1

What's the difference between kisfan (كِسْفًا) and kisafan (كِسَفًا) in Arabic ? Also, what is the singular of it ? If possible (optional), give a suggestion how to search for its meaning in Lisan al Arab or Lane's lexicon

Daud
  • 185
  • 5

2 Answers2

3

Lane died before he could finish his dictionary. The sections from ك onward were knocked together by his nephew out of Lane's rough draft and are mostly useless.

fdb
  • 24,134
  • 1
  • 35
  • 70
0

The two words are, actually, kisfan (كِسْفًا) and kisafan (كِسَفًا). They are derived from the triliteral root k-s-f (kāf-sīn-fā, ك س ف) with the general meaning of "fragments, pieces, lumps, to shatter, to make into fragments". Both words are indefinite singular masculine nouns in the Accusative Case. The case ending, tanwīn fatḥ over the letter alif (ـًا‎) is an obvious sign the nouns are singular. Still, the second noun, kisafan (كِسَفًا), can be used as a collective noun, it can be translated like "a piece", "(in) pieces", "a fragment", "fragments". The first noun, kisfan (كِسْفًا), is "a portion", "a part", "a fragment".

As for looking up words in Arabic dictionaries, you must find out their root first. It is easy with triliteral roots like in these words, but when the root contains y or w, those consonants can disappear in some forms, which makes looking up such words a bit more difficult. In Lane's Lexicon our root k-s-f is not found, it must be on this page of volume 7, and it is there, in the lower left corner, but without any translation, "See Supplement" is only written there. In the supplement, which is in the end of volume 8, there is again a reference (in the center of the page) to still another word (بال), its root is b-w-l with the w disappearing, it is here, but there is nothing interesting about k-s-f in that article.

Yellow Sky
  • 18,268
  • 39
  • 65
  • 1
    It is of course not correct to say that “tanwīn fatḥ over the letter alif (ـًا‎) is an obvious sign the nouns are singular“. Triptotic broken plurals also take the endings -un, -in, -an in the indeterminate state. – fdb Dec 20 '13 at 23:19
  • @fdb - Over alif? – Yellow Sky Dec 20 '13 at 23:34
  • 1
    of course. elementary grammar. – fdb Dec 20 '13 at 23:38
  • 1
    @fdb - I probably missed that point because my Arabic textbook has nothing about the declension of triptotic broken plurals. Will you suggest something I can read about that? – Yellow Sky Dec 20 '13 at 23:56