Quranic root
سقي
s · q · y
The root centers on making something absorb water or a comparable liquid, especially giving drink or supplying water.
From the basic act of giving water, the lexicon develops distinctions between directly giving drink, making drink or a water source available, irrigating land, requesting water, and the vessels, places, shares, and agents associated with watering.
- Maqāyīs · row 2455
- Mufradāt · row 706
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 25
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَقَى
saqā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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 give a person or animal drink; to cause someone to drink or be given drink.
The object may be water, milk, or another drink. The passive forms express being given drink. The expression may specify drink from what is in the bellies of animals.
- Lane · entry 41536
- Mufradāt · row 706
Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:79word 4
“and gives me drink”
Quran 47:15word 40
“and they will be given to drink”
Quran 28:23word 10
“watering”
To water or irrigate land, plants, or cultivated produce.
Used for supplying water to growing things, including irrigation by water running over or into the land.
- Lane · entry 41536
Selected Quran examples
Quran 13:4word 13
“watered”
أَسْقَى
ʾasqā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 8 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 provide or make available drink or water, so that someone may take and use it as desired; to give someone access to a source of drink.
Form IV is presented as broader than directly putting drink to someone's mouth: it can make a river, water, or other drink available to the recipient. Passive forms express being supplied with drink.
- Mufradāt · row 706
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:22word 8
“and We gave it to you to drink”
Quran 16:66word 6
“We give you to drink”
Quran 76:17word 1
“And they will be given to drink”
اِسْتَسْقَى
āistasqā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form X
- Form
- X
- 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.
To seek or request water or drink.
The request may be directed to a person who is asked to provide water.
- Lane · entry 41543
- Mufradāt · row 706
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:60word 2
“asked (for) water”
Quran 7:160word 10
“asked him for water”
سِقَايَة
siqāyah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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 provision or service of giving drink, especially the provision of drink to pilgrims.
In the Quranic pilgrimage context, the term can denote the service, office, or provision associated with giving drink rather than merely the liquid itself.
- Lane · entry 41551
- Mufradāt · row 706
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:19word 2
“the providing of water”
A vessel used for drinking, especially a drinking cup.
In the Joseph narrative it denotes the king's drinking-cup, also used as a measure.
- Lane · entry 41551
- Mufradāt · row 706
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:70word 5
“the drinking cup”
سُقْيَا
suqyā
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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 drink or an allotted share of water; a giving of drink.
In the Quranic occurrence, the term denotes the she-camel's allotted drink or water share.
- Lane · entry 41547
Selected Quran examples
Quran 91:13word 7
“and her drink”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:60ٱسْتَسْقَىٰasked (for) water
- 2:71تَسْقِىwater
- 7:160ٱسْتَسْقَىٰهُasked him for water
- 9:19سِقَايَةَthe providing of water
- 12:41فَيَسْقِىhe will give drink
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 42 Classical meanings
سَقَى
To become vehemently affected by sexual appetite.
A tropical use of the Form I verb.
- Lane · entry 41536
سَقَى
To send rain to someone, a land, or a people; to pray that rain be sent down.
Used in invocations and wishes for beneficial rain.
- Lane · entry 41536
سَقَى
To pour water into a water-skin or other water container.
A construction describing filling a vessel with water.
- Lane · entry 41536
سَقَى
Of sweat, to flow continuously without stopping.
An intransitive lexical use.
- Lane · entry 41536
سَقَى بَطْنُهُ
For the belly to become swollen with dropsy.
The condition is described as yellow serum collecting in the belly; the related adjective can describe the swollen belly.
- Lane · entry 41536
- Lane · entry 41546
سَقَى
To make a garment or piece of cloth absorb dye.
A specialized use concerning the imbibing of coloring matter.
- Lane · entry 41536
سَقَى
To temper steel.
A technical or later use recorded for the verb.
- Lane · entry 41536
سَقَّى
To make a person's heart imbibe enmity through repeated hostile treatment.
A tropical Form II construction, used when an objectionable action is repeatedly inflicted on someone.
- Lane · entry 41537
مُسَاقَاة
The giving of drink by one person to another, mutually.
A reciprocal Form III verbal noun.
- Lane · entry 41538
مُسَاقَاة
The joint drawing of water.
A conventional Form III noun for drawing water together.
- Lane · entry 41538
مُسَاقَاة
A cultivation arrangement in which one person manages the cultivation and watering of palms, vines, or similar plants for a specified share of the produce.
A technical agricultural contract.
- Lane · entry 41538
أَسْقَى
To assign a well, stream, or other source of irrigation to someone.
The construction gives the person access to the source for drawing or using its water.
- Lane · entry 41539
أَسْقَى
To cause dropsy or yellow serum to develop in someone.
A medical use of the Form IV verb.
- Lane · entry 41539
أَسْقَى
To give someone a hide or skin to make into a water-skin.
The object given is the material from which a سِقَاء is made.
