ءمس

Root entry · 10 derived lemmas

This root primarily deals with the concept of 'yesterday' and its temporal implications. It explores the grammatical variations and etymological origins of the word 'yesterday' (أمس), including its fixed and inflected forms, and its relationship to other temporal adverbs.

Derived headwords

أَمْسِnoun

1.
yesterdayboth
The day before today, often used as a temporal adverb.

إِمْسِيّadjective

1.
of yesterdayclassical
Relating to or belonging to yesterday.

وجف عنه العرق الإمسي — And the sweat of yesterday dried off him

أَمْسٍnoun

1.
yesterdayboth
The day before today, used in its indefinite form.

أَمْسِنَاnoun

1.
our yesterdayboth
Possessive form of 'yesterday', referring to a specific past day.

كان أمسنا طيبا — Our yesterday was good

الأَمْسِnoun

1.
the yesterdayboth
The definite form of 'yesterday', referring to a specific past day.

أَمْسَnoun

1.
yesterdayclassical
Yesterday, used in a specific grammatical construction, often in poetry.

لقد رأيت عجبا، مذ أمسا — I have indeed seen a wonder, since yesterday

أَمْسَ الأَحْدَثnoun

1.
the most recent yesterdayclassical
Referring to the most recent past day, a specific temporal reference.

ما رأيته مذ أمس الأحدث — I have not seen him since the most recent yesterday

أَمْسِ الدَّابِرnoun

1.
yesterday gone byclassical
Referring to a past yesterday that has passed and is no longer relevant.

وتركت مرة مثل أمس المدبر — And I left Marra like a bygone yesterday

أَمْوَسnoun

1.
yesterdaysclassical
Plural form of 'yesterday', referring to multiple past days.

مرت بنا أول من أموس — The first of yesterdays passed by us

إِمْسَاءnoun

1.
eveningclassical
The time of day when evening begins; also related to the origin of 'yesterday'.

Parallel reading

من ظروف الزمان مبني على الكسر إلا أن ينكر أو يعرف

It is an adverb of time, built on the kasra, unless it is indefinite or definite.

والنسبة إليه إمسي، على غير قياس

And the attribution to it is 'imsiyy', which is irregular.

وإني وقفت اليوم والأمس قبله ... ببابك، حتى كادت الشمس تغرب

And I stood today and yesterday before it... at your door, until the sun almost set.

فمن جره فعلى الباب فيه وجعل اللام مع الجر زائدة

So whoever makes it genitive is following the rule, and considers the 'laam' with the genitive to be extra.

فأما من قال والأمس فإنه لم يضمنه معنى اللام فيبنيه، لكنه عرفه كما عرف اليوم بها

As for those who say 'wa-l-amsi', they did not include the meaning of the 'laam' in it, so they did not make it built, but rather they made it definite as they made 'al-yawm' definite with it.

العرب تقول: كلمتك أمس وأعجبني أمس يا هذا

The Arabs say: I spoke to you yesterday, and yesterday pleased me, O you.

وتقول في النكرة: أعجبني أمس وأمس آخر

And they say in the indefinite form: 'Amsin' pleased me, and another 'amsin'.

فإذا أضفته أو نكرته أو أدخلت عليه الألف واللام للتعريف أجريته بالإعراب

So if you add it (as a possessive), or make it indefinite, or add the definite article 'al-' to it, you inflect it.

تقول: كان أمسنا طيبا ورأيت أمسنا المبارك ومررت بأمسنا المبارك

You say: 'Our yesterday was good', and 'I saw our blessed yesterday', and 'I passed by our blessed yesterday'.

ومن العرب من يخفض الأمس وإن أدخل عليه الألف واللام

And some of the Arabs make 'al-amsi' genitive even if the definite article is added to it.

تقول جاءني أمس فإذا نسبت شيئا إليه كسرت الهمزة، قلت إمسي على غير قياس

You say 'Amsin came to me'. If you attribute something to it, you break the hamza, saying 'imsiyy' irregularly.

أمس اسم حرك آخره لالتقاء الساكنين

'Ams' is a noun whose end is vocalized due to the meeting of two silent letters.

واختلفت العرب فيه فأكثرهم يبنيه على الكسر معرفة

And the Arabs differed regarding it; most of them build it on the kasra when it is definite.

ومنهم من يعربه معرفة

And some of them inflect it when it is definite.

وكلهم يعربه إذا أدخل عليه الألف واللام أو صيره نكرة أو أضافه

And all of them inflect it if they add the definite article to it, or make it indefinite, or add it (as a possessive).

