حرف

Arabic

Pronunciation

• Verb I: IPA^(key): /ħa.ra.fa/
• Verb II: IPA^(key): /ħar.ra.fa/
• Noun 1, 2: IPA^(key): /ħarf/,

  Audio:

  (file)

• Noun 3: IPA^(key): /ħurf/

Etymology 1

Cognate to Aramaic חָרַף (ḥarap, “to scrape, sharpen, to grind”), Classical Syriac ܚܪܰܦ (ḥrap̄, “to blend, to scrape together”), Classical Syriac ܚܰܪܦܐ (ḥarp̄a, “blade, sword”), Ge'ez ሐረፈ (ḥäräfä, “to crush, to grind, to tear off the top”).

Verb

حَرَفَ • (ḥarafa) I, non-past يَحْرِفُ‎ (yaḥrifu)

1. to turn to the opposite side
2. to trade, to do business
3. to trim, to snip

Conjugation

Verb

حَرَّفَ • (ḥarrafa) II, non-past يُحَرِّفُ‎ (yuḥarrifu)

1. to slant, to incline
2. to bend down, up, or back, to turn down, up, or back
3. to deflect
4. to distort, to corrupt, to falsify, to misconstrue, to pervert, to twist
   • 7th century CE, Jamīʿ at-Tirmiḏiyy, section 47:

     فَمَا جَاءُوا بِهِ عَلَى وَجْهِهِ فَهُوَ حَقٌّ وَلَكِنَّهُمْ يُحَرِّفُونَ وَيَزِيدُونَ

     famā jāʔū bihi ʕalā wajhihi fahuwa ḥaqqun walakinnahum yuḥarrifūna wayazīdūna

     Whatever they came with is right, as it is – however they distort and augment.

Conjugation

Etymology 2

Verbal noun of the verb above, the result of turning the tongue or stylus or limb to the side. The meaning “word” is a semantic loan from Medieval Latin terminus, spawned in the environment of philosophy text translation (see Praetorius 1909).

Noun

حَرْف • (ḥarf) m (plural حُرُوف (ḥurūf) or أَحْرُف (ʔaḥruf))

1. verbal noun of حَرَفَ (ḥarafa) (form I)
2. letter (of the alphabet), piece of type

   حَرْفًا بِحَرْفٍ ― ḥarfan bi-ḥarfin ― word for word

3. consonant
4. (grammar) particle
5. (obsolete) word

Declension

Related terms

• حَرْفِيّ (ḥarfiyy)

Descendants

• Gulf Arabic: حرف (ḥarf)
• South Levantine Arabic: حرف (ḥarf)
• → Azerbaijani: hərf
• → Bashkir: хәреф (xəref)
• → Bengali: হরফ (hôrôf)
• → Gujarati: હરફ (haraph)
• → Hausa: har̃àfī
  • → Nupe: harànfi
  • → Yoruba: háràfí
• → Hindustani: حرف / हर्फ़ (harf)
• → Kabardian: хьэрыф (ḥɛrəf)
• → Kyrgyz: арип (arip)
• → Malay: huruf

  Indonesian: huruf

• → Minangkabau: uruf
• → Ottoman Turkish: حرف (harf)
  • Turkish: harf
  • → Albanian: harf
• → Persian: حرف (harf)
• → Punjabi: حرف (ḥrf) / ਹਰਫ਼ (haraf)
• → Swahili: herufi
• → Sindhi: حرف (harfu)
• → Tatar: хәреф (xäref)
• → Turkmen: harp
• → Uzbek: harf

Noun

حَرْف • (ḥarf) m (plural حِرَف (ḥiraf))

1. cutting edge, sharp edge
2. border, brink, edge, rim

Declension

Adjective

حَرْف • (ḥarf)

1. (obsolete, poetic, of a she-camel) hardy, strong and/or lean and/or swift
   • a. 625, الأعشى al-ʾaʿšā, edited by Geyer, Rudolf, Zwei Gedichte von Al-ʾAʿšâ (Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Philosophisch-historische Klasse; 149/6)‎, volume Mâ Bukâʾu, Wien: In Kommission bei Carl Gerold’s Sohn, published 1905, page 102:

     وَشِمِلَّةٍ حَرْفٍ كَأَنَّ قُتُودَهَا … جَلَّلْتُهَا (var. لَبَسْتُهَا) جَوْنَ السَّرَاةِ خَفَيْدَدًا

     wašimillatin ḥarfin kaʔanna qutūdahā … jallaltuhā (var. labastuhā) jawna s-sarāti ḵafaydadan

     Some hardy she-camel the saddle-woods of which I applied like upon a black-backed ostrich

