Quranic root
نسأ
n · s · ʾ
The root centers on putting something later in time: postponing, delaying, or extending an appointed term.
This temporal orientation extends to deferred watering and payment, prolonged life, and the staff that urges an animal onward; related lexical branches also describe pregnancy after delayed menstruation, diluted or soured milk, and fatness.
- Mufradāt · row 1433
- Lane · entry 43585
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مِنْسَأَةٌ
minsaʾahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A staff or stick used to urge or drive an animal.
In its Quranic occurrence, the word denotes Solomon’s staff. The lexical explanation concerns the staff’s function as an instrument for urging or driving.
- Lane · entry 43599
- Mufradāt · row 1433
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:14word 13
“his staff”
نَسِيءٌ
nasīʾun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
Postponement or transfer of the sacredness of a month to another month.
The Quranic usage refers to the pre-Islamic practice of postponing a sacred month, particularly transferring the sacredness of Muḥarram to Ṣafar, so that the sacred months would not impede seasonal raiding. It is condemned in the cited Quranic passage.
- Lane · entry 43595
- Mufradāt · row 1433
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:37word 2
“the postponing”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 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 32 Classical meanings
نَسْءٌ
Postponement or delay in time.
A general nominal expression for deferring an appointed time, distinct from the Quranic specialized reference to postponing the sacredness of a month.
- Mufradāt · row 1433
نَسَأَ
To urge, drive, or propel an animal onward.
Used of urging or driving a camel and similar animals.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
To postpone or delay a thing, including deferring its customary time of watering.
The watering construction may mean keeping camels from water or lengthening the interval between successive waterings.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
To prolong a person’s life or allotted term.
Used in constructions such as prolonging someone’s appointed term; corresponding passive usage means that a person’s life was prolonged.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
To hold back, put back, or drive an animal away from a watering place.
Explicitly attested with camels and a tank or cistern.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
To put someone backward; figuratively, to render him ignominious.
A figurative or idiomatic extension of putting someone back.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
To sell on deferred payment or postpone the payment of a debt or sale price.
Used of credit sales and of granting extra time for payment of a debt or the price of goods.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
Of menstruation, to become late so that pregnancy is suspected or begins.
The lexical usage describes delayed menstrual discharge and the resulting expectation or onset of pregnancy.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
To mix milk with water.
The mixture may be made for another person.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
To give someone a drink called nasʾ, namely wine or milk.
A specialized transitive usage referring to giving the named drink.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
Of a female antelope, to lick her young immediately after its birth.
The subject and newborn-young context are explicitly part of this lexical usage.
- Lane · entry 43585
نَسَأَ
To become fat or begin to grow fat.
The description includes the regrowth of soft hair after it has fallen off.
- Lane · entry 43585
أَنْسَأَ
To grant someone a delay or credit in payment.
Used of granting a deferred payment in a sale or in the settlement of a debt.
- Lane · entry 43587
أَنْسَأَ
To make one’s way far off or lead oneself away.
An attested expression describing movement to a distant place.
- Lane · entry 43587
اِنْتَسَأَ
To be postponed or delayed.
Equivalent in this usage to being put off or deferred.
- Lane · entry 43589
اِنْتَسَأَ
To go far off or range far away.
Used of a camel in pasture and, more generally, of a party of people going far off.
- Lane · entry 43589
اِنْتَسَأَ
To retire or withdraw far from someone or something.
The construction with عَنْ expresses withdrawal or distancing from an object.
- Lane · entry 43589
اِسْتَنْسَأَ
To ask for a postponement or for credit.
Used when a debtor asks a creditor for more time, or when a buyer asks that payment in a sale be deferred.
- Lane · entry 43590
نَسْءٌ
A woman whose menstrual discharge is late and who is consequently thought to be pregnant.
The reports also include a woman in whom pregnancy has appeared or begun; the wording is a nominal use associated with delayed menstruation.
- Lane · entry 43591
نَسْءٌ
Thin, watery milk or milk mixed with water.
A nominal designation for diluted milk.
- Lane · entry 43591
نَسْءٌ
Wine or an intoxicating drink that dispels reason.
This meaning is reported for the vocalization نَسْءٌ, with variant attribution concerning the related forms.
- Lane · entry 43591
نَسْءٌ
Fatness, whether its beginning or its completion.
The noun may describe fatness developing in beasts or its fully developed state.
- Lane · entry 43591
نِسْءٌ
One who mixes or converses with others.
An example uses socializing with women, but the lexical definition itself is not restricted to that object class.
- Lane · entry 43592
نَسَاءٌ
Length or prolongation of life.
A nominal expression for extended lifespan or longevity.
- Lane · entry 43594
نَسِيءٌ
A postponement of the payment of a debt or the price of a thing sold.
Used as a noun or verbal noun for deferred payment and credit.
- Lane · entry 43595
نَسِيئَةٌ
A debt whose payment is deferred, or a sale made on credit for payment at a specified future time.
The term applies both to the deferred debt and to the credit transaction itself.
- Lane · entry 43596
- Mufradāt · row 1433
نَاسِئٌ
An official whose office was to postpone a sacred month.
The official was also called قَلَمَّسٌ; the meaning belongs to the historical institution of month postponement.
- Lane · entry 43597
نَاسِئٌ
Something fat or beginning to grow fat.
A descriptive active-participial use, distinct from the institutional sense of the same headword.
- Lane · entry 43597
مَنْسَأَةٌ
A means of prolonging someone’s memorial or remembrance.
Attested in the conventional expression صِلَةُ الرَّحِمِ مَنْسَأَةٌ فِي الأَثَرِ.
- Lane · entry 43598
نَسُوءٌ
A woman whose menstruation is delayed and who is thought or found to be pregnant.
A nominal or descriptive form associated with delayed menstruation and pregnancy.
- Lane · entry 43591
- Mufradāt · row 1433
نَسُوءٌ
Milk that has stood, soured, and is then diluted with water.
The meaning describes milk whose consumption was delayed until it became sour and was extended with water.
- Mufradāt · row 1433
مُنْتَسَأٌ
An interval, distance, or intervening space.
It may describe being far apart from someone or something.
- Lane · entry 43600
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic مِنْسَأَتَهُ in 34:14 is normalized under مِنْسَأَةٌ. A separately reported reading, مِنْ سَأَتِهِ, is an alternative segmentation and interpretation, not an additional sense of the public headword.
The Quranic نَسِيءٌ sense is specifically the postponement of sacred-month observance; the broader senses of delayed payment remain separate under other Classical Arabic meanings.
The packet contains no Maqāyīs entry, so the root orientation is based on the supplied Lane and Mufradāt evidence.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
Mufradāt also explains the Quranic reading نَنْسَأْهَا in 2:106 as “we postpone it,” but no corresponding QAC form group or independently supplied QAC occurrence for that verb is present; it is therefore not assigned to either displayed Quranic form.
The packet’s input_integrity field reports 55 Lane primary source units, and the supplied source-unit objects are accounted for individually in the ledger.