Quranic root
سفع
s · f · ʿ
The root has two documented semantic orientations: dark or altered coloration, and taking hold of something with the hand.
The color branch develops into discoloration, fire-marks, dark patches, and color descriptors. The hand-taking branch yields seizing by the forelock and related extensions to striking and assault.
- Maqāyīs · row 2441
- Mufradāt · row 697
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- 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.
سَفَعَ
safaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To seize by the forelock and drag.
In the Quranic construction with بِالنَّاصِيَةِ, the forelock is seized as the means of dragging the person, with the Fire given as the destination in the surrounding interpretation.
- Lane · entry 41357
- Mufradāt · row 697
Selected Quran examples
Quran 96:15word 5
“surely We will drag him”
To blacken or mark the face with a punitive mark.
An alternative interpretation of the Quranic construction takes the forelock as the front part of the face and understands the action as blackening it or marking it with the mark of the people of the Fire.
- Lane · entry 41357
Selected Quran examples
Quran 96:15word 5
“surely We will drag him”
To abase, humiliate, or render despicable.
This is another reported interpretation of the same Quranic expression; associated explanations include bringing the person to stand in abasement.
- Lane · entry 41357
Selected Quran examples
Quran 96:15word 5
“surely We will drag him”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 96:15لَنَسْفَعًۢاsurely We will drag him
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 30 Classical meanings
سَفَعَ
To scorch or smite lightly, altering the color of the external skin.
Said of the action of hot wind, fire, or the sun upon a person or the person's face; the effect may include blackening.
- Lane · entry 41357
سَفَعَ
To make a mark upon something with a hot iron or with fire.
A conventional transitive use distinct from merely scorching or discoloring.
- Lane · entry 41357
سَفَعَ
To slap, strike, or beat; of a bird, to strike with the wing.
The object may be a person or thing; the bird usage refers to striking with one or both wings.
- Lane · entry 41357
سَفِعَ
To be or become black tinged with red.
Said of a thing that takes on the color termed سُفْعَة.
- Lane · entry 41357
سَافَعَ
To strike, beat, or assault one another; to fight reciprocally.
The Form III construction presents reciprocal action between adversaries.
- Lane · entry 41359
سَافَعَ
To embrace one another.
A reciprocal Form III use.
- Lane · entry 41359
تَسَفَّعَ
To warm oneself by a fire.
The fire is expressed with بِالنَّارِ.
- Lane · entry 41360
اِسْتُفِعَ لَوْنُهُ
For one's color to become altered.
The alteration is attributed to fear or a comparable condition such as disease.
- Lane · entry 41361
اِسْتَفَعَ
To become swollen or develop a tumor.
The verbal noun is compared with a state of swelling or puffing up.
- Lane · entry 41361
اِسْتَفَعَ
To put on or clothe oneself in a garment.
The use applies to putting on one's clothing.
- Lane · entry 41361
سَفْعٌ
A fire-mark that alters a person's color.
A nominal designation for a mark caused by fire.
- Lane · entry 41362
سَفْعٌ
A garment, especially a dyed garment.
The plural is سُفُوعٌ.
- Lane · entry 41362
سَفْعٌ
The spathe or spadix of the tree called ظِمْخٌ.
A specialized botanical use.
- Lane · entry 41362
سَفْعَةٌ
A stroke or touch attributed to a devil, madness, possession, or the evil eye.
The expression may describe an affliction understood as a devil's touch or an evil-eye stroke.
- Lane · entry 41365
سُفْعَةٌ
A dark discoloration or patch, especially blackness tinged with red.
The term is used for discoloration on the face or cheeks and for dark spots or specks; it can also describe a visible change of color caused by anger.
- Lane · entry 41366
سُفْعَةٌ
A dark patch in the traces of a house that contrasts with the surrounding ground.
It may consist of compacted ash, sweepings, dung, or sand left in the former site of a dwelling.
- Lane · entry 41366
سَافِعٌ
One who seizes a forelock.
Attested especially of seizing a horse's forelock in order to mount it.
- Lane · entry 41367
سَوَافِعُ
Burning blasts of the hot wind called سَمُوم.
A plural lexical use.
- Lane · entry 41367
أَسْفَعُ
Black or black tinged with red; dark in coloration.
Used as a color descriptor for people, animals, and cloth, including a garment or animal with dark coloration or dark cheeks.
- Lane · entry 41368
أَسْفَعُ
A hawk; also a pigeon marked by a dark patch on the neck.
These are lexicalized animal uses associated with dark markings.
- Lane · entry 41368
أَسْفَعُ
A term used in calling sheep or goats, or a she-goat, to be milked.
A conventional calling term rather than a general color description.
- Lane · entry 41368
أَسْفَعُ
The stones supporting a cooking pot, or an iron trivet.
The name is associated with the blackness of these cooking supports.
- Lane · entry 41368
سُفْعٌ
The seeds or grain of the colocynth.
A plural or collective nominal use associated with the seeds' blackness.
- Lane · entry 41368
مُسَفَّعٌ
Blackened by rust, or marked with black spots.
Applied to a man clad in armor blackened by rust and to a bull with black spots on its face.
- Lane · entry 41369
مَسْفُوعٌ
A person affected or struck by the evil eye.
A passive-participial description of someone suffering that affliction.
- Lane · entry 41370
مَسْفُوعُ العَيْنِ
A person whose eye is sunken or depressed in the head.
The specification العَيْنِ identifies the affected body part.
- Lane · entry 41370
مُسَافِعٌ
One engaged in reciprocal striking, beating, or assault.
The participle describes each of two parties who strike or attack one another.
- Lane · entry 41371
مُسَافِعٌ
A lion that prostrates its prey.
A specialized figurative application of the attacking sense.
- Lane · entry 41371
مُسَافِعٌ
Embracing.
A participial use corresponding to reciprocal embracing.
- Lane · entry 41371
مُسَافِعٌ
Having sexual intercourse without marriage.
A conventional use equated with مُسَافِحٌ; it describes intercourse outside a marital relationship.
- Lane · entry 41371
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The three Quranic senses preserve alternative interpretations of the single construction in 96:15; they are not separate Quran occurrences.