Declension

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

حِرَف • (ḥiraf) pl

1. plural of حَرْف (ḥarf)
2. plural of حِرْفَة (ḥirfa)

Etymology 4

Arabic Wikipedia has an article on:

حرف (نبات)

Wikipedia ^ar

An Aramaic borrowing, Aramaic חורפה / חורפא / ࡇࡅࡓࡐࡀ / ܚܘܪܦܐ (ḥurpā, “sharp edge”) corresponds to the Arabic حَرْف (ḥarf, “sharp edge”) and acquired the transferred meanings of “pungency” and “pungent” food, which applies to cress because of its marked mustardy or radish-like, slightly pungent to peppery taste and smell, compare also the adjective likely borrowed from Aramaic into Arabic حِرِّيف (ḥirrīf, “pungent”); perhaps also merged Akkadian 𒄷𒌨𒁍 (ḫurpu, “crop collected early, unripe produce”), hence the meaning of bitter or unpleasant tasting plants, rather related to the root خ ر ف (ḵ-r-f).

Noun

حُرْف • (ḥurf) m

1. cress (Lepidium sativum, a garden vegetable)
2. bitter-cress (Cardamine, some of which are eatable, some of medicinal use)
3. water-cress (Nasturtium officinale, eatable and of medicinal use)
   • 1025, ابن سينا [Avicenna], القانون في الطب [Canon Medicinae]:

     قال ديسقويدس أجود ما رأينا من شجرة الحرف ما يكون بأرض بابل، وقوته شبيهة بقوة الخردل وبزر الفجل، وقيل الخردل وبزر الجرجير المجتمعين، وورقه ينقص في أفعاله عنه لرطوبته فإذا يبس قارب مشاكلته وكاد يلحقه. […] الأفعال والخواص: مسخن محلل منضج مع تليين ينشف قيح الجرب.

     Dioscurides said that the best what we have seen of the water-cress is the one on the earth of Babel, and its power is similar to that of the mustard and the seeds of the radish, and, it is said, mustard and rocket seeds can be blended with it, but its leaves fall behind the whole of the plant in their effects by reason of their moisture, but when dried, they are similar to it and almost catch up with it. Its properties: It is heatening, laxative, maturative with some laxivity and absorbs the pus in the scab.

Declension

Descendants

• → Old Catalan: algorfa, algorfe

References

• “ḥrp”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• Freytag, Georg (1830) “حرف”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 1, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, pages 367–368
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “حرف”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎ (in French), volume 1, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, pages 410–411
• Praetorius, Franz (1909) “Ḥarf^un = Terminus”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft‎, volume 63, pages 504–505

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

From Arabic حَرْف (ḥarf).

Noun

حرف • (harf) (plural حرفلر (harfler) or حروف (huruf))

1. letter
   • 1928 November 3, T.C. Resmî Gazete, law number 1353:

     شیمدی‌یه قادار توركجه‌یی یازمق ایچین قوللانیلان عرب حرفلری یرینه لاتین اساسندن آلنان و مربوط جدولده شكللری كوستریلن حرفلر (تورك حرفلری) عنوان و حقوقی ایله قبول لیدلمشدر.

     Şimdiye kadar Türkçeyi yazmak için kullanılan Arab harfleri yerine Latin esasından alınan ve merbut cetvelde şekilleri gösterilen harfler (Türk harfleri) unvan ve hukuku ile kabul edilmiştir.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• Turkish: harf
• → Albanian: harf

Further reading

• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “حرف”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎, Constantinople: Mihran, page 502

Persian

Persian Wikipedia has an article on:

حرف

Wikipedia ^fa

Etymology 1

From Arabic حَرْف (ḥarf).

Pronunciation

Noun

حَرْف • (harf) (plural حرف‌ها (harf-hâ) or حروف (horuf))

1. letter
   • c. 1250, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, دیوان شمس [Divān-i Shams-i Tabrīzī]:

     ز حرف عین چشم او ز ظرف جیم گوش او

     ze harf-e 'eyn čašm-e u ze zarf-e jim guš-e u

     Her eye, from the letter of ʿayn ; her ear, from the vessel of jīm

2. speech, talk
   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume IV, verse 2725:

     چگونه گفت اندر روی شاه این چنین گستاخ آن حرف تباه؟

     čegune goft andar ru-ye šah in čonin gostâx ân harf-e tebâh?

     How durst he say those vain words so impudently in the face of the king?

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Arabic حِرَف (ḥiraf).

Pronunciation

Noun

حِرَف • (heraf)

1. (archaic) plural of حرفه

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic حَرْف (ḥarf).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ħarf/,

• Audio (Ramallah)

  (file)

Noun

حرف • (ḥarf) m (plural حروف (ḥurūf))

1. letter (of the alphabet)