Quranic root
هور
h · w · r
A downward collapse or falling apart, especially when something loses its support.
The physical image extends to the collapse of structures, banks, or wells, and figuratively to prostration, reckless plunging, and perishing. Related descriptions also apply the root to changes in darkness and winter, while one divergent usage conveys imputing something to someone.
- Maqāyīs · row 4962
- Lane · entry 10739
- Lane · entry 10741
- Lane · entry 10743
- Mufradāt · row 1506
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
اِنْهَارَ
āinhāra
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VII
- Form
- VII
- 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 collapse, cave in, or fall into ruins.
In the Quranic construction فَانْهَارَ بِهِ, the structure or bank falls in and collapses with what is upon it.
- Mufradāt · row 1506
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:109word 18
“so it collapsed”
هَائِرٌ
hāʾirun
- Part of speech
- Adjective (active participle)
- 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.
Crumbling, collapsing, or structurally failing.
In the Quranic phrase عَلَىٰ شَفَا جُرُفٍ هَارٍ, it describes a bank or cliff on the point of collapse.
- Lane · entry 10744
- Mufradāt · row 1506
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:109word 17
“(about to) collapse”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 12 Classical meanings
هَارَهُ؛ هَوَّرَهُ
To throw down, pull apart, or demolish a building; likewise to pull down an abrupt bank, its upper part, or the brink of a well.
Transitive physical usage, including the explicitly attested synonymous Form II expression هَوَّرَهُ.
- Lane · entry 10739
هَارَ القَوْمَ؛ هَارَهُ
To slay people and throw them down prostrate one upon another; to strike and prostrate an individual.
Figurative extension of throwing down, modeled on the falling of a bank or cliff.
- Lane · entry 10739
هَارَ
To become thrown down, fall into ruins, or break into pieces; of a building or bank, also to crack without falling or to crack at the rear while remaining in place.
Intransitive usage; the source distinguishes complete collapse from structural cracking that leaves the object standing.
- Lane · entry 10739
تَهَوَّرَ؛ مُتَهَوِّرٌ
To plunge into affairs recklessly or venture into matters without adequate thought; a person in this state is rash and heedless of the consequences.
The verbal form describes the conduct or state, while مُتَهَوِّرٌ describes the person characterized by it.
- Lane · entry 10741
- Lane · entry 10745
اِهْتَوَرَ
To perish.
Attested of a thing that comes to an end or is destroyed.
- Lane · entry 10743
هَائِرٌ؛ هَارٍ
Of a building, bank, or well: fallen, falling, or cracked and structurally unsound, even if it has not yet completely fallen.
Broader adjectival usage covering instability and cracking beyond the Quranic bank expression.
- Lane · entry 10744
- Mufradāt · row 1506
هَارٌ؛ هَائِرٌ
A person weak or ineffectual in his affairs.
A figurative personal description likening lack of firmness to an unstable or collapsing well.
- Mufradāt · row 1506
تَهَوَّرَ
Of night, for its darkness to become intense.
A temporal usage applied specifically to the deepening of nighttime darkness.
- Mufradāt · row 1506
تَهَوَّرَ
Of night, for its darkness to break or recede.
A separately reported temporal interpretation, describing the darkness as if it had fallen away and passed.
- Maqāyīs · row 4962
تَهَوَّرَ
Of winter, for most of its severity to pass.
Applied to the waning of the harshest part of the season.
- Maqāyīs · row 4962
- Mufradāt · row 1506
هَوْرٌ
A flock of sheep.
The term is explained by the animals' number and tendency to fall upon one another.
- Maqāyīs · row 4962
هَارَ؛ أَهُورُهُ
To impute something to someone so as to make him suspected of it.
A rare divergent usage, explicitly distinguished from the principal falling and collapse branch.
- Maqāyīs · row 4962
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic nominal surface هَارٍ is presented under the normalized citation form هَائِرٌ; the evidence describes هَارٍ as a transposed form of هَائِرٌ.
Descriptions of تَهَوَّرَ الليل differ in the evidence: one gives intensifying darkness and another gives darkness breaking or receding; both are retained as distinct reported usages.
A historical Quran citation appearing in the adjectival lexical evidence is not converted into a modern verse location; the displayed Quran example uses the independently supplied QAC location 9:109.