Quranic root
جذع
j · dh · ʿ
The root has two central lexical fields: newly reached or tender age, and the trunk or stem of a tree. A further recorded verbal branch concerns cutting or rubbing.
The age sense extends to youth, inexperience, renewal, and idiomatic descriptions of time or misfortune, while the concrete trunk sense supplies comparisons for cutting and related applications. These branches should not be treated as one direct Quranic meaning.
- Maqāyīs · row 1114
- Mufradāt · row 238
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
جِذْع
jidhʿ
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
The trunk or stem of a palm tree.
The Quranic occurrences use the singular in 19:23 and 19:25 and the plural جُذُوع in 20:71. Dryness, cutting, or loss of the tree's top is not a necessary restriction on the term.
- Lane · entry 46290
- Mufradāt · row 238
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 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 19 Classical meanings
جِذْع
A tree trunk or stem more generally, including the trunk of a tree whose top has gone.
Dryness, having been cut, or loss of the top are reported descriptions or applications, not fixed requirements.
- Lane · entry 46290
جِذْع
A beam of a roof.
A specialized nominal use distinct from the tree-trunk sense.
- Lane · entry 46290
جَذَع
An animal at the age designated as جَذَع, before the stage called ثَنِيّ.
The age varies by species and by reported usage: it may be around one year for a sheep or goat, later for cattle and horses, and around the fifth year for a camel. The term denotes an age period, not necessarily the growth or shedding of a tooth.
- Lane · entry 46291
- Mufradāt · row 238
أَجْذَعَ
To reach the age or stage designated as جَذَع.
Form IV; the applicable age varies according to the kind of animal.
- Lane · entry 46288
تَجَاذَعَ
To pretend to be a youth or to act as though one were young.
A figurative Form VI use applied to a person.
- Lane · entry 46289
جَذَع
A youth or young man.
A human application extending the term from the young-animal age designation.
- Lane · entry 46291
جَذَع
A person who is light-witted, weak, or stupid, likened to a youth.
A figurative application; it is contrasted with بَازِل in the sense of old or mature.
- Lane · entry 46291
جَذَع
One whose teeth have fallen out here and there, as though approaching the end of life.
A figurative explanation reported alongside the light-witted sense; its attribution to جَذَع rather than the contrasted term بَازِل is qualified in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 46291
جَذَع
A novice or recent beginner in an undertaking.
Used in the construction فُلَانٌ فِي هَذَا الأَمْرِ جَذَعٌ, ‘so-and-so is a novice in this affair.’
- Lane · entry 46291
جَذَع
Time or fortune conceived as ever new.
Especially in the idiom الأَزْلَمُ الجَذَعُ; the same expression can convey the sense of time or fortune continuing without end.
- Lane · entry 46291
جَذَع
Calamity or misfortune.
Used in the idiom أُمُّ الجَذَعِ.
- Lane · entry 46291
جَذَع
To renew or recommence an affair, or restore it to its initial state.
An idiomatic use applied, for example, to an extinguished war or another affair that begins again.
- Lane · entry 46291
جُذْعَان
Small mountains.
A figurative plural application.
- Lane · entry 46291
جُذُوعَة
The state of being at the stage denoted by جَذَع.
A verbal noun or abstract noun formed from the age-related usage.
- Lane · entry 46292
جَذْعَمَة
Young and not yet arrived at puberty.
An intensified or specifically feminine-form development of جَذَعَة.
- Lane · entry 46293
مُتَجَاذِع
Approaching the age at which the designation جَذَع is applied.
Used in the phrase خَرُوفٌ مُتَجَاذِعٌ for an animal nearing that age; the construction expresses approach to the stage rather than attainment of it.
- Lane · entry 46294
جَذَعَ
To cut something in the manner of cutting a trunk.
A verbal use distinct from the noun's tree-trunk and animal-age senses.
- Mufradāt · row 238
جَذَعَ
To rub an object.
A separately recorded verbal branch; it is not represented as a Quranic meaning of جِذْع.
- Maqāyīs · row 1114
جَذَع
A designation applied to what is called الدُّهْمُ الإِزَالَة, by comparison with the جَذَع stage of an animal.
The exact referent of الإِزَالَة is unresolved in the transmitted wording, so this application remains qualified.
- Mufradāt · row 238
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form is presented under the singular citation form جِذْع, while one supplied occurrence is the plural جُذُوع. The Quranic context supports the tree-trunk sense; the age-related and figurative senses are broader Classical usages and should not be inferred from the Quranic occurrences alone.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The tooth-loss explanation in lane-unit:j*E:46291:g1:sub3 is explicitly qualified as possibly belonging to the contrasted term بَازِل rather than جَذَع; it is retained only as a qualified reported meaning.
The phrase الدُّهْمُ الإِزَالَة in mufradat:row:238 is lexically reported, but the supplied wording does not securely identify the referent of الإِزَالَة.