اِبْنٌ

Full Definition

اِبْنٌ , meaning A son; because he is the father's building, made to be so by God; and a son's son; and a descendant more remote; is with a conjunctive ا [when not immediately preceded by a quiescence, written ٱبْنٌ]; [and when immediately preceded by the proper name of a man and immediately followed by the proper name of his parent, written without the ا, as in زَيْدُ بْنُ عَمْرٍو Zeyd the son of 'Amr ; unless the words compose a proposition, as in زَيْدٌ ٱبْنُ عَمْرٍو Zeyd is the son of 'Amr; or in the case of an interrogation, as in هَلْ زَيْدٌ ٱبْنُ عَمْرٍو Is Zeyd the son of 'Amr?]: the pl. is بَنُونَ in the nom. case, and بَنِينَ in the accus. and gen.; and أَبْنَآءٌ, which is a pl. of pauc.: [and hence it is argued that] the sing. is of the measure فَعَلٌ with the final radical letter elided and the conjunctive ا prefixed; originally بَنَىٌ, with ى, as we judge, because [the Present.T] يَبْنِى is more common than يَبْنُو: or originally بَنَوٌ, with two fet-hahs, because it has بَنُونَ for a pl., and the perfect pl. does not admit of change [in its vowels beyond that which is here made in بَنُونَ for بَنَوُونَ]; and because it has for a pl. أَبْنَآءٌ, like as جَمَلٌ has أَجْمَالٌ; and the elided letter is و, as in أَبٌ and أَخٌ, because و is more commonly elided than ى; or because the fem. is بِنْتٌ and [that of أَخٌ is] أُخْتٌ; for we do not see this ه [or ت] affixed in the fem. except when و is elided in the masc., as is shown by أَخَوَاتٌ and هَنَوَاتٌ; though بُنُوَّةٌ is not a decisive proof that the last radical is و, for a reason stated above in the explanation of it: or, as some say, it is originally بِنْوٌ, with kesr to the. ب, like حِمْلٌ, because they say بِنْتٌ, and a change [of a vowel] in a case of this kind is rare: [but J says,] it may not be of the measure فِعْلٌ nor فُعْلٌ, because it has بَنُونَ with fet-h to the ب, for a pl.; nor of the measure فَعْلٌ, because this has [generally] for its [broken] pl. أَفْعُلٌ or فُعُولٌ: Zj says that it is originally بِنْىٌ or بِنْوٌ, or it may be originally بَنًا; that it is app. the last accord. to those who say بَنُون; and that أَبْنَآءٌ may be pl. of the measure فَعَلٌ and of فِعْلٌ; that بِنْتٌ favours its being of the latter; but that it may be of the measure فَعَلٌ changed to فِعْلٌ, as فَعَلٌ is changed to فُعْلٌ in the case of أُخْتٌ. Beside the pls. mentioned above, اِبْنٌ has a quasi-pl. n., namely أَبْنَى , of the same measure as أَعْمَى; a sing. denoting the pl.: or, as some say, اِبْنٌ has for pls. أَبْنَآءٌ and أَبْنَى. Lh mentions the phrase, هٰؤُلَآءِ أَبْنَا أَبْنَائِهِمْ [or أَبْنَى ابنائهم These are the sons of their sons.]. Sometimes م is affixed to اِبْنٌ [so that it becomes اِبْنُمٌ or اِبْنَمٌ at the beginning of a sentence, and or ٱبُنَمٌ in other cases]: the word is then doubly declinable [like اِمْرُؤٌ or ٱمْرُأٌ]: you say, هٰذَا ٱبْنُمٌ [This is a son], and رَأَيْتُ ٱبْنَمًا [I saw a son], and مَرَرْتُ بِٱبْنِمٍ [I passed by a son]; making the ن similarly declinable to the م; and the ا is with kesr in every case [when the word commences a sentence, whether you make the word doubly declinable or not]: [for] some make it singly declinable, leaving the ن with fet-h in every case [as the ر in اِمْرَأٌ or ٱمْرَأٌ]; saying, هٰذَا ٱبْنَمُكَ [This is thy son], and رَأَيْتُ ٱبْنَمَكَ [I saw thy son], and مَرَرْتُ بِٱبْنَمِكَ [I passed by thy son]. Hassán says, وَلَدْنَا بَنِى العَنْقَآءِ وَٱبْنَىْ مُحَرِّقٍ فَأَكْرِمْ بِنَا خَالًا وَأَكْرِمْ بِنَا [We begot the sons of El-'Ankà, and the two sons of Moharrik; and how generous are we as a maternal uncle! and how generous are we as a son!], i. e., ٱبْنَا: the م is augmentative, and the hemzeh [or rather ا] is that of conjunction. And Ru-beh says, فَهْىَ تُنَادِى بِأَبِى بُكَآءَ شَكْلَى فَقَدَتْ حَمِيمَا [As the weeping of a bereft woman, who has lost a relation, therefore she calls out, With my father would I ransom thee, and a son]; meaning ٱبْنِمَا. The fem. of اِبْنٌ is اِبْنَةٌ or ٱبْنَةٌ [with the conjunctive ا when not commencing a sentence] and بِنْتٌ [meaning A daughter; and any female descendant]: accord. to