Quranic root
زبن
z · b · n
The root expresses pushing, thrusting, or driving away.
From physical repulsion, the lexical field extends to mutual pushing and conflict, withholding or removal, forceful defense, withdrawal, and names for persons or things characterized by thrusting. The Quranic زَبَانِيَةٌ is named for driving the people of Hell into the Fire.
- Maqāyīs · row 2217
- Lane · entry 30845
- Lane · entry 30863
- 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.
زَبَانِيَةٌ
zabāniyahun
- 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.
The angels appointed to torment the inhabitants of Hell and drive them into the Fire.
A collective or plural designation; classical analyses differ over its singular formation. The Quranic occurrence is in the expression describing the guardians or tormentors of Hell.
- Lane · entry 30863
Selected Quran examples
Quran 96:18word 2
“the Angels of Hell”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 96:18ٱلزَّبَانِيَةَthe Angels of Hell
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 30 Classical meanings
زَبَنَ
To push or thrust a thing away; to put people or things away or remove them from their place.
Used literally of physical repulsion, including a camel pushing away its milker or young; also used figuratively of battle dashing people against one another.
- Lane · entry 30845
زَبَنَ عَنْ
To turn away or withhold a gift, favor, or bounty from someone.
A figurative extension in which what is given is diverted from the person concerned or withheld from him.
- Lane · entry 30845
زَبْنٌ؛ مُزَابَنَةٌ
A sale of fruit still on its trees in exchange for measured fruit, especially the sale of fresh dates for dried dates by measure.
A prohibited or disfavored sale based on conjecture, uncertain quantity, or unequal knowledge, conventionally associated with the contention and mutual repulsion it may cause.
- Lane · entry 30845
- Lane · entry 30846
زَابَنَ؛ تَزَابَنَ
To contend or strive with another in pushing or thrusting; to push against or repel one another.
The reciprocal construction describes mutual physical or figurative repulsion.
- Lane · entry 30846
- Lane · entry 30849
أَزْبَنَ
To remove one's tents from a road or way.
A derived Form IV usage describing the clearing or relocation of tents.
- Lane · entry 30847
اِنْزَبَنَ
To remove oneself, withdraw, or retire to a distance.
A derived Form VII usage expressing withdrawal or recession.
- Lane · entry 30850
اِسْتَزْبَنَ
To treat or regard someone as a زَبُونٌ: a simpleton or fool liable to being defrauded or overreached.
The construction may mean considering someone weak in judgment or unintelligent and therefore vulnerable to exploitation.
- Lane · entry 30851
زَبْنٌ
A tent or house standing apart from the other tents or houses.
The separation is understood as though the structure had been pushed away from the others.
- Lane · entry 30852
مَقَامُ زَبْنٍ
A narrow, slippery standing-place on which a person cannot stand securely.
A conventional expression for a precarious or insufficient standing-place.
- Lane · entry 30852
زِبْنٌ
A wanted thing or desired portion, such as the part of property or food that one takes.
Used in the expression for taking what one wanted from a supply.
- Lane · entry 30853
زَبَنٌ
A side, lateral, adjacent part, or tract; a place apart from one's people or party.
Often used adverbially for location or state, as in alighting to one side or apart.
- Lane · entry 30854
زَبَنٌ
A piece of cloth cut in the form of a tent or curtained canopy.
A concrete nominal usage referring to cloth shaped after the fashion of a tent.
- Lane · entry 30854
زَبِنٌ
Vehement or forceful in pushing or thrusting.
An adjectival description of one characterized by forceful pushing.
- Lane · entry 30855
زُبُنَّةٌ
The hind leg of a she-camel.
The term is explained by the camel's use of its hind legs to push or strike.
- Lane · entry 30859
زَبُونٌ
One who pushes or thrusts, or pushes a thing away; especially a she-camel that kicks, strikes, or pushes away her milker with her hind leg.
The noun may describe a habitual or forceful pusher; the camel usage is a specific lexical application.
- Lane · entry 30860
حَرْبٌ زَبُونٌ
A difficult, stubborn, or fiercely repelling war or battle.
A figurative conventional expression for battle that dashes people against one another, causes one side to repel another, or prevents advance through fear of death.
- Lane · entry 30860
زَبُونٌ
A simpleton or fool who is repeatedly liable to being overreached, defrauded, or deceived.
The cited account marks this sense as figurative and post-classical rather than ordinary desert usage.
- Lane · entry 30860
زَبُونٌ
A purchaser, customer, or dealer in buying and selling.
A later or post-classical commercial usage, also associated with the notion of being duped or with pushing others away from a sale.
- Lane · entry 30860
زَبُونٌ
A well with a recessed part in its water-collecting place or casing.
The recess is conceived as though that portion had been pushed back.
- Lane · entry 30860
زَبُونٌ
An inner vest or fitted garment cut to conform to the body.
A nominal usage reported for contemporary or later Arabic.
- Lane · entry 30860
زُبَانَى العَقْرَبِ
The horn or claw of a scorpion.
The two claws are named for their pushing or defensive action; the term also occurs in an idiom involving the extremities of the claw.
- Lane · entry 30861
الزُّبَانَيَانِ؛ زُبَانَيَا العَقْرَبِ
The two horns or claws of Scorpio, identified with two stars and one of the lunar mansions.
A conventional astronomical usage extending the scorpion-claw image to the constellation.
- Lane · entry 30861
زَبَانِيَةٌ
Armed attendants, guards, or officers of a police authority; in an earlier sense, the brave members of an army.
A Classical Arabic meaning associated with forceful enforcement and pushing.
- Lane · entry 30863
زَبَانِيَةٌ
A rebellious or insolent jinn or human; also a strong or forceful person.
These descriptions are linked lexically to the idea of pushing or thrusting.
- Lane · entry 30863
زِبِّينٌ
One who strives to suppress urine and ordure or withholds them against his will.
A specialized description of forcibly restraining the two bodily discharges.
- Lane · entry 30865
زِبِّينٌ
In the expression مَا بِهَا زِبِّينٌ, anyone or any person present in a house; hence, “there is nobody in it.”
An idiomatic usage rather than the ordinary agentive sense of the word.
- Lane · entry 30865
زَبُّونَةٌ
Pride or arrogance.
The meaning is connected with an attitude of forceful self-assertion or refusal to yield.
- Lane · entry 30866
رَجُلٌ ذُو زَبُّونَةٍ
A man who defends his honor, reputation, or what lies behind him.
A conventional expression for someone who forcefully protects his standing or household.
- Lane · entry 30866
زَبُّونَةٌ؛ زُبُّونَةٌ
The neck; in another report, the ear, and by metonymy the head and neck of a horse.
A concrete anatomical usage with variant interpretations and metonymic extension.
- Lane · entry 30866
زَابِنَةٌ
A high eminence or mound in a valley that bends away from it.
The elevation is pictured as having pushed or thrust the valley aside.
- Lane · entry 30869
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
زَبَانِيَةٌ is analyzed variously in the classical tradition as a plural with no singular or as a form with proposed singulars; the Quranic lexical reference remains clear despite that morphological disagreement.
The supplied Quran occurrence is 96:18. A classical discussion also relates the angels to 66:6, but that reference is not treated as an additional occurrence of this root.