Quranic root
زهق
z · h · q
A root oriented toward advancing, passing onward, and going beyond or past a limit.
Its lexical development extends from a soul going forth and a thing passing away to an arrow overshooting its mark, an animal or person outstripping others, and related notions of depth, overflow, and excess. Some associated expressions have uncertain etymological relations.
- Maqāyīs · row 2309
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 5
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
زَهَقَ
zahaqa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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 go forth or depart, especially of the soul; hence, to perish or die.
Used with the soul or selves. The lexical nuance includes going forth with difficulty; the Quran-focused explanation connects the soul’s departure with grief over something.
- Lane · entry 31783
- Mufradāt · row 634
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:55word 14
“and should depart”
Quran 9:85word 13
“and will depart”
To pass away, come to nothing, or become null and ineffective.
Used of a thing, especially falsehood, when it is overcome and made to pass away by truth.
- Lane · entry 31783
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:81word 4
“and perished”
زَاهِق
zāhiq
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
Perishing, dying, or vanishing.
An active participle describing something in the state or process of passing away.
- Lane · entry 31793
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:18word 9
“vanishing”
زَهُوق
zahūq
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Passing away, coming to nothing, or perishable.
In the Quranic expression describing falsehood as a thing that passes away or comes to nothing.
- Lane · entry 31792
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:81word 9
“(bound) to perish”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 9:55وَتَزْهَقَand should depart
- 9:85وَتَزْهَقَand will depart
- 17:81وَزَهَقَand perished
- 17:81زَهُوقًۭا(bound) to perish
- 21:18زَاهِقٌۭ ۚvanishing
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 32 Classical meanings
زَهَقَ
Of an arrow, to pass beyond the butt or target and fall behind it; one report also uses it of going swiftly.
An idiomatic use with an arrow; the report of swift movement is attached to the same expression.
- Lane · entry 31783
زَهَقَ
To precede, outstrip, or go ahead of others.
Used of a horse, saddle-camel, or person who gets ahead of horses or horsemen.
- Lane · entry 31783
زَهَقَ
Of a bone, marrow, or a marrowy beast, to become compact and full of marrow.
The lexical evidence applies the description both to bones or marrow and to a beast characterized by exceptionally full marrow.
- Lane · entry 31783
زَاهَقَ
To make falsehood pass away or come to nothing by means of truth.
A Form III construction in which truth is the agent and falsehood is made to disappear.
- Lane · entry 31785
أَزْهَقَ
To cause a soul to depart; to slay.
A transitive causative construction; killing is described as causing the soul to depart.
- Lane · entry 31786
أَزْهَقَ
To cause falsehood to pass away or come to nothing.
Used transitively of making what is false or vain disappear.
- Lane · entry 31786
أَزْهَقَ
To make an arrow pass beyond the butt or target.
A transitive construction with the arrow and its target.
- Lane · entry 31786
أَزْهَقَ
To shift a beast’s saddle forward and throw it onto its neck.
A specialized expression concerning the movement of a saddle during travel.
- Lane · entry 31786
أَزْهَقَ
To move quickly in walking or journeying.
Used of quick pace or travel.
- Lane · entry 31786
أَزْهَقَ
To fill a vessel; it is also reported with the meaning to overturn a vessel.
The two interpretations are recorded as variant lexical explanations.
- Lane · entry 31786
اِنْزَهَقَ
Of a beast, to leap or move forward because of beating or fright.
A Form VII usage describing sudden movement under provocation or alarm.
- Lane · entry 31787
اِنْزَهَقَ
To fall into a deep place, or from a mountain, and die.
A specialized construction describing a fall ending in death.
- Lane · entry 31787
زَهَق
A low or depressed part of the ground; a hollow or cavity.
A noun for a depression in the ground, into which beasts may fall.
- Lane · entry 31788
زَهِق
Light, unsteady, or lightwitted.
Applied to a person in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 31789
زَهِق
Of a beast, exceptionally fat or not exceeded in fatness.
A specialized description of an animal’s condition.
- Lane · entry 31789
زَهَقَى
A mare that precedes or outgoes the other horses or horsemen.
A specialized noun for a mare distinguished by speed.
- Lane · entry 31790
زُهَاق
In the expression زُهَاقُ مِائَةٍ, numbering a hundred or being a group of one hundred.
An idiomatic numerical expression whose precise etymological relation to the root is uncertain in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 31791
زَهُوق
A deep well; by extension, a place of destruction, a far-extending desert, or a pass of an overhanging mountain.
A group of spatial applications associated with depth, danger, or difficult terrain.
- Lane · entry 31792
زَهُوق
Light or active.
A figurative adjectival use equivalent to being nimble or energetic.
- Lane · entry 31792
زَاهِق
An arrow passing beyond the butt and falling behind it.
A specialized active-participial description of an arrow’s course.
- Lane · entry 31793
زَاهِق
Preceding, going ahead, or outstripping others.
Used of a person or saddle-camel that gets ahead of horses or horsemen.
- Lane · entry 31793
زَاهِق
A man put to flight.
A specialized description of someone driven away or routed.
- Lane · entry 31793
زَاهِق
Water running vehemently; a canal running swiftly.
Used adjectivally of rapidly moving water or a channel.
- Lane · entry 31793
زَاهِق
Of a beast or its marrow: fat and marrow-rich, or, in contrary reports, very lean, dry, tough, or thin in marrow.
The lexical evidence explicitly records contrary physical descriptions rather than a single settled value; it applies the adjective both to beasts and to marrow.
- Lane · entry 31793
أُزْهُوقَة
A mare with remarkable or swift running.
A specialized noun describing exceptional running qualities.
- Lane · entry 31794
أَزَاهِق، أَزَاهِيق
In the expression جَاءَتِ الخَيْلُ أَزَاهِقَ or أَزَاهِيقَ, horses or horsemen arriving in dispersed troops.
A plural idiom describing a group arriving in a scattered or dispersed formation.
- Lane · entry 31794
مُزْهَق
Slain.
A passive participial description of one whose soul has been caused to depart.
- Lane · entry 31795
مُزْهِق
Slaying or a slayer.
An active participial description of the act or its agent.
- Lane · entry 31796
مُزْهِق
Quick in pace or journeying.
A figurative active-participial use for rapid travel.
- Lane · entry 31796
مُزْهِق
Loquacious.
A figurative adjectival use recorded in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 31796
مَزْهَقَة
A cause of the soul’s departure; figuratively, a camel that takes away the breath of other beasts.
The latter use is an extended description of a camel so swift or exhausting that it deprives other riding animals of breath.
- Lane · entry 31797
مَزْهُوق
Straitened or distressed.
An adjectival description of a person in a constrained condition.
- Lane · entry 31798
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The printed Classical citation attached to the expression إِنَّ البَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا uses an historical citation notation that does not match the independently supplied QAC location; the example is assigned to 17:81 only because QAC directly supplies that form and expression there.
The Classical descriptions of زَاهِق applied to beasts and marrow explicitly include contrary physical values, so they are kept separate from the Quranic perishing sense and are not reduced to one unqualified physical description.