Sb, اِبْنَةٌ is formed from اِبْنٌ by affixing ه [or ة]; but not so بِنْتٌ; for this is formed by affixing ى as a letter of quasi-coordination, and then substituting for it ت: [but if the ت be substituted for ى, it seems more probable that the ى is the final radical:] or, as some say, the ت is substituted for و: [Mtr says,] the ت is substituted for the final radical: accord. to Ks, it is originally with ه [or ة], because it has a fem. meaning: [my own opinion is most agreeable with this of Ks; and with that of Zj, which will be mentioned below; or, perhaps, is identical with that of Zj: I think it most probable that, as اِبْنٌ is generally held to be originally بَنَىٌ or بَنَوٌ, so اِبْنَةٌ and بِنْتٌ are both originally بَنَيَةٌ or بَنَوَةٌ, and that بِنْتٌ is formed from اِبْنَةٌ by suppressing the alif, transferring its kesreh to the ب, making the ن quiescent, and changing the ة into ت, which is therefore said to be not the sign of the fem. gender, either because it is not ة, but is a substitute for ة, or because it is preceded by a quiescent letter:] AHn says that the ت is substituted for the final radical letter, which is و; and that it is not the sign of the fem. gender, because the letter [next] before it is quiescent: this [he says] is the opinion of Sb, and is the right opinion; for he says that if you were to use it as the proper name of a man, you would make it perfectly decl.; and if the ت were to denote the fem. gender, the name would not be perfectly decl.: and the same is said respecting the ت in أُخْتٌ: (TA in art. اخو:) this ت remains in a case of pause as in the case of the connexion of the word with a word following: but one should not say اِبِنْتٌ, because the ا is required only on account of the quiescence of the ب, and is therefore dropped when this is made movent: Zj says that, in forming the pl. of بِنْتٌ [and of اِبْنَةٌ], the sing. is reduced to its original form, which is فَعْلَةٌ [as I find it written in the transcript from the T in the TT, but it may be a mistake for فَعَلَپٌ,] with the last radical letter suppressed: the pl. is بَنَاتٌ alone: [and this is generally treated as a fem. pl. of the perfect, or sound, kind, although the ت in بِنْتٌ is said to be not a sign of the fem. gender; so that you say, رَأَيْتُ بَنَاتِكَ I saw thy daughters; but sometimes] one says, رَأَيْتُ بَنَاتَكَ, with fet-h [as the case-ending], treating the ت as a radical letter. It is said in the Bári' that when men and women are mixed together, the masc. pl. is made predominant; so that one says, بَنُو فُلَانٍ [meaning The sons and daughters, or the children, of such a one]; and even, اِمْرَأَةٌ مِنْ بَنى تَمِيمٍ [A woman of the children of Temeem]; and accordingly, if بَنُو فُلَانٍ is applied to denote the persons to whom a legacy is left, the males and the females are included therein.
2 When اِبْن is applied to that which is not a human being, to an irrational being, it has for its pl. بَنَات: thus the pl. of اِبْنُ مَخَاضٍ [A young male camel in his second year] is بَنَاتُ مَخَاضٍ: that of اِبْنُ لَبُونٍ [A male camel that has entered upon his third year] is بَنَاتُ لَبُونٍ: and that of اِبْنُ نَعْشٍ [Any one of the stars of the tail of Ursa Major or of that of Ursa Minor] is بَنَاتُ نَعْشٍ; but sometimes, by poetic licence, بَنُو نَعْشٍ: and hence, or to make a distinction between the males and the females, the lawyers say, بَنُو اللَّبُونِ.
3 بَنَاتٌ also signifies Dolls with which young girls play: sing. بِنْتٌ. It occurs in this sense in a trad., in which 'Áïsheh speaks of her playing therewith when, being nine years of age, she was conducted as a bride to Mohammad.
4 اِبْن is often prefixed to some other noun that particularizes its signification, because of a close connexion between the two meanings: and so is . [Most of the compounds thus formed will be found explained in the arts. to which belong the nouns that occupy the second place. The following are among the more common, and are therefore here mentioned, as exs. of different kinds.]
5 اِبْنُ الطِّينِ [The son of earth, or clay, meaning] Adam.

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