- Lane · entry 41539
أَسْقَى
To backbite or traduce someone, and impute a fault or vice to him.
A tropical and disapproved use of the Form IV verb.
- Lane · entry 41539
تَسَقَّى
To receive or absorb moisture or irrigation, becoming succulent or sappy.
Used of a thing that becomes thoroughly supplied with moisture; it may also describe skin drenched with blood.
- Lane · entry 41540
تَسَقَّى
Of camels, to eat a fresh, moist plant and become fat from it.
An assumed tropical application to animals feeding on moist vegetation.
- Lane · entry 41540
تَسَاقَوْا
They gave drink to one another.
A reciprocal Form VI construction, with the drink distributed in full measure from the vessel.
- Lane · entry 41541
اِسْتَقَى
To draw water from a well or river.
This Form VIII use is distinct from Form X requesting water.
- Lane · entry 41542
اِسْتَقَى
To become fat and satisfied through drinking water.
A tropical Form VIII use.
- Lane · entry 41542
اِسْتَسْقَى
To ask, beg, or pray for rain.
The conventional source of the expression for the prayer seeking rain.
- Lane · entry 41543
اِسْتَسْقَى
To force oneself to vomit or to vomit intentionally.
A separate Form X medical use, synonymous with deliberate emesis.
- Lane · entry 41543
سَقْي
The towns, villages, or lands watered by the Euphrates.
A specialized substantive use in the expression سَقْيُ الفُرَاتِ.
- Lane · entry 41544
سِقْي
Drink, what is drunk, or what is given to drink; also a share or portion of water, especially an irrigation allotment.
The irrigation sense may refer to the amount assigned to a tract of land or to animals.
- Lane · entry 41545
سِقْي
Yellow serum or watery fluid occurring in the belly in dropsy.
A medical noun for the fluid associated with the dropsical condition.
- Lane · entry 41545
سِقْي
The fluid contained in the birth membrane surrounding a young animal.
A specialized obstetrical use referring to the fluid that emerges with the membrane at birth.
- Lane · entry 41545
سِقْي
Land or produce irrigated by water running over the surface of the earth.
Contrasted with land watered only by rainfall.
- Lane · entry 41545
سُقْيَا
The sending down of rain upon people or land.
Used in prayers for rain, including a rain of mercy rather than punishment.
- Lane · entry 41547
سِقَاء
A skin or leather water-skin used for water or milk.
The term can distinguish vessels made from one or more hides and has plural forms for such containers.
- Lane · entry 41548
سِقَاء
The stomach of a camel in which water is stored.
A tropical application of the container sense.
- Lane · entry 41548
سَقِيّ
A cloud with large, forceful raindrops.
A descriptive adjective or noun for a rain-bearing cloud.
- Lane · entry 41549
سَقِيّ
Papyrus, especially tender papyrus growing in or near water.
The plant name is linked lexically to its growth in water.
- Lane · entry 41549
سَقِيّ
Palm trees, especially palms irrigated by water-wheels.
A plant noun or adjective derived from association with irrigation.
- Lane · entry 41549
سَقَّاء
A bird said to draw water for itself.
A specialized bird name; later applications to particular large birds are reported in the lexicon.
- Lane · entry 41552
سَاقٍ
One who gives drink, a cup-bearer, water-carrier, or person who waters crops.
The term may denote the agent of supplying drink or irrigation; a proverb extends it to a person who does good.
- Lane · entry 41553
سَاقِي العَيْن
A vein running from the interior of the head to the eye, whose severing causes loss of sight.
A specialized anatomical term.
- Lane · entry 41553
سَاقِيَة
A small channel, streamlet, or watercourse used to irrigate land.
The channel is described as larger than a small jadwal and a watercourse; the word is also used for an irrigation water-wheel.
- Lane · entry 41554
سَوَاقِي
Certain veins that discharge into the two abhar veins.
A specialized anatomical plural use.
- Lane · entry 41554
مَسْقًى
A time or place of giving drink.
The related place noun may also occur in figurative expressions involving a drinking place.
- Lane · entry 41555
- Lane · entry 41556
مِسْقَاة
A stand or support made for water-jars, on which drinking mugs are hung.
A household or serving implement.
- Lane · entry 41557
مَسْقِيّ
Given drink, or watered or irrigated produce.
A passive participial adjective applied to recipients of drink and to plants or crops supplied with water.
- Lane · entry 41558
مَسْقِيّ
Tinged or suffused with redness.
An idiomatic expression describing a person marked with the redness of blood.
- Lane · entry 41558
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Form I directly giving drink and Form IV making drink or a water source available are distinct constructions in the supplied Quran-focused evidence.
سِقَايَة has two Quranic uses here: the provision or service of giving drink and a drinking cup.
The Quranic Form X occurrences attest requesting water or drink; the separate classical rain-request use is listed outside the Quranic sense.
The Quranic سُقْيَا occurrence is represented as a drink or allotted water share; the separate classical rain-prayer use is kept distinct.