Quranic root
قمح
q · m · ḥ
The root centrally denotes raising the head while drinking, especially stopping or refusing water.
From the posture of raising the head and ceasing to drink developed expressions for aversion to water, passive restraint, and figurative refusal or pride. The wheat and dry-food branches are recorded as divergent lexical developments, while several other nouns preserve specialized uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 3856
- Mufradāt · row 1206
- 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.
مُقْمَحٌ
muqmaḥun
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Having the head raised and the eyes contracted; held or left in that raised-head posture.
The Quranic form occurs in the plural, describing people in a passive-participial construction. The image is based on the posture of one who raises the head and ceases to drink.
- Lane · entry 8896
- Mufradāt · row 1206
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:8word 10
“(are with) heads raised up”
Figuratively, obstinately refusing submission to truth, guidance, or expenditure in a good cause.
This is the Quran-specific figurative application of the raised-head image in 36:8, portraying refusal to yield or accept right guidance rather than introducing a separate morphological form.
- Mufradāt · row 1206
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:8word 10
“(are with) heads raised up”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 36:8مُّقْمَحُونَ(are with) heads raised up
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 18 Classical meanings
قَمِحَهُ
To eat a dry farinaceous food, such as parched barley or wheat meal, by taking it into the mouth without moistening or kneading it.
The action includes taking the food in the palm and conveying or licking it into the mouth; it is distinguished from eating bread, dates, and similar moist foods.
- Lane · entry 8893
قَمِحَهُ
To drink a beverage, including water, milk, or nabīdh.
This is a transitive use for drinking the named liquid or beverage.
- Lane · entry 8893
قَمَحَ
To raise the head from water and stop or refuse drinking; also, of a person, to drink with dislike or loathing.
The refusal may follow satiety, aversion, cold water, or illness. A disputed explanation extends the verb to becoming very languid from intense thirst, but that explanation is rejected by another authority.
- Lane · entry 8893
قَمَّحَهُ
To repel someone with a small or paltry thing in place of what is substantially due to him.
The expression is used especially of an unjust distribution in which the distributor keeps the better share and gives the other party the least or meanest portion.
- Lane · entry 8894
شَهْرَا قِمَاحٍ
The two coldest winter months.
The name is explained by the camels' raising their heads and refusing water because of the water's coldness.
- Lane · entry 8895
أَقْمَحَهُ
To cause someone's head to be held raised by a neck collar or shackle.
The constricting neck-ring and its connecting bar prevent the captive from lowering the head by pressing or pricking beneath the chin.
- Lane · entry 8896
إِقْمَاحٌ
To elevate the head out of pride; to carry the nose high and behave proudly or disdainfully.
This is a figurative extension involving a head or nose habitually held high.
- Lane · entry 8896
أُقْمِحَ
According to a disputed explanation, to render a camel very languid through severe thirst.
The attribution is reported but explicitly treated as erroneous by another authority.
- Lane · entry 8896
أَقْمَحَ
Of ears of grain or wheat, to become filled with farinaceous substance and reach maturity.
The expression concerns the development of wheat as the floury substance fills the ears and the grain becomes mature.
- Lane · entry 8896
قَمْحٌ
Wheat, including a grain of wheat.
The term can refer to wheat from full growth until the grain becomes compact; in the expression جَرَى القَمْحُ فِي السُّنْبُلِ, the farinaceous substance has pervaded the ears. The word is particularly associated with Syrian usage, though it is also reported elsewhere.
- Lane · entry 8900
قُمْحَةٌ
A mouthful of dry food taken into the mouth; according to some, a mouthful of water.
The food sense refers to the material eaten in the manner of dry intake described under قَمِحَهُ.
- Lane · entry 8902
القِمْحَى / القِمْحَاةُ
The glans of the penis.
This is an anatomical noun with the two recorded lexical forms.
- Lane · entry 8903
القِمْحَانَةُ
The part between the occiput and the small hollow at the back of the neck.
A specific anatomical designation for the upper back of the neck.
- Lane · entry 8904
القُمَّحَانُ
A name for wars, a perfume, saffron, or the froth or white surface substance that forms on wine.
The lexicographical identifications vary; the wine sense is described as a scum resembling the perfume called dharīrah.
- Lane · entry 8905
قُمَاحٌ
Aversion of a camel from drinking.
The aversion is attributed to satisfied thirst, loathing, cold water, or illness; the expression شَهْرَا قُمَاحٍ names the coldest months from this behavior.
- Lane · entry 8906
لَقَمُوحٌ
A great drinker of nabīdh or a similar beverage.
Used adjectivally of a person characterized by heavy drinking.
- Lane · entry 8907
قَمِيحَةٌ
Food eaten dry by taking it into the mouth without moistening, especially parched barley or wheat meal; also a digestive preparation.
The term may also describe dry herbage that camels take into the mouth unmoistened or lick up.
- Lane · entry 8908
قَامِحٌ
A camel that raises its head from water and refuses to drink, or dislikes water.
The adjective applies to either a male or female camel. A disputed explanation also uses it for a camel made languid by severe thirst.
- Lane · entry 8909
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The sole Quran occurrence is the plural passive participle مُقْمَحُونَ; the public headword is normalized to the singular citation form مُقْمَحٌ.
The interpretation of 36:8 includes both the raised-head image and its figurative application to refusal of guidance; an additional interpretation associates the posture with shackles in the hereafter, which is interpretive context rather than a separate lexical sense.
Several Classical extensions involving languor from thirst are explicitly reported as disputed and have been retained as attributed variants rather than presented as the primary water-aversion meaning.