Skip to content
Pray for the Truth

Quranic root

سمن

s · m · n

The root centers on fullness of flesh or fat, in contrast with leanness and emaciation; it also extends to fattening and ghee.

The core idea of bodily or material fullness develops into becoming fat, causing fatness, possessing or supplying fatty provisions, and the noun سَمْنٌ for clarified butter. A regional divergent branch uses Form II for cooling.

  • Maqāyīs · row 2490
  • Mufradāt · row 727
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.

أَسْمَنَ

ʾasmana

Part of speech
Verb · Form IV
Form
IV
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.

  1. To fatten; to cause something to become fat or plump.

    A causative transitive use. In the Quranic occurrence it is negated: the food does not produce fatness.

    • Mufradāt · row 727
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 88:7word 2

    it nourishes

سَمِينٌ

samīnun

Part of speech
Adjective
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.

  1. Fat, plump; having much flesh and fat.

    The Quranic form occurs both as the singular سَمِينٍ and the plural سِمَانٍ.

    • Lane · entry 42238
    • Mufradāt · row 727
    Selected Quran examples

    Quran 12:46word 8

    fat

    Quran 51:26word 6

    fat

Occurrences in the Quran

Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.

  • 12:43سِمَانٍۢfat
  • 12:46سِمَانٍۢfat
  • 51:26سَمِينٍۢfat
  • 88:7يُسْمِنُit nourishes
View all 4 occurrences

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 29 Classical meanings
  • سَمِنَ

    To become fat or plump; to be in a condition of having much flesh and fat.

    Form I intransitive usage.

    • Lane · entry 42228
  • سَمِنَ

    Of grain, to become full in the grain.

    A figurative extension applied to wheat.

    • Lane · entry 42228
  • سَمَنَ

    To prepare, moisten, or stir food or bread with ghee.

    Form I transitive usage with food or bread as the object.

    • Lane · entry 42228
  • سَمَنَ

    To feed a person, people, or a group with ghee.

    A transitive provision-related use.

    • Lane · entry 42228
  • سَمَّنَ

    To render someone or something fat or plump; to cause it to have much flesh and fat.

    Form II causative usage, distinct from the Quranic Form IV citation form.

    • Lane · entry 42229
  • سَمَّنَ

    To furnish people with ghee as travelling provision or supplies.

    A provision-related Form II use.

    • Lane · entry 42229
  • سَمَّنَ

    To cool something.

    A regional usage attributed to the dialects of al-Ṭāʾif and Yemen.

    • Lane · entry 42229
  • أَسْمَنَ

    To be fat or plump by nature.

    An intransitive Form IV use.

    • Lane · entry 42230
  • أَسْمَنَ

    To possess, buy, or give a fat or plump thing; of a people, to come into the condition of having fat cattle; also, to buy ghee.

    The form is used for possession, acquisition, or transfer of fatty goods and for a community's condition with respect to fat cattle.

    • Lane · entry 42230
  • تَسَمَّنَ

    To make a display or claim of abundance by hoarding wealth, boasting of goods not possessed, or claiming an unearned nobility.

    A figurative or assumed-tropical extension.

    • Lane · entry 42231
  • تَسَمَّنَ

    To indulge in food and drink that cause fatness or plumpness.

    A figurative or assumed-tropical extension referring to fattening consumption.

    • Lane · entry 42231
  • اِسْتَسْمَنَ

    To deem, reckon, or find a person or thing fat or plump.

    The object may be a person, an animal, flesh-meat, or another thing.

    • Lane · entry 42232
  • اِسْتَسْمَنَ

    To seek or demand something fat or plump, including ghee.

    A seeking or requesting use, including the expression for coming to request ghee.

    • Lane · entry 42232
  • سَمْنٌ

    Clarified butter; ghee. In the compound سَمْنُ الهَبِيدِ, decocted juice of colocynth.

    The ordinary noun denotes clarified butter from milk; the compound is a specialized lexical expression.

    • Lane · entry 42233
  • سِمَنٌ

    Fatness or plumpness; the condition of having much flesh and fat.

    An abstract noun contrasted with leanness or emaciation.

    • Lane · entry 42234
  • سَمْنَةٌ

    A particular herb with leaves, slender twigs, and a white flower.

    A plant name, distinct from the noun for ghee and the related noun for a fattening medicine.

    • Lane · entry 42235
  • سُمْنَةٌ

    A medicine used to fatten or render someone plump.

    It may refer specifically to a medicine used for fattening women.

    • Lane · entry 42236
  • السُّمَنِيَّةُ

    A sect or people associated with metempsychosis and related doctrines about the world's duration and the sources of knowledge.

    A specialized ethnoreligious designation, reported as an irregular relational noun from the name of an Indian town.

    • Lane · entry 42237
  • سَمِينٌ

    Of land, fertile and productive, with good soil and few stones.

    An assumed-tropical extension of the adjective for fatness, applied to land that strongly fosters plants or herbage.

    • Lane · entry 42238
  • سَمِينٌ

    Of speech, chaste, eloquent, or excellent.

    An assumed-tropical figurative use.

    • Lane · entry 42238
  • سُمَانَى

    A well-known bird, commonly identified with the quail.

    Used both as a singular and a plural; the singular may also occur as سُمَانَاةٌ.

    • Lane · entry 42239
  • سَمَّانٌ

    A seller of ghee.

    An occupational noun.

    • Lane · entry 42240
  • سَمَّانٌ

    Dyes or pigments used for decoration or embellishment.

    A specialized nominal use.

    • Lane · entry 42240
  • سَمَّانُ

    The name of a particular plant.

    A plant name distinguished from the occupational noun سَمَّانٌ.

    • Lane · entry 42240
  • سَامِنٌ

    A possessor of ghee.

    A possessive nominal formation, parallel to nouns meaning a possessor of milk or dates.

    • Lane · entry 42241
  • أَسْمَانٌ

    Waist-wrappers; old and worn-out garments or pieces of cloth.

    A specialized plural-like noun.

    • Lane · entry 42242
  • مُسْمِنٌ

    Of a people or party, having cattle that have become fat or plump.

    A specialized plural expression describing a community through the condition of its cattle.

    • Lane · entry 42244
  • مَسْمَنَةٌ

    Food that causes fattening of the body.

    The feminine nominal form denotes a fattening property or effect.

    • Lane · entry 42245
  • مَسْمُونٌ

    Food made or prepared with ghee, or moistened and stirred with it.

    A passive-participial adjective applied to food.

    • Lane · entry 42247

Cautions

Points that affect how this root should be read.

  • The Quranic adjective is presented under the singular citation form سَمِينٌ, while the Quran also contains its plural form سِمَانٍ.

  • The regional cooling sense of سَمَّنَ is kept among broader Classical Arabic meanings and is not treated as a Quranic meaning.