulas such as هَنِيئًا مَرِيئًا and هَنِيئًا لَهُ ذَلِكَ, often with an understood verb of wishing, eating, or drinking.
- Lane · entry 10675
هُنَيْئَةٌ
A little; a little while.
Related variant forms are also reported, including هُنَيَّةٌ and هُنَيْهَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 10676
هَانِئٌ
A servant.
The lexical evidence qualifies this as a reported reading in a traditional expression.
- Lane · entry 10677
هَانِئٌ
A giver, nourisher, or provider of people's wants.
This interpretation is tied to a disputed reading and to the idea that the person so named gives, nourishes, or maintains others.
- Lane · entry 10677
مَهْنَأٌ
Unalloyed gratification; what is pleasant and free from harmful consequence.
Used in expressions wishing or assigning pleasant enjoyment to someone.
- Lane · entry 10678
مَهْنُوءٌ
A camel smeared with hināʾ.
Hināʾ is the tar or liquid pitch used in the treatment or preservation of camels.
- Lane · entry 10679
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form group contains inflected accusative occurrences normalized here under the citation form هَنِيءٌ.
The servant reading under هَانِئٌ, the pride sense of تَهَنَّأَ, and the palm-raceme sense of هِنَاءٌ are retained with the qualifications stated in their usage conditions.
The expression هِنْءٌ for a portion of the night is retained as a specialized use, although the root-level evidence explicitly places it outside the main semantic branch.