Quranic root
روغ
r · w · gh
An orientation of turning aside, deviation, and lack of fixed stability.
The root develops from physical or directional turning and unstable movement into secret or crafty approach, evasion, pursuit, reciprocal maneuvering, and related senses of turning something through a medium or against an opponent.
- Maqāyīs · row 2185
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- 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.
رَاغَ
rāgha
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To turn aside secretly toward someone or something; to go or return to it by a discreet or crafty movement.
Used with إِلَى. In the Quran it describes turning toward the idols and going secretly to one's family; the movement is presented as purposeful and involving a form of maneuvering or guile.
- Lane · entry 24943
- Mufradāt · row 599
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:91word 1
“Then he turned”
Quran 51:26word 1
“Then he went”
To turn against or advance upon someone or something by stratagem, with the aim of overpowering or striking it.
Used with عَلَى. In the Quranic construction فَرَاغَ عَلَيْهِمْ ضَرْبًا بِالْيَمِينِ, the sense is a covert or artful advance against the object, leading to an act of striking.
- Lane · entry 24943
- Mufradāt · row 599
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:93word 1
“Then he turned”
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 12 Classical meanings
رَاغَ
To turn aside or away, move this way and that, deviate, or elude and dodge; to swerve from a person, path, truth, or intended course.
A general Classical Arabic use, including movement of a fox, person, game, or road. The Quranic إِلَى and عَلَى constructions are treated separately above.
- Lane · entry 24943
رَاغَ
To seek quickly an object of need from someone.
A Form I use describing the pursuit of an urgently desired object or favor.
- Lane · entry 24943
رَوَّغَ
To smear, season, imbue, or soak bread or a morsel with grease, gravy, dripping, or clarified butter.
A tropical Form II use applied to food that is turned through or saturated with fat.
- Lane · entry 24944
رَاوَغَ
To practise deceit or artifice with someone; to try to deceive, circumvent, or induce that person to turn.
A Form III reciprocal or transitive construction, including maneuvering toward or away from a person or matter by blandishment or guile.
- Lane · entry 24945
مُرَاوَغَةٌ
Wrestling or struggling together, with each opponent maneuvering against the other.
A conventional Form III verbal-noun use for reciprocal physical grappling.
- Lane · entry 24945
أَرَاغَ / اِرْتَاغَ
To seek, pursue, search for, or desire a thing, especially one difficult to obtain; to pursue game or a runaway object.
The Form IV verb may also describe devising or plotting in pursuit of an objective; the explicitly cross-referenced Form VIII form has the same sense.
- Lane · entry 24946
تَرَوَّغَ
To roll or turn oneself over; to become befouled or bedaubed in mud.
A Form V intransitive use describing bodily movement or the resulting state of being muddied.
- Lane · entry 24947
رَوَاغٌ / رِيَاغٌ
Abundance, plenty, or a state of having plentiful herbage, wealth, or the goods and comforts of life.
Includes the idiomatic expression خيرٌ رَوَاغٌ, abundant good or wealth, and the state expressed by في الرِّيَاغِ.
- Lane · entry 24951
- Lane · entry 24952
رِوَاغَةٌ / رِيَاغَةٌ
The wrestling place of a people.
The two forms are given as variant forms of the noun for the place where wrestling takes place.
- Lane · entry 24954
رُوَيْغَةٌ
An evasion, elusion, shift, wile, artifice, plot, or stratagem.
A diminutive lexical form derived from the notion of turning aside by a device or trick.
- Lane · entry 24955
رَوَّاغٌ
One habitually given to turning aside, moving evasively, or eluding and dodging; an appellation for a fox.
The comparative أَرْوَغُ expresses a greater or greatest degree of this evasive tendency.
- Lane · entry 24957
- Lane · entry 24960
رَائِغٌ
Deviating; specifically, a road that turns away from the main road or a side road.
Used adjectivally with طريق and substantivized for a road diverging from the main route.
- Lane · entry 24958
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The two Quranic senses are distinguished chiefly by construction: إِلَى marks a secret turn toward or return, while عَلَى marks a turn against or advance upon.
Printed citation traditions for the turning-against passage are not uniform; the modern location 37:93 is used here from the independently supplied Quran identification rather than by converting a historical bracketed citation.