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دعبع

Root entry · 2 derived lemmas

This root appears to be onomatopoeic, representing the sound or utterance of an infant. It is used to describe the imitation of a baby's sounds when asking for something, combining sounds like 'da' and 'ba' into a single word.

Derived headwords

دَعْبَعَverb
  1. 1.
    to imitate infant soundsclassical

    To make a sound that imitates the utterance of a suckling infant when it is asking for something, combining sounds like 'da' and 'ba'.

دُعْبُعٌnoun
  1. 1.
    infant's utteranceclassical

    The sound or utterance of a suckling infant, particularly when it is asking for something.

Parallel reading

حكاية لفظ الرضيع إذا طلب شيئا كأن الحاكي حكى لفظه، مرة بدع ومرة ببع، فجمعهما في حكايته فقال: دعبع
An imitation of the suckling infant's utterance when it asks for something, as if the imitator is recounting its sound, sometimes with 'da' and sometimes with 'ba', so he combined them in his imitation and said: da'ba'a.
وَلَيْلٍ كَأَثْنَاءِ الرُّوَيْزِيِّ جُبْتُهُ، ... إِذَا سَقَطَتْ أَرْوَاقُهُ دُونَ زَرْبَعٍ
And a night like the intervals of the Ruwayzi, I traversed it, ... when its leaves fell before Zarba'.
لأَدْنُو مِنْ نَفْسٍ هُنَاكَ حَبِيبَةٍ ... إِلَيَّ، إِذَا مَا قَالَ لِي: أَيْنَ دُعْبَعُ
I would draw near to a beloved soul there ... to me, when he says to me: 'Where is Du'ba'?'
كَسْرُ الْعَيْنِ لِأَنَّهَا حِكَايَةٌ
The 'ayn is kasra because it is an imitation.