Quranic root
نغض
n · gh · ḍ
The root denotes shaking, trembling, and movement, especially movement that is unstable, convulsive, or repeatedly agitated.
The basic notion of shaking extends to directed head gestures, trembling teeth, moving clouds, anatomical parts characterized by mobility, and names for animals marked by such movement.
- Maqāyīs · row 4694
- Mufradāt · row 1462
- 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.
أَنْغَضَ
ʾanghaḍa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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 shake or wag the head toward someone, as a gesture of astonishment, disapproval, or derision.
In the attested Quranic construction, the head is the object of the motion and the movement is directed toward an addressee with إِلَى. The gesture may express wonder, disapproval, mockery, or a questioning response.
- Lane · entry 44080
- Mufradāt · row 1462
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:51word 15
“Then they will shake”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 17:51فَسَيُنْغِضُونَThen they will shake
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 13 Classical meanings
نَغَضَ
To move in a shaking, tremulous, convulsive, or unstable manner; to shake, wobble, totter, wag, or nod.
Said of a head, a camel’s saddle, a tooth, or other things; it can also describe a person becoming agitated or disquieted.
- Lane · entry 44079
نَغَضَ
To rise, hasten, and go forth toward an enemy.
An idiomatic or figurative use describing movement toward an enemy.
- Lane · entry 44079
نَغَضَ
To become dense or abundant; of a cloud, to become dense or rain-ready and to move or travel.
Descriptions of the cloud vary between internal billowing or movement of one part into another and movement along; the lexical branch concerns cloud density and movement associated with rain.
- Lane · entry 44079
نَغَضَ
Of an affair or case, to become weak or unsound.
A figurative use applied to the condition of an affair or matter.
- Lane · entry 44079
أَنْغَضَ
To put a thing into a state of motion or agitation; to shake, wag, wobble, totter, or nod it.
A transitive causative use, said of a thing or of the head. The directed head gesture attested in the Quran is listed separately above.
- Lane · entry 44080
نَغْضٌ
One who shakes the head and trembles in gait.
An inflectional noun used as an epithet.
- Lane · entry 44082
نَغْضٌ
A male ostrich.
The name is associated with the bird’s repeated head movement when hastening or, in some descriptions, with its habit of going around.
- Lane · entry 44082
نَغْضَةٌ
A tree.
- Lane · entry 44085
نَغُوضٌ
A she-camel with a large hump.
The name is explained by the shaking or quaking of a large hump.
- Lane · entry 44086
نَغَّاضٌ
Much or intensely shaking, wagging, nodding, or agitated.
An intensive adjective; it can describe camels that jog greatly with their saddles or make their saddles jolt repeatedly.
- Lane · entry 44087
نَغَّاضُ البَطْنِ
Wrinkled or ridged in the belly.
A figurative expression or epithet applied to a person; the source also reports an alternative derivation involving transposition from a word for wrinkles.
- Lane · entry 44087
نَاغِضٌ
Moving, agitated, or shaking; of a cloud, becoming dense and rain-ready while its parts billow or move into one another.
The cloud may be described as moving internally without traveling along, although some accounts allow movement or travel more generally.
- Lane · entry 44088
نَاغِضٌ
The cartilage of the shoulder blade, especially a part that moves to and fro; also the base of the neck where the head moves.
An anatomical use covering the mobile part or extremity of the shoulder-blade cartilage and the corresponding neck region.
- Lane · entry 44088
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Lane passage prints the Quran citation in historical form as “xvii. 53”; the independently supplied QAC occurrence is 17:51, which is the location used here. The Lane citation is not converted into a modern location independently of QAC.