Quranic root
نفث
n · f · th
The root centers on the slight, audible emission of something from the mouth or another source.
The basic act of gentle blowing or ejecting a small amount of saliva extends to emitted venom, blood, or pot contents; figurative branches include enchantment, poetic utterance, and inspiration.
- Maqāyīs · row 4701
- Lane · entry 44095
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- 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.
نَفَّاثَةٌ
naffāthahun
- Part of speech
- Active participle · intensive
- 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.
An enchantress—one who blows upon knots while uttering an incantation.
Quranic feminine plural in النَّفَّاثَاتِ فِي الْعُقَدِ. The described blowing is without spitting and is directed at tied knots in an enchanting practice.
- Lane · entry 44101
- Mufradāt · row 1463
Selected Quran examples
Quran 113:4word 3
“(of) the blowers”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 113:4ٱلنَّفَّـٰثَـٰتِ(of) the blowers
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 15 Classical meanings
نَفَثَ
To puff or blow, with no spittle or with a small amount of it; to spit or eject a small emission.
Used of a person’s mouth and, by extension, of a serpent ejecting venom; the action is lighter than التَّفْل and may differ from it by the absence or small quantity of spittle.
- Lane · entry 44095
نَفَثَ
To cast or put something into a heart or mind; to inspire.
Figurative construction with something placed into the heart or mind; it may be said of Gabriel or the Holy Spirit as the inspirer.
- Lane · entry 44095
نَفَثَ
To enchant someone by blowing or spitting upon knots.
A conventional enchantment use derived from blowing or lightly spitting upon tied knots.
- Lane · entry 44095
نَفَثَ
In hostile idiomatic expressions, to blow at someone in anger or to blow or spit at an opponent as an expression of overpowering him.
Figurative and idiomatic usage rather than a literal description of ordinary blowing.
- Lane · entry 44095
نَفَثَ
Of a wound, to emit blood.
Intransitive usage with the wound as the emitter.
- Lane · entry 44095
نَفَثَ
Of a cooking pot, to boil and throw forth spurting matter produced by the violence of its boiling.
Applied to a pot as it begins to boil and ejects what its boiling produces.
- Lane · entry 44095
نَفْثُ الشَّيْطَانِ
A satanic spell-like utterance or emission, likened to something blown or spat from the mouth like an incantation.
A fixed expression whose imagery is based on oral blowing or spitting.
- Lane · entry 44096
نَفَثَاتٌ
Poetic utterances or poetic effusions.
Used in the expression نَفَثَاتِ فُلَانٍ for a person’s poetry.
- Lane · entry 44096
نَفِيثٌ
Emitted, of blood; blood issuing from a wound or vein.
Usually occurs in the collocation دَمٌ نَفِيثٌ.
- Lane · entry 44097
نُفَاثٌ
Prolific in producing vegetation, as though blowing or spitting forth herbs.
Applied to a fertile plain or land; the transmitted form is reported with a question about its correctness.
- Lane · entry 44098
نُفَاثَةٌ
What is blown or spat from the mouth, including what a person with a chest ailment expectorates.
A noun for the emitted material rather than for the act of blowing or spitting.
- Lane · entry 44099
نُفَاثَةٌ
A particle or remnant of a tooth-stick retained in the mouth and then spat out.
Specifically concerns a fragment of siwāk or tooth-stick.
- Lane · entry 44099
نَفِيثَةٌ
A certain kind of food.
- Lane · entry 44100
نَافِثٌ
An enchanter; one who practices enchantment.
Active-participle usage describing the practitioner of enchantment.
- Lane · entry 44102
مَنْفُوتٌ
A man who has been enchanted.
Passive description of a person subjected to enchantment.
- Lane · entry 44103
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic occurrence is feminine plural; the public headword is normalized to the feminine singular intensive active-participle form.
The rare classical form نُفَاثٌ for a vegetation-producing plain is retained as a reported usage although its transmitted form is questioned in the lexical evidence.