Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

أَيَّانَ

Root: اين

Full Definition

أَيَّانَ , of the measure فَعَّال, or it may be of the measure فَعْلَان, also pronounced إِيَّانَ , the latter of the dial. of Suleym, mentioned by Fr, and by Zj, is an interrogative respecting a time, but only respecting a time not come: signifying When? at what time? it is fem.; but may be made masc.: and it may be pronounced with imáleh, though not belonging to a class of words regularly subject to imáleh. It is said in the Kur [xvi. 22 and xxvii. 67], accord. to different readings, أَيَّانَ يُبْعَثُونَ or [When they shall be raised to life]; i. e. when shall be the resurrection. But you may not say, أَيَّانَ فَعَلْتَ ذَاكَ as meaning When didst thou that?
2 IJ says that, were it syn. with مَتَى, it would be conditional; whereas it was not mentioned by his colleagues among the adverbs used conditionally, as مَتَى and أَيْنَ &c.: but sometimes it has a conditional meaning, though that meaning be not explicit. A poet says, أَيَّانَ نُؤْمِنْكَ تَأْمَنْ غَيْرَنَا وَ إِذَا لَمْ تُدْرِكِ الأَمْنَ مِنَّا لَمْ تَزَلْ حَذِرَا [When we grant thee security, thou wilt be secure from others than us; and when thou obtainest not security from us, thou wilt not cease to be in a state of fear].


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