Quranic root
سمر
s · m · r
The root centers on color opposed to whiteness, especially tawny or dusky coloration, and extends to nocturnal darkness and the conversations held at night.
The lexical network develops from dusky or dark coloration to darkness and night, then to nocturnal conversation, while retaining related color-based usages for wheat, milk, trees, and other things.
- Maqāyīs · row 2484
- Mufradāt · row 723
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- 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.
سَامِرٌ
sāmirun
- Part of speech
- Noun · active-participial form
- 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.
A person engaged in conversation or discourse by night; in the Quranic construction, a singular form used with a plural sense.
In 23:67, the form is explained either as referring to nocturnal conversationalists or, alternatively, to the dark night. The conversational interpretation is the one reflected by the supplied contextual gloss.
- Lane · entry 42124
- Mufradāt · row 723
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:67word 3
“conversing by night”
The dark night.
An alternative Quranic interpretation of سَامِرًا in 23:67; this is distinct from the interpretation referring to people conversing at night.
- Lane · entry 42112
- Mufradāt · row 723
سَامِرِيٌّ
sāmiriyyun
- Part of speech
- Proper 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.
A proper name or nisba designation referring to a man called al-Samiri.
The Quranic form functions as a personal designation, including in direct address; it should not automatically be equated with the separate Classical Arabic term for the Samaritan people.
- Mufradāt · row 723
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:85word 9
“the Samiri”
Quran 20:95word 4
“O Samiri”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 20:85ٱلسَّامِرِىُّthe Samiri
- 20:87ٱلسَّامِرِىُّthe Samiri
- 20:95يَـٰسَـٰمِرِىُّO Samiri
- 23:67سَـٰمِرًۭاconversing by night
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 43 Classical meanings
سَمَرَ
To hold conversation or discourse by night; to stay awake through the night.
Form I verbal usage. The related noun denotes the nocturnal conversation itself.
- Lane · entry 42107
سَمَرَ
Of livestock, to pasture or disperse by night, including being left to pasture without a herder.
A lexical use applied to cattle or camels and their nocturnal grazing.
- Lane · entry 42107
سَمَرَ
To drink wine by night.
A conventional nocturnal drinking construction.
- Lane · entry 42107
سَمُرَ
To be or become tawny, brownish, dusky, or dark in complexion or color.
Describes a person or anything admitting of such coloration.
- Lane · entry 42107
سَمَرَ
To put out or blind an eye, including by means of a heated iron instrument.
A specialized transitive use, synonymous with blinding or piercing out the eye.
- Lane · entry 42107
سَمَّرَ
To nail something and thereby make it fast, firm, or strong.
Form II causative/intensive usage, commonly applied to a door or similar object.
- Lane · entry 42108
سَمَّرَ
To make milk thin by mixing it with water.
The resulting diluted milk is called سَمَارٌ.
- Lane · entry 42108
سَمَّرَ
To discharge or shoot an arrow, especially hastily.
The hurried shooting sense is contrasted with shooting deliberately.
- Lane · entry 42108
سَمَّرَ
To release, dismiss, send off, or let something go.
Applied in the evidence to dismissing a slave, releasing or sending camels to pasture, and launching a ship.
- Lane · entry 42108
سَامَرَ
To hold a conversation or discourse with someone by night.
Form III reciprocal or interpersonal construction.
- Lane · entry 42109
سَمَرٌ
Conversation or discourse by night; by extension, conversation or discourse at any time.
The primary sense is nocturnal; the evidence also records an extended daytime use.
- Lane · entry 42112
سَمَرٌ
A place where people assemble for nocturnal conversation, or the gathering itself.
Covers both the place of nocturnal conversation and the people's assembling in darkness.
- Lane · entry 42112
سَمَرٌ
Darkness, night, or a moonless night.
The meanings are connected with nocturnal darkness and occur in expressions contrasting the dark night with the moon.
- Lane · entry 42112
سَمَرٌ
The shade or light of the moon, or moonlight.
A related nocturnal sense explaining why the term is associated with nighttime conversation.
- Lane · entry 42112
سَمَرٌ
The time of daybreak.
A specialized temporal use recorded for an expression describing arrival at daybreak.
- Lane · entry 42112
سَمُرٌ
The gum-acacia tree, a species of ṭalḥ with small leaves, short thorns, and edible yellow fruit.
A collective noun; its singular is سَمُرَةٌ. The evidence also preserves the expression “people of the tree.”
- Lane · entry 42113
سُمْرَةٌ
A tawny or brownish color between white and black; dusky coloration.
Applied to people, camels, and other things capable of having such a color.
- Lane · entry 42114
سَمُرِيَّةٌ
Descriptive of camels that eat the samur, or gum-acacia tree.
A nisba adjective derived from the tree name.
- Lane · entry 42116
سَمَرْمَرَةٌ
A ghūl, or desert demon.
A rare lexical item recorded as the name of this supernatural being.
- Lane · entry 42117
سَمَارٌ
Thin or heavily diluted milk.
