Quranic root
قمل
q · m · l
The root centers on smallness and lowliness, with tiny insects serving as a salient image.
The lexical development connects small insects with contemptible or diminutive descriptions and with أَقْمَلَ, used of the rimth plant when it puts forth small leaves likened to those insects.
- Maqāyīs · row 3864
- Mufradāt · row 1211
- 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.
قُمَّل
qummal
- 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.
Small flies or other tiny pests; the pest named in the Quranic occurrence and conventionally rendered “lice.”
Occurs in 7:133 as وَالْقُمَّلَ. Classical lexical identification is not uniform: it is described as small flies, while the supplied contextual rendering is “the lice.”
- Mufradāt · row 1211
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:133word 5
“and the lice”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 7:133وَٱلْقُمَّلَand the lice
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 6 Classical meanings
قُمَّل
A small pest, identified as a kind of woodworm or as a type of tick.
A Classical Arabic identification of the noun; it is kept distinct from the Quran-attested description of the occurrence as small flies.
- Lane · entry 21130
قَمْل
Lice; the familiar louse infestation.
A separate nominal form from قُمَّل.
- Mufradāt · row 1211
قَمِل
Infested with lice; having lice.
A descriptive adjective, illustrated in the expression رَجُلٌ قَمِلٌ.
- Mufradāt · row 1211
قَمِلَة
Small and ugly, likened to a louse.
A feminine descriptive form explicitly applied to a woman in the cited usage.
- Mufradāt · row 1211
قَمَلِيّ
Contemptible or lowly.
Attested as an epithet for a man in the expression رَجُلٌ قَمَلِيٌّ.
- Maqāyīs · row 3864
أَقْمَلَ
Of the rimth plant, to put forth small leaves.
A specialized usage said of الرِّمْث; the small leaves are likened to قُمَّل.
- Maqāyīs · row 3864
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The exact zoological identification of قُمَّل is uncertain across the supplied evidence: it is described as small flies, conventionally rendered as lice, and elsewhere identified as a small pest or type of tick.