تقول ما رأيته مذ أمس

You say: 'I have not seen him since yesterday'.

فإن لم تره يوما قبل ذلك قلت: ما رأيته مذ أول من أمس

If you did not see him the day before that, you say: 'I have not seen him since the day before yesterday'.

فإن لم تره يومين قبل ذلك قلت: ما رأيته مذ أول من أول من أمس

If you did not see him two days before that, you say: 'I have not seen him since the day before the day before yesterday'.

أدخل اللام والألف على أمس وتركه على كسره لأن أصل أمس عندنا من الإمساء فسمي الوقت بالأمر ولم يغير لفظه

He added the 'laam' and 'al-' to 'ams' and left it on its kasra because the origin of 'ams' for us is from 'al-imsāʾ', so the time was named by the word and its pronunciation was not changed.

فأدخل الألف واللام على ترضى، وهو فعل مستقبل على جهة الاختصاص بالحكاية

So he added the 'al-' to 'tarḍā', which is a future verb, for the purpose of specification in narration.

يقولون إذا نكروه كل يوم يصير أمسا، وكل أمس مضى فلن يعود

They say when they make it indefinite: 'Every day becomes a yesterday', and 'every yesterday that has passed will not return'.

ومضى أمس من الأموس

And 'ams' has passed from the 'amwās'.

إنما لم يتمكن أمس في الإعراب لأنه ضارع الفعل الماضي وليس بمعرب

'Ams' was not fully inflected because it resembles the past tense verb and is not inflected.

إنما كسرت لأن السين طبعها الكسر

It is only broken (kasra) because the letter 'sīn' naturally takes kasra.

أصلها الفعل أخذ من قولك أمس بخير ثم سمي به

Its origin is the verb derived from your saying 'Amsin bi-khayr' (Yesterday was good), then it was named by it.

ما رأيته مذ أمس الأحدث، وأتاني أمس الأحدث

I have not seen him since the most recent yesterday, and the most recent yesterday came to me.

عهدي به أمس الأحدث، وأتاني أمس الأحدث

My acquaintance with him was yesterday the most recent, and yesterday the most recent came to me.

قال: ويقال ما رأيته قبل أمس بيوم؛ يريد من أول من أمس

He said: And it is said 'I did not see him the day before yesterday', meaning 'from the day before yesterday'.

قال سيبويه وقد جاء في ضرورة الشعر مذ أمس بالفتح

Sibawayh said: And it has occurred in poetic necessity 'muth amsa' with a fatha.

فأكثرهم يبنيه على الكسر معرفة

Most of them build it on the kasra when it is definite.

ومنهم من يعربه معرفة

And some of them inflect it when it is definite.

وكلهم يعربه إذا أدخل عليه الألف واللام أو صيره نكرة أو أضافه

And all of them inflect it if they add the definite article to it, or make it indefinite, or add it (as a possessive).

فإذا نسبت شيئا إليه كسرت الهمزة، قلت إمسي على غير قياس

If you attribute something to it, you break the hamza, saying 'imsiyy' irregularly.

فإذا صغروه ردوهما لأن التصغير لا يكثر

And when they make it diminutive, they return them (the letters) because the diminutive form is not used frequently.

أقل بنو الإنسان، حين عمدتم ... إلى من يثير الجن، وهي هجود

The children of Adam have diminished, when you have turned... to one who stirs the jinn, and they are sleeping.

يعني بالإنسان آدم، على نبينا وعليه الصلاة والسلام

By 'human' is meant Adam, upon our Prophet and peace be upon him.

وكان الإنسان أكثر شيء جدلا

And man was the most argumentative of things.

عنى بالإنسان هنا الكافر

By 'human' here is meant the disbeliever.

ويجادل الذين كفروا بالباطل ليدحضوا به الحق

And those who disbelieve argue with falsehood to refute the truth with it.

يا أيها الناس*

O mankind!

وقد يؤنث على معنى القبيلة أو الطائفة

And it may be feminized to mean a tribe or a group.

جاءتك الناس، معناه: جاءتك القبيلة أو القطعة

'Al-nāsu came to you', meaning: the tribe or the group came to you.

شادوا البلاد وأصبحوا في آدم، ... بلغوا بها بيض الوجوه فحولا

They built up the land and became among the 'ādam, ... reaching with it white-faced and virile men.

والإنسان أصله إنسيان لأن العرب قاطبة قالوا في تصغيره: أنيسيان

And the origin of 'insān' is 'insiyān' because all the Arabs said in its diminutive form: 'unaysiyān'.