The term may refer to milk containing much water, including milk in which water forms about two-thirds.
- Lane · entry 42118
سَمَارٌ
A species of rush used for making floor mats.
A later or regional application recorded for a desert-growing rush.
- Lane · entry 42118
سَمُورٌ
A swift, strong, excellent, or light-moving she-camel.
An epithet applied specifically to a she-camel in the supplied evidence.
- Lane · entry 42119
سَمِيرٌ
A companion in conversation or discourse by night; later, a conversation companion at any time.
The unrestricted temporal use is recorded as an extension of the nocturnal sense.
- Lane · entry 42120
سَمِيرٌ
A place of nocturnal conversation.
A reported sense attributed to some lexicographers, while also noted as absent from the cited K entry.
- Lane · entry 42120
ابْنُ سَمِيرٍ
A moonless night.
Occurs in the idiom describing the duration allowed by a night without moonlight.
- Lane · entry 42120
سَمِيرٌ
Unlimited time, eternity, or time without end.
An idiomatic use; ابنَا سَمِيرٍ can denote night and day and thus all time.
- Lane · entry 42120
ابْنَا جَالِسٍ وَسَمِيرٍ
Two roads that differ from one another.
A rare idiomatic expression reported in the supplied lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 42120
سُمَيْرِيَّةٌ
A particular kind of ship; سُمَيْرِيٌّ denotes an individual ship of that kind.
A conventional nautical term.
- Lane · entry 42121
سُمَيْرِيَّةٌ
In a reported and uncertain expression, a designation for dusky dirhams, or possibly dirhams of fresh whiteness.
The interpretation is explicitly conjectural and applies only to the cited phrase.
- Lane · entry 42121
سَمُّورٌ
The sable, a fur-bearing animal; also a garment made from its fur.
A loan-like zoological and garment term with the plural سَمَامِيرُ.
- Lane · entry 42122
سِمِّيرٌ
A companion of, or habitual indulger in, nocturnal conversation.
An intensive or habitual designation for a night-conversation companion.
- Lane · entry 42123
سَامِرٌ
A camel pasturing by night.
A specialized nominal use distinct from the person who converses by night.
- Lane · entry 42124
السَّامِرَةُ
The Samaritans, a people or sect associated with the Children of Israel and distinguished from other Jews in some or many religious institutions.
The associated nisba is سَامِرِيٌّ; this Classical ethnoreligious term is distinct from the Quranic personal designation.
- Lane · entry 42125
أَسْمَرُ
Tawny, brownish, dusky, or dark-colored; by established substantive usages, wheat, water, or a spear.
The feminine is سَمْرَاءُ and the plural is سُمْرٌ. The substantive applications are color-based lexical extensions.
- Lane · entry 42127
أَسْمَرُ
Milk, especially gazelle's milk, in a color-based usage.
A specialized substantive use explained through the milk's color.
- Lane · entry 42127
السَّمْرَاءُ
Coarse or third-quality flour containing much bran; bread made from it.
A substantive feminine form used for the flour and the bread made from it.
- Lane · entry 42127
السَّمْرَاءُ
A type of milking vessel called خَرْجٌ.
A specialized nominal use.
- Lane · entry 42127
عَامٌ أَسْمَرُ
A year of drought without rain.
A figurative or tropical expression.
- Lane · entry 42127
مِسْمَارٌ
A nail, pin, or iron peg used to make something fast, firm, or strong.
The plural is مَسَامِيرُ.
- Lane · entry 42129
مِسْمَارُ إِبِلٍ
A good manager or skilled herder of camels.
A tropical or idiomatic application of the nail term.
- Lane · entry 42129
مَسْمُورٌ
Nailed; made fast, firm, or strong with a nail or nails.
Passive participial usage.
- Lane · entry 42130
مَسْمُورٌ
Of a person, compactly built and strongly knit in the bones and sinews; the feminine can describe a compactly built woman or girl.
A tropical bodily description derived from the sense of being firmly fixed or knit.
- Lane · entry 42130
عَيْشٌ مَسْمُورٌ
A turbid or troubled life.
A tropical expression derived from the sense of diluted or altered milk.
- Lane · entry 42130
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form سَامِرًا in 23:67 has two reported lexical interpretations: nocturnal conversationalists and the dark night; the contextual gloss supports the first but does not eliminate the second.
The Quranic proper name سَامِرِيٌّ is a personal designation in the supplied evidence and should not automatically be identified with the separate Classical Arabic term السَّامِرَةُ for the Samaritan people.
The packet declares 67 Lane primary source units, while the explicitly enumerated source_unit identifiers contain 68 units; all enumerated units are retained in the coverage ledger.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The interpretation of سُمَيْرِيَّةٌ in the cited dirham expression is explicitly conjectural; it is preserved as a qualified Classical meaning rather than treated as certain.
The declared Lane source-unit count and the count obtained by enumerating the supplied units differ by one; no supplied unit was omitted.