Quranic root
خصف
kh · ṣ · f
The root centers on joining one thing to another, especially by matching, overlaying, or fastening pieces together.
The core sense appears in sewing or doubling a sole and in making coverings from joined leaves. Related extensions describe woven palm-leaf objects, things in which two colors are brought together, and mixtures in which one substance is combined with another; a separate lexical branch concerns a female giving birth in the ninth month.
- Maqāyīs · row 1594
- Mufradāt · row 412
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَصَفَ
khaṣafa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 fasten or join leaves together as a covering.
In the Quranic construction يَخْصِفَانِ عَلَيْهِمَا مِنْ وَرَقِ الْجَنَّةِ, the two subjects attach leaves to themselves to cover their private parts. The sense involves joining the leaves together and applying them leaf by leaf as a covering.
- Lane · entry 19283
- Mufradāt · row 412
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:22word 10
“(to) fasten”
Quran 20:121word 7
“(to) fasten”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 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 24 Classical meanings
خَصْفٌ
The act of joining or putting things together; sewing or patching a sole by placing one piece over another, and making an object double or faced.
The same joining metaphorically describes one set of tracks covering another.
- Lane · entry 19283
خُصِفَ
To be followed, said of a body of troops followed by horsemen.
- Lane · entry 19283
خَصَفَ
To lie.
A reported figurative use.
- Lane · entry 19283
خَصَفَ
To exceed someone in reviling.
The expression portrays reviling as being added upon reviling.
- Lane · entry 19283
خَصْفٌ
A sole having another sole sewn onto it.
- Lane · entry 19288
خَصَفٌ
A mixture or pattern of two colors, especially black and white.
- Lane · entry 19289
خَصْفَةٌ
A sole or matching piece sewn onto a sole to make it double.
- Lane · entry 19290
خُصْفَةٌ
A puncture or stitch-hole in a skin.
- Lane · entry 19291
خُصْفَةٌ
An orifice of the body, including the anus or the vaginal opening.
A figurative or anatomical extension of the sense of an opening made by puncturing.
- Lane · entry 19291
خَصَفَةٌ
A receptacle for dates made from palm leaves, or a palm-leaf mat used for drying food.
The term can denote the material object and its plural or collective uses.
- Lane · entry 19292
خَصَفَةٌ
A very thick kind of cloth.
This sense is reported alongside the palm-leaf meanings and is connected with the resemblance of the cloth to woven palm leaves.
- Lane · entry 19292
خَصُوفٌ
A female camel or woman who gives birth in the ninth month.
For a camel, the term is associated with giving birth in the ninth month; descriptions of the exact timing vary among the cited authorities.
- Lane · entry 19293
خَصِيفٌ
Two-colored or mixed in color, especially black and white.
Applied to ashes, a rope, or other things in which the two colors are united; it can also describe a troop having two colors.
- Lane · entry 19294
- Maqāyīs · row 1594
خَصِيفٌ
A body of troops followed by horsemen.
A reported alternative use of the expression for a troop.
- Lane · entry 19294
خَصِيفٌ
Fresh milk poured onto curdled or thick milk.
- Lane · entry 19294
خَصَّفَ
To make hair mixed white and black, as hoariness does.
A figurative Form II use describing hair whose white and dark portions occur in roughly equal proportions.
- Lane · entry 19284
خَصَفَ
To weave a palm-leaf mat or other خَصْفَة.
- Mufradāt · row 412
خَصَّافٌ
A person who sews or patches soles by attaching additional pieces.
- Lane · entry 19296
خَصَّافٌ
A person who covers the pudendum with the hand.
A figurative or bodily application of the covering sense.
- Lane · entry 19296
خَصَّافٌ
A liar.
The figurative explanation presents the liar as sewing one statement onto another and embellishing it.
- Lane · entry 19296
أَخْصَفُ
Two-colored, especially black and white; also having a contrasting white or dark area.
Applied to mountains, male ostriches, two-colored ropes, and horses or sheep with white along the flanks or sides.
- Lane · entry 19298
- Maqāyīs · row 1594
مِخْصَبٌ
An awl or perforating instrument used in sewing soles and similar work.
- Lane · entry 19299
مَخْصُوفَةٌ
Smooth, said of a ewe or she-goat.
- Lane · entry 19300
مَخْصُوفَةٌ
Black and white or otherwise two-colored, said of a ewe or she-goat.
- Lane · entry 19300
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic occurrences are dual imperfect forms يَخْصِفَانِ, while the public dictionary headword is normalized to the Form I perfect خَصَفَ.
Lane reports alternate Quranic readings in Forms II, IV, and VIII; the supplied QAC grouping is authoritative here and is therefore represented as Form I only.
The palm-leaf and thick-cloth senses of خَصَفَةٌ include a reported lexicographical disagreement about the precise object meant.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
In lane-unit:xSf:19283:g1:sub3, a bathing-context phrase meaning covering the pudendum with the hand is explicitly described as possibly mistranscribed and its exact derived form is uncertain; the stable Quranic leaf-covering usage is represented, while the uncertain form is not assigned as a separate public headword.