فدلت الياء الأخيرة على الياء في تكبيره، إلا أنهم حذفوها لما كثر الناس في كلامهم

So the last 'yāʾ' indicated the 'yāʾ' in its enlarged form, except that they omitted it when 'al-nāsu' became frequent in their speech.

انطلقوا بنا إلى أنيسيان قد رأينا شأنه

Let's go to 'unaysiyān' whose matter we have seen.

وهو تصغير إنسان، جاء شاذا على غير قياس، وقياسه أنيسان

And it is the diminutive of 'insān', which came irregularly, not according to the rule; its regular form is 'unaysān'.

وإذا قالوا أناسين فهو جمع بين مثل بستان وبساتين

And when they say 'anāsīn', it is a plural like 'būstān' and 'basātīn'.

وإذا قالوا أناسي كثيرا فخففوا الياء أسقطوا الياء التي تكون فيما بين عين الفعل ولامه مثل قراقير وقراقر

And when they say 'anāsī' a lot, they lighten the 'yāʾ' and omit the 'yāʾ' that is between the 'ʿayn' of the verb and its 'lām', like 'qarāqīr' and 'qarāqir'.

ويبين جواز أناسي، بالتخفيف، قول العرب أناسية كثيرة، والواحد إنسي وأناس إن شئت

And the permissibility of 'anāsī' with lightening is shown by the Arabs' saying 'unāsiyyah kathīrah', and the singular is 'insiyy' or 'unās' if you wish.

إنما سمي الإنسان إنسانا لأنه عهد إليه فنسي

Man was only named 'insān' because he was reminded and forgot.

إذا كان الإنسان في الأصل إنسيان، فهو إفعلان من النسيان

If 'insān' was originally 'insiyān', then it is 'ifʿilān' from 'al-nisyān' (forgetting).

وهو مثل ليل إضحيان من ضحي يضحى، وقد حذفت الياء فقيل إنسان

And it is like 'layl iḍḥiyān' from 'ḍaḥiy yūḍaḥḥā', and the 'yāʾ' has been omitted, so it is called 'insān'.

فقال: الأناس لأن أصله أناس فالألف فيه أصلية ثم زيدت عليه اللام التي تزاد مع الألف للتعريف

So he said: 'al-unās' because its origin is 'unās', so the 'alif' in it is original, then the 'lām' which is added with the 'alif' for definition was added to it.

فلما زادوهما على أناس صار الاسم الأناس، ثم كثرت في الكلام فكانت الهمزة واسطة فاستثقلوها فتركوها وصار الباقي: ألناس، بتحريك اللام بالضمة

And when they added them to 'unās', the name became 'al-unās', then it became frequent in speech, so the hamza was intermediate, and they found it heavy, so they omitted it, and what remained was 'al-nāsu', with the 'lām' moved by a damma.

فلما تحركت اللام والنون أدغموا اللام في النون فقالوا: الناس

And when the 'lām' and 'nūn' became mobile, they assimilated the 'lām' into the 'nūn', so they said: 'al-nāsu'.

وإنسان في الأصل إنسيان، وهو فعليان من الإنس والألف فيه فاء الفعل

And 'insān' is originally 'insiyān', and it is 'fiʿlāyān' from 'al-uns' (humanity), and the 'alif' in it is the 'fāʾ' of the verb.

وعلى مثاله حرصيان، وهو الجلد الذي يلي الجلد الأعلى من الحيوان، سمي حرصيانا لأنه يحرص أي يقشر

And on its pattern is 'ḥirṣiyān', which is the skin that follows the outer skin of an animal; it is called 'ḥirṣiyān' because it 'yaḥriṣu', meaning it peels.

ومننه أخذت الحارصة من الشجاج، يقال رجل حذريان إذا كان حذرا

And from it is derived 'al-ḥāriṣah' from wounds; a man is called 'ḥadhriyān' if he is cautious.

وتقدير إنسان فعلان وإنما زيد في تصغيره ياء كما زيد في تصغير رجل فقيل رويجل

And the measure of 'insān' is 'fiʿlān', and a 'yāʾ' was added to its diminutive, just as a 'yāʾ' was added to the diminutive of 'rajul', so it was said 'rujayl'.

أصله إنسيان على إفعلان، فحذفت الياء استخفافا لكثرة ما يجري على ألسنتهم

Its origin is 'insiyān' on the pattern 'ifʿilān', and the 'yāʾ' was omitted out of lightness due to the frequency with which it is used on their tongues.

فإذا صغروه ردوهما لأن التصغير لا يكثر

And when they make it diminutive, they return them (the letters) because the diminutive form is not used frequently.