Quranic root
نحت
n · ḥ · t
A process of cutting, hewing, and shaping material by removing it with a tool.
The concrete act of carving extends metaphorically to a person's formed nature or originating source, and to products and residue resulting from carving.
- Maqāyīs · row 4566
- Mufradāt · row 1418
- Lane · entry 43370
- Lane · entry 43373
- 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.
نَحَتَ
naḥata
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To carve or hew out, shaping a solid material by cutting.
In the Quranic occurrences, the verb describes carving dwellings or other formed objects from mountainous or similarly solid material. The supplied QAC forms are active imperfect forms of Form I.
- Lane · entry 43368
- Mufradāt · row 1418
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:82word 2
“carve”
Quran 26:149word 1
“And you carve”
Quran 7:74word 15
“and you carve out”
Quran 37:95word 4
“you carve”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 7:74وَتَنْحِتُونَand you carve out
- 15:82يَنْحِتُونَcarve
- 26:149وَتَنْحِتُونَAnd you carve
- 37:95تَنْحِتُونَyou carve
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 21 Classical meanings
نَحَتَ
To cut, hew, fashion, chip, pare, peel, bark, or saw wood and similar material.
A related Form VIII construction describes wood or similar material as worked, cut, hewn, pared, or sawn.
- Lane · entry 43368
- Lane · entry 43369
نُحِتَ عَلَى الكَرَمِ
To be fashioned after a model; figuratively, to be formed with a particular generous nature.
A figurative conventional construction describing a person's character as formed after a model.
- Lane · entry 43368
نَحَتَ
To approach sexually or have sexual intercourse.
A conventional transitive use describing sexual approach or intercourse.
- Lane · entry 43368
نَحَتَ
To beat, strike, or smite with a staff or stick.
The object is the person struck.
- Lane · entry 43368
نَحَتَ
To throw someone down and leave him prostrate.
This use emphasizes the resulting prostrate state.
- Lane · entry 43368
نَحَتَ بِلِسَانِهِ
To blame, reprehend, or revile someone with the tongue.
A figurative speech-related construction.
- Lane · entry 43368
نَحَتَ
To emaciate or make thin.
The evidence applies the use to the emaciating effect of travel on a camel and to making a person thin.
- Lane · entry 43368
نَحَتَ
To sigh aloud.
The associated verbal nouns are used for an audible sigh or heavy breathing.
- Lane · entry 43368
نَحْتٌ
Natural disposition, constitution, temper, or inherent character.
A figurative nominal sense, describing the constitution in which a person is formed; generosity may be cited as part of such a nature.
- Lane · entry 43370
نَحْتٌ
The source or origin from which a person is, as it were, cut out.
A figurative nominal use for a person's formative source or origin.
- Lane · entry 43370
بَرْدٌ نَحْتٌ
Unmixed, severe cold.
This expression is reported as a disputed usage and is also said to be a corruption of بَحْتٌ.
- Lane · entry 43370
نَحِيتَةٌ
Natural disposition or constitution—the nature in which a person has been formed.
A nominal term for formed or innate disposition, comparable to an implanted instinct.
- Mufradāt · row 1418
نَحِيتٌ
A comb.
A noun explicitly equated with مُشْطٌ or مَشْطٌ.
- Lane · entry 43371
نَحِيتٌ
Worn away, abraded, wasted, or attenuated; an animal or hoof with such wear.
Used of hoof edges or feet that have been worn down, and of a camel or horse characterized by worn feet or hoofs; the related Form VIII can describe such wear as occurring to the feet.
- Lane · entry 43369
- Lane · entry 43371
- Lane · entry 43378
نَحِيتٌ
A portion of a tree trunk hewn out and hollowed into a jar-like vessel for bees.
The plural is نُحُتٌ.
- Lane · entry 43371
نَحِيتٌ
Anything bad, or the bad part of something.
A general nominal use for what is bad in a thing.
- Lane · entry 43371
نَحِيتٌ
A person who inserts himself among a people and lives with them without belonging to their race.
A social noun for an outsider or non-member living among a group.
- Lane · entry 43371
نُحَاتَةٌ
Cuttings, chips, parings, and similar pieces that fall from worked wood or another carved material.
A result noun for residue produced by carving or hewing.
- Lane · entry 43373
- Mufradāt · row 1418
مَنْحَتٌ
The source or origin of a person, conceived as what he is cut out from.
The plural is مَنَاحِتُ.
- Lane · entry 43375
مِنْحَتٌ
An implement used for cutting, hewing, or similar work, especially an adze.
An instrument noun for a carving or hewing tool.
- Lane · entry 43376
مَنْحُوتٌ
A word compounded from two or more words.
A technical grammatical term, illustrated by compounds such as بَسْمَلَ and حَمْدَلَ.
- Lane · entry 43379
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The supplied QAC occurrences are imperfect forms with both second- and third-person surface realizations; the public headword is normalized to the Form I perfect نَحَتَ.
A variant reading is reported for the Lane discussion of 15:82; it does not alter the QAC form identity or the modern QAC location used here.
The expression بَرْدٌ نَحْتٌ is retained as a disputed Classical usage because the evidence also reports it as a possible corruption of بَحْتٌ.