Quranic root
سيح
s · y · ḥ
A semantic orientation of flowing, moving, or spreading across a surface or space.
The evidence develops from water running over the earth to traveling through the land, the movement of shade, and striped or streaked forms whose lines are likened to flowing movement. Some derivatives extend this idea to roaming speech or mischief.
- Maqāyīs · row 2534
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَاحَ
sāḥa
- 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 travel or move about through the land.
In the Quranic imperative, used with في الأرض to command or permit movement through the land.
- Lane · entry 42868
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:2word 1
“So move about”
سَائِحٌ
sāʾiḥun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who travels or journeys through the land; one who goes forth.
The Quranic feminine plural may be interpreted as women who leave their country or homes for God; another Quranic interpretation takes the form as referring to those journeying for war or the pursuit of knowledge.
- Lane · entry 42875
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:112word 4
“those who go out”
Quran 66:5word 15
“who fast”
One who fasts; a faster.
The Quranic plural forms are explained as fasters, including, in reported interpretations, those who observe obligatory or continual fasts or who remain in mosques while fasting.
- Lane · entry 42875
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:112word 4
“those who go out”
Quran 66:5word 15
“who fast”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 23 Classical meanings
سَاحَ
Of water: to run upon the surface of the earth.
The subject is water or another flowing liquid.
- Lane · entry 42868
سِيَاحَةٌ
Devotional journeying through the land; by religious analogy, fasting as a form of Muslim siyāḥah.
The expression لا سِيَاحَةَ فِي الإِسْلَامِ is explained in several ways, including prohibition of devotional wandering, desert withdrawal, or wandering to spread mischief.
- Lane · entry 42868
سَاحَ
Of shade: to move or turn from side to side or from place to place.
A figurative extension of movement is used with الظلّ.
- Lane · entry 42868
سَيَّحَ
To make water flow.
A reported Form II usage, attributed as a primary or proper signification in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 42869
سَيَّحَ
To talk much or at length.
A figurative Form II usage.
- Lane · entry 42869
سَيَّحَ
Of a garment or piece of cloth: to make it striped or variegated with stripes.
A figurative Form II usage describing diversified cloth.
- Lane · entry 42869
أَسَاحَ
To make a river or rivulet flow.
A Form IV causative construction with a river or stream as object.
- Lane · entry 42870
أَسَاحَ
Of a horse: to expose its penis from the prepuce.
An animal-specific figurative usage.
- Lane · entry 42870
أَسَاحَ
Of a horse: to let its tail hang loosely.
The spelling is disputed in the lexical tradition, with أَشَاحَ also reported by some authorities.
- Lane · entry 42870
اِنْسَاحَ
Of a belly: to become large and wide and approach the ground through fatness.
Used of an animal or person whose enlarged belly hangs low.
- Lane · entry 42871
اِنْسَاحَ
Of a state or condition: to become free from straitness or distress.
A figurative usage applied to a person's or thing's condition.
- Lane · entry 42871
اِنْسَاحَ
To become rent, split, or broken in several places; of dawn, to break.
A cave narrative applies the verb to rock becoming impelled and riven, but that application is transmitted with the alternative form اِنْصَاخَتْ by some authorities.
- Lane · entry 42871
سَيْحٌ
Running water, especially external water flowing over the earth, including the water of rivers and valleys.
Used substantivally and also as an epithet of water.
- Lane · entry 42872
سَيْحٌ
A striped garment, such as a cloak, mantle, or striped burd.
A figurative noun based on the appearance of flowing or running lines.
- Lane · entry 42872
سَيَّاحٌ
An itinerant, rover, or frequent traveler.
A derived nominal referring to one who repeatedly travels through the land.
- Lane · entry 42874
سَائِحَاتٌ
Swift horses.
This interpretation is conditional on retaining سَائِحَاتٌ rather than treating the form as a possible transcription of سَابِحَاتٌ.
- Lane · entry 42875
سَائِحَاتٌ
The planets.
A reported figurative interpretation of the same conditionally retained form; it is likewise subject to the possible reading سَابِحَاتٌ.
- Lane · entry 42875
مَسَاحٌ، مَسَاحَةٌ
A place of journeying or religious travel.
The singular of مَسَايِحُ in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 42876
مَسَايِحُ
The part of the head between the temples and the forehead, where the hair grows.
A specialized plural usage recorded in poetic vocabulary.
- Lane · entry 42876
مُسَيَّحٌ
Striped or streaked; applied especially to garments and to marked or streaked locusts, and also to a bird.
Garment stripes may alternate white and black; locusts may be marked with black, yellow, and white streaks.
- Lane · entry 42877
مُسَيَّحٌ
A wild ass, named for the stripe dividing its belly from its side; also an ass with a white streak on its rump.
A lexicalized animal epithet based on distinctive streaking.
- Lane · entry 42877
مُسَيَّحٌ
A road whose tracks or wheel-ruts are visible.
A figurative application likening the visible tracks to stripes.
- Lane · entry 42877
مِسْيَاحٌ
One who goes about calumniating, spreading mischief, and corrupting relations among people.
A pejorative intensive noun; its plural is مَسَايِيحُ.
- Lane · entry 42878
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic active-participle forms have interpretive alternatives: fasting, or journeying and leaving homes for God. The supplied Quran locations are secure, but contextual English glosses do not by themselves resolve the alternatives.
The reported application of اِنْسَاحَتْ to the cave rock is retained only as a conditional Classical usage because an alternative transmission uses اِنْصَاخَتْ.
The interpretations of سَائِحَاتٌ as swift horses and planets are conditional on the form not being a transcription of سَابِحَاتٌ.