أَنَّى

Full Definition

أَنَّى signifies Whence? syn. مِنْ أَيْنَ; being an interrogative respecting the direction, or quarter, from which a thing is: and whence [used to denote a condition]: and where? and where [used to denote a condition]; syn. أَيْنَ: and as one of the adverbial nouns used to denote a condition, whencesoever; from whatever direction or quarter: and wherever; wheresoever: and when? and when [used to den a condition]; syn. مَتَى: (T, K: [but in the latter of these, in art. ان, in the place of مَتَى we find حَيْثُ, which I regard as a mistake:]) and how? syn. كَيْفَ: and however. [I mention all these significations together because one of them is assigned by some authorities and another by others to انّى in one and the same instance.] You say, أَنَّى يَكُونُ هٰذَا Whence, from what direction or quarter, from what way, will, or should, be this? And أَنَّى لَكَ هٰذَا Whence [came, or cometh,] to thee this? It is said in the Kur [iii. 32], يَا مَرْيَمُ أَنَّى لَكِ هٰذَا O Mary, whence [came] to thee this? And in the same [xxxiv. 51], وَأَنَّى لَهُمُ ٱلتَّنَاوُشُ مِنْ مَكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ, meaning [But] whence [shall the attaining of belief be possible to them from a distant place, i. e., (as explained in the S in art.

Lane's Lexicon + Hans Wehr + Mufradat

Three dictionaries. One search.

"The product of over thirty years of unrelenting labor — to this day supreme in the field of Arabic lexicography."

47,000+ classical entries Root-based navigation Full text search Hyperlinked definitions

Try Now

Trusted by researchers at University of Michigan, Duke, Alberta & more

Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

Full Definition

Related Words from the Same Root

Verbs

Nouns