← Back to Lisan al-Arab

يعع

Root entry · 4 derived lemmas

This root primarily relates to the sounds and actions of children, specifically the calls they make when playing games involving throwing objects. It also touches upon the phonetic preferences in classical Arabic regarding the pronunciation of certain sounds, particularly the interplay of vowels.

Derived headwords

يَعْيَعَverb
  1. 1.
    to call outclassical

    To make a specific type of call or cry, often associated with children's games.

يَعْيَعَةnoun
  1. 1.
    children's callclassical

    A call or cry made by children, particularly when playing a game of throwing an object to one another.

  2. 2.
    sound of callingclassical

    The sound of people calling out to each other, like saying 'ya' ya'.

يَعْيَاعnoun
  1. 1.
    children's callclassical

    A call or cry made by children, particularly when playing a game of throwing an object to one another.

يَعْparticle
  1. 1.
    call soundclassical

    A sound used in calling, similar to 'ya'.

Parallel reading

ولا يكسر واو الوعواع كما يكسر الزاي من الزلزال ونحوه كراهية الكسر في الواو
And the waw of 'al-wawwa'' is not vocalized with a kasra, unlike the za' in 'al-zilzal' and its ilk, due to dislike of the kasra on the waw.
وكذلك حكاية اليعيعة واليعياع من فعال الصبيان إذا رمى أحدهم الشيء إلى صبي آخر
And likewise is the representation of 'al-ya'ya'ah' and 'al-ya'ya'' from the actions of children when one of them throws something to another child.
لأن الياء خلقتها الكسر فيستقبحون الواو بين كسرتين
Because the ya' inherently takes a kasra, and they find it ugly for the waw to be between two kasras.
والواو خلقتها الضم فيستقبحون التقاء كسرة وضمة فلا تجدهما في كلام العرب في أصل البناء
And the waw inherently takes a damma, and they find it ugly for a kasra and a damma to meet, so you do not find them together in the speech of the Arabs in the original construction.
أمست كهامة يعياع تداولها ... أيدي الأوازع، ما تلقى وما تذر
It became like the debris of 'ya'ya'' passed around by ... the hands of the birds of prey, leaving nothing and sparing nothing.
واليعيعة واليعياع من أفعال الصبيان إذا رمى أحدهم الشيء إلى الآخر
And 'al-ya'ya'ah' and 'al-ya'ya'' are from the actions of children when one of them throws something to the other.
وقيل: اليعيعة حكاية أصوات القوم إذا تداعوا فقالوا: ياع ياع
And it was said: 'Al-ya'ya'ah' is the representation of the sounds of people when they call out to each other, saying: 'ya' ya''.