Quranic root
قرد
q · r · d
A principle of gathering or compacting something while its parts remain distinguishable or discontinuous.
This orientation appears in clotted wool and hair, broken-up cloud formations, elevated ground beside hollows, and raised parts of the back. Related extensions include the clustering of ticks and the stillness associated with their removal.
- Maqāyīs · row 3752
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قِرْدٌ
qirdun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 occurrences
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 ape, monkey, or baboon; plural قِرَدَةٌ.
The Quranic occurrences use the plural form قِرَدَةٌ. In the passages describing people being made into apes, the reported interpretation varies between a transformation of visible form and a transformation of character to resemble that of apes.
- Lane · entry 8139
- Mufradāt · row 1169
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 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 31 Classical meanings
قَرِدَ
Of wool or hair: to fall off gradually, become compacted into clumps, or become knotted at the ends.
- Lane · entry 8135
قَرِدَ
Of a tanned skin: to become worm-eaten.
- Lane · entry 8135
قَرِدَ
To become silent through inability to speak, or to become still, abject, humble, or submissive.
The figurative associations are explained through the stillness of a camel while ticks are removed.
- Lane · entry 8135
قَرَدَ
To collect or acquire for one's family; specifically, to collect clarified butter or milk in a skin.
- Lane · entry 8135
قَرَّدَ
To remove or pluck ticks from an animal, especially a camel.
- Lane · entry 8136
قَرَّدَ
To render submissive or tractable.
Attested especially of a camel after its ticks have been removed; the related intransitive use describes the camel becoming submissive or tractable.
- Lane · entry 8136
قَرَّدَ
To beguile, wheedle, or cajole someone.
A figurative extension of approaching or handling someone gently in order to overcome resistance, sometimes with deceptive intent.
- Lane · entry 8136
- Mufradāt · row 1169
أَقْرَدَ
Of a camel: to become still, quiet, or tranquil after its ticks have been removed.
The term can also describe moving at a gentle pace without shaking or jolting the rider.
- Lane · entry 8137
أَقْرَدَ
To become silent, still, quiet, or submissive; also, to feign being dead.
This figurative use is applied to a person as well as to stillness generally.
- Lane · entry 8137
أَقْرَدَ
To cling to the ground through abjectness or submissiveness.
- Lane · entry 8137
تَقَرَّدَ
Of flour: to become heaped, with one part lying upon another.
- Lane · entry 8138
ابْنُ القِرْدِ
A حَوْدَل, in the conventional expression ابن القرد.
This is a specialized lexical expression rather than the ordinary animal sense of قِرْدٌ.
- Lane · entry 8139
قَرَدٌ
Refuse of wool and other soft hair or fiber; especially material that falls off gradually and becomes compacted or clotted.
A piece of this material is قَرَدَةٌ. The term also occurs in a proverb applied to someone who postpones a necessary task until it becomes difficult.
- Lane · entry 8140
قَرَدٌ
Palm branches stripped of their leaves.
- Lane · entry 8140
قَرَدٌ
A down-like or fiber-like substance adhering to the plant called طُرْثُوث.
- Lane · entry 8140
قَرَدٌ
Small detached cloudlets or little scattered collections of cloud.
The formations are described as smaller than ordinary clouds and not joined into one mass.
- Lane · entry 8140
قَرَدٌ
Hesitation in speech.
The meaning is connected with leaving part of what one intends to say unspoken.
- Lane · entry 8140
قَرِدٌ
Wool or hair that has contracted together, become compacted into lumps, and knotted at its extremities.
- Lane · entry 8141
قَرِدٌ
A cloud formation broken into portions or layers that are compacted together one upon another.
The description includes disjoined or irregular masses resembling compacted soft hair.
- Lane · entry 8141
قَرِدُ الخَصِيلِ
A horse compact and firm in frame, not lax.
- Lane · entry 8141
قَرِدٌ
Of a camel or similar animal: abounding in ticks.
- Lane · entry 8141
قَرِدٌ
Accumulated foam cast from a camel's mouth.
Used as a substantivized epithet.
- Lane · entry 8141
قَرْدَدٌ
Elevated, rugged, or prominent ground, especially ground rising beside a hollow or depressed place.
The term can also refer to an even or plain tract and to an extended strip of ground, according to the cited lexical descriptions.
- Lane · entry 8142
قُرْدُودَةُ الظَّهْرِ
The uppermost or raised part of the back of a beast of burden, especially the withers.
- Lane · entry 8144
قُرْدُودَةُ الشِّتَاءِ
The severity, sharpness, or sterile severity of winter.
- Lane · entry 8144
قُرَادٌ
A tick, an insect that clings to camels and similar animals and bites them.
The collective plural is قِرْدَانٌ; the word may also refer collectively to ticks.
- Lane · entry 8145
قُرَادُ الثَّدْيِ
The nipple of the breast or udder.
A figurative designation based on the resemblance of a nipple to a large tick.
- Lane · entry 8145
أُمُّ القِرْدَانِ
The place between the fetlock and hoof of a horse, or between the phalanges of a camel's foot.
A specialized anatomical expression.
- Lane · entry 8145
قَرُودٌ
A camel that does not impatiently avoid having its ticks plucked off.
- Lane · entry 8146
قَرُودٌ
A still or quiet man.
A figurative extension of the camel description.
- Lane · entry 8146
قَرَّادٌ
A trainer of an ape, monkey, or baboon.
- Lane · entry 8147
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The displayed Quranic headword is the singular قِرْدٌ, while all three supplied Quran occurrences are the plural قِرَدَةٌ.
The interpretation of the Quranic transformation passages is reported in two ways: physical resemblance to apes or resemblance in character without physical transformation.