Quranic root
مسخ
m · s · kh
The root centers on spoiling or deforming a form, extending to metamorphosis, loss of taste, and related deterioration; a separate lexical branch names a bow-maker and bows associated with him.
Its core development runs from changing a sound or attractive form into an ugly one to physical and moral deformation, tastelessness, exhaustion-induced alteration, and figurative corruption of texts. The bow vocabulary is an attributional branch connected with the name Māṣikha.
- Maqāyīs · row 4368
- Mufradāt · row 1365
- Lane · entry 12646
- Lane · entry 12649
- Lane · entry 12652
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- 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.
مَسَخَ
masakha
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 transform or metamorphose someone into a worse, fouler, or uglier form.
The Quranic use denotes physical deformation or transformation. The related noun مَسْخٌ names the resulting transformed or metamorphosed state.
- Lane · entry 12646
- Lane · entry 12649
- Mufradāt · row 1365
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:67word 3
“surely, We (would have) transformed them”
To deform a person's character, causing it to take on a vile animal-like disposition.
This moral sense is presented as an interpretation of the Quranic usage in 36:67, alongside the more apparent sense of physical transformation.
- Mufradāt · row 1365
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 36:67لَمَسَخْنَـٰهُمْsurely, We (would have) transformed them
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 10 Classical meanings
مَسْخٌ / مَسِيخٌ
A deformed or ugly form; a person lacking beauty in appearance.
Nominal and adjectival usage. The term is also reported as an explanation of the epithet الدجّال in one traditional account.
- Lane · entry 12649
مَسَخَ
To alter or corrupt a text by substituting synonyms, wholly or partly, or by changing its diacritical points and thereby changing its meaning.
Used of the transformation or corruption of poetry and writing.
- Lane · entry 12646
مَسَخَ
To render a she-camel lean and injure her back through excessive fatigue and use.
A specialized usage for deterioration caused by exhausting use.
- Lane · entry 12646
- Mufradāt · row 1365
مَسَخَ / مَسُخَ / مَسِيخٌ / أَمْسَخُ
To lose or remove taste; tasteless, insipid, or more tasteless.
Used of food, flesh, or fruit; the taste may be described as absent or as lying between sweet and bitter. The comparative form means “more tasteless.”
- Lane · entry 12646
- Lane · entry 12649
- Lane · entry 12653
- Mufradāt · row 1365
أَمْسَخَ
To become dissolved, said of a humour.
Form IV usage.
- Lane · entry 12647
اِنْمَسَخَ
To become lean, said of an arm or muscle.
Attested of the arm between the shoulder and elbow and of the thigh muscle, including that of a horse.
- Lane · entry 12648
مَسَخٌ
Leanness of the arm between the shoulder and elbow.
An anatomical noun for loss of flesh in that part of the arm.
- Lane · entry 12650
مَسِيخٌ
Weak and stupid; an epithet for a man with those qualities.
A figurative adjectival usage.
- Lane · entry 12649
مَاسِخِيٌّ / مَاسِخِيَّةٌ
A bow-maker; also a bow or bows named after the bow-maker Māṣikha.
The designation is attributed to Māṣikha of the Azd, whose name became associated with bow-making.
- Lane · entry 12652
- Maqāyīs · row 4368
- Mufradāt · row 1365
مَمْسُوخٌ
Having little flesh in the hindquarters.
An anatomical epithet applied to an animal or person.
- Lane · entry 12654
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The moral-deformation sense is explicitly attached to the Quranic usage as an interpretive possibility, while physical transformation is the more apparent reading.
The sole Quran occurrence and its location are taken from QAC. Lane's historical Quran citation conventions are not independently converted into modern verse locations.