Quranic root
سيب
s · y · b
The root centers on continued movement or release: something runs onward, goes away, or is set free.
The movement principle extends to releasing an animal or person, and metaphorically to a gift as something made to flow. Minerals or buried treasure are understood as a divinely flowing gift, while the word for unripe dates is treated as a divergent branch.
- Maqāyīs · row 2533
- Mufradāt · row 743
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- 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.
سَائِبَةٌ
sāʾibahun
- Part of speech
- Active participle · substantivized 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 consecrated animal released to pasture at will, especially the she-camel set free under a pre-Islamic vow or custom and exempted from riding.
In the Quranic usage, the term denotes the pagan animal custom. Classical usage can describe more generally a beast left to pasture without a herder; the separate Classical use for an emancipated slave is not intended here.
- Lane · entry 42865
- Mufradāt · row 743
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:103word 7
“a Saibah”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 5:103سَآئِبَةٍۢa Saibah
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 18 Classical meanings
سَابَ
To run or flow, especially of water; to run of itself.
Classical Form I verb usage.
- Lane · entry 42855
سَابَ
To move along quickly or in a continuous course; of a snake, to go into or emerge from its lair, and of a person or thing, to go or return toward a place.
A movement sense extending beyond the specific flow of water.
- Lane · entry 42855
سَابَ
To go at random or in every direction; of an animal, to range or pasture freely without a keeper.
Used of horses, beasts, and similar subjects allowed to go where they will.
- Lane · entry 42855
سَابَ
To rove or ramble in speech; to speak diffusely, profusely, or without restraint.
Figurative usage referring to loose or irrational discourse.
- Lane · entry 42855
سَيَّبَ
To leave a thing alone, abandon it, or neglect it.
Classical Form II transitive usage.
- Lane · entry 42856
سَيَّبَ
To let an animal pasture wherever it will, without a keeper.
Used of a beast or she-camel deliberately left free to range.
- Lane · entry 42856
سَائِبَةٌ
An emancipated slave whose former owner has no claim to inherit from him or control his property.
A separate legal and social use of the feminine noun, distinct from the Quranic animal term.
- Lane · entry 42856
- Lane · entry 42865
- Mufradāt · row 743
سَائِبَةٌ
An animal given up or dedicated to God, including an animal designated as an offering because it has been surrendered to Him.
A conventional religious usage attested for animals presented as offerings; it is distinct from the specific Quranic pagan pasture custom.
- Lane · entry 42865
سَيْبٌ
A gift, benefaction, voluntary alms, favour, or benefit.
May be used for an act of generosity or a benefit that flows abundantly to its recipients.
- Lane · entry 42859
سَيْبٌ
A flowing or beneficial fall of rain.
A specialized interpretation in a prayer for rain, where the word may denote rain as a beneficial flow.
- Lane · entry 42859
سُيُوبٌ
Metal, mineral wealth, or buried treasure extracted or found in the earth.
A plural form used for ore, veins of gold or silver, or pre-Islamic buried treasure.
- Lane · entry 42859
سَيْبٌ
The hair of a horse’s tail.
A nominal Classical usage.
- Lane · entry 42859
سَيْبٌ
A pole used to propel a ship or boat.
A nautical technical usage.
- Lane · entry 42859
سِيبٌ
A place or channel in which water runs.
A nominal term for a watercourse or channel.
- Lane · entry 42860
سِيبٌ
An apple.
An Arabicized Persian noun and a separate lexical item from the native root branches.
- Lane · entry 42860
سَيَابٌ
Unripe or green dates, especially dates in the balah or busr stage.
The singular is سَيَابَةٌ or related dialectal variants; this branch is treated as divergent from the root’s central movement sense.
- Lane · entry 42861
سَيَابَةٌ
Wine.
A separate nominal usage.
- Lane · entry 42862
سَائِبٌ
Running water.
A masculine active-participial noun used substantivally for flowing water.
- Lane · entry 42864
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Classical accounts differ over the exact vow or circumstance associated with the pre-Islamic sāʾibah custom; the Quranic core is an animal released and consecrated in that practice.
The Form IV horse usage remains unresolved because the packet supplies only an equation with رَفَّضَ and no semantic gloss for that referenced entry.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:syb:42857:g1:main: The meaning of Form IV اساب when said of a horse cannot be assigned confidently from the supplied evidence because رَفَّضَ is only cited as an unexplained equivalent.