Quranic root
سدر
s · d · r
The root's central semantic orientation is a state resembling bewilderment: visual confusion, disorientation, and disturbed judgment.
Classical usage develops this orientation into dazzled or weakened sight, vertigo, losing one's way, and heedlessness. The evidence also preserves distinct branches for the lote tree and for letting something hang, which are treated as substitutional or otherwise separate formations rather than direct instances of the central principle.
- Maqāyīs · row 2394
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 4
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سِدْر
sidr
- Part of speech
- Noun · collective tree term
- Quran occurrences
- 2 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.
The lote tree or lote trees.
A collective or generic tree term. In the Quranic occurrences it is associated with the tree's shade and with its comparatively little edible fruit or utility.
- Lane · entry 40658
- Mufradāt · row 674
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:16word 15
“lote trees”
Quran 56:28word 2
“lote trees”
سِدْرَة
sidrah
- Part of speech
- Noun · singular tree term
- Quran occurrences
- 2 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.
The lote tree at the furthest boundary, the celestial Sidrat al-Muntahā.
In the Quran, this singular form occurs in the construction referring to the lote tree associated with the furthest boundary and the celestial locus near the Garden.
- Lane · entry 40658
- Mufradāt · row 674
Selected Quran examples
Quran 53:14word 2
“(the) Lote Tree”
Quran 53:16word 3
“the Lote Tree”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 34:16سِدْرٍۢlote trees
- 53:14سِدْرَةِ(the) Lote Tree
- 53:16ٱلسِّدْرَةَthe Lote Tree
- 56:28سِدْرٍۢlote trees
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 27 Classical meanings
سَدِرَ
To become dazzled by what one looks at, turning away from it; to become confused or perplexed and unable to see one's right course.
The subject may be a person or an animal; the expression can also describe sight or an eye, including dazzling caused by intense heat or snow.
- Lane · entry 40653
- Lane · entry 40654
سَدَرَ
To let down, let fall, or make hair, a curtain, veil, or garment hang down.
A dialectal variant of سَدَلَ is also reported for this use.
- Lane · entry 40653
سَدَرَ
To rend or tear a garment.
- Lane · entry 40653
تَسَدَّرَ
To cover oneself with one's garment.
- Lane · entry 40655
اِنْسَدَرَ
To hang down, of hair, a curtain, or a veil.
A dialectal variant of اِنْسَدَلَ is also reported for this use.
- Lane · entry 40656
اِنْسَدَرَ
To run somewhat quickly or go downward while persevering in one's running.
- Lane · entry 40656
اِسْمَدَرَّ
For sight to become weak or impaired in the manner associated with visual bewilderment.
The expression is explained through the visual condition described under سَدِرَ.
- Lane · entry 40657
سِدْرَة
An individual lote tree, as the singular or unit noun corresponding to the collective سِدْر.
This is the ordinary botanical use apart from the Quranic celestial construction.
- Lane · entry 40658
سِدْر
The ground leaves of the lote tree, used for washing.
This specialized sense occurs when سِدْر is used absolutely in a washing context.
- Lane · entry 40658
سِدْر
The smaller or lesser number, generally a number from three through ten.
This numerical use is reported as occasional rather than as the ordinary botanical meaning.
- Lane · entry 40658
سَدَر
Confusedness or visual disorientation; also vertigo.
The vertigo sense is reported especially as an affection experienced by a voyager at sea.
- Lane · entry 40659
سَدِر
Dazzled or confused in vision, so as not to see well or to know one's right course.
The adjective may describe an eye or a person or animal affected by dazzling.
- Lane · entry 40660
سَدِرَة
An old and weak she-camel.
- Lane · entry 40660
سَدِر
The sea, in a rare poetic usage.
This reading is disputed; another reading takes the word as سِدْر, the lote tree.
- Lane · entry 40660
سِدْرِيّ، سَدَّار
A person who grinds, sells, or deals in lote-tree leaves.
The two cited occupational forms express the same leaf-selling occupation.
- Lane · entry 40661
- Lane · entry 40663
سِدَار
A curtain-like covering, including one put across a tent.
It may resemble a khidr or a canopy used across a tent.
- Lane · entry 40662
سَادِر
Lost in error or proceeding in a wrong way.
It may describe entering into or carrying out an affair wrongly.
- Lane · entry 40664
سَادِر
Lacking firmness or deliberation; speaking or acting without due consideration.
- Lane · entry 40664
سَادِر
Unconcerned about consequences or occupied with vain and frivolous diversion.
- Lane · entry 40664
سُمْدُور، سَمَادِير
Cloudiness or weakness of sight, including visual apparitions arising from intoxication, drowsiness, or vertigo.
The forms are associated with impaired visual perception rather than with an ordinary physical object.
- Lane · entry 40665
سُمْدُور
A king, in a figurative explanation based on the eyes becoming weak or dazzled when looking at him.
A rare figurative use.
- Lane · entry 40665
الأَسْدَرَانِ
The shoulder joints or sides; also, according to variant descriptions, two veins in the eye or the region beneath the temples.
The anatomical identification varies among the reported descriptions.
- Lane · entry 40666
أَسْدَرَاهُ
In the fixed expression of beating or shaking one's shoulder joints or sides: to come empty-handed, without occupation, or without having achieved the desired object.
This is an idiomatic construction, including variants with أَصْدَرَيْهِ and أَزْدَرَيْهِ.
- Lane · entry 40666
مَسْدُور
Hair that has been let down or made to hang down.
- Lane · entry 40667
مُسْمَدِرّ
Having a dazzled or impaired eye.
- Lane · entry 40668
مُسْمَدِرّ
A long and direct road.
- Lane · entry 40668
مُسْمَدِرّ
Right or straightforward speech or language.
A figurative extension from the sense of a long, direct road.
- Lane · entry 40668
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The lexical evidence reports differing traditional descriptions of the heavenly placement of Sidrat al-Muntaha; the Quranic form is securely located here by the supplied QAC occurrences at 53:14 and 53:16.
The reading سَدِر meaning the sea is rare and disputed against a reading of سِدْر meaning the lote tree.
A reported use of اِسْمَدَرَّتْ عَيْنُهُ for an eye shedding tears is not treated as an established classical meaning because the evidence itself says that it is not known in the classical language.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:sdr:40657:g1:sub2 reports اسمدرّت عَيْنُهُ بمعنى أن العين shed tears, but the same unit explicitly states that this usage is not known in the classical language; it is therefore left unassigned rather than presented as an established meaning.