محل

Arabic

Etymology 1

Apparent noun of place from the root ح ل ل (ḥ-l-l); compare حَلَّ (ḥalla, “to solve, loosen”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ħall/

Noun

مَحَلّ • (maḥall) m (plural مَحَالّ (maḥāll) or مَحَلَّات (maḥallāt))

1. place, location, spot, station

   هُمَا مَحَلَّانِ مَا لِلنَّاسِ غَيْرُهُمَـا فَانـْظُرْ لِنَفْسِك مَاذَا أَنْتَ مُخْتَارُ

   They are two places, people have none other than them * So look for yourself, which one will you choose?

2. store, shop

   Synonym: مَتْجَر (matjar)

3. residence, abode, quarter
4. time and opportunity
5. delay, respite
6. assembly in the house of a dead person

Declension

Derived terms

• مَحَلِّيّ (maḥalliyy, “local”)
• مَحَلَّة (maḥalla, “neighborhood”)

Descendants

• → Persian: محل
  • → Punjabi:

    Gurmukhi script: ਮਹਿਲ (mahil)

    Shahmukhi script: محل (mahal)

  • → Urdu: مَحَل (mahal)
• → Hausa: màhâllī
• → Ottoman Turkish: محل
  • → Turkish: mahal

Etymology 2

Verb

مَحِلَ • (maḥila) I, non-past يَمْحَلُ‎ (yamḥalu)

1. to injure by malignant insinuation, to intrigue against, to delate against

Conjugation

Verb

مَحُلَ or مَحَلَ or مَحِلَ • (maḥila or maḥala or maḥula) I, non-past يَمْحَلُ or يَمْحُلُ‎ (yamḥalu or yamḥulu)

1. to be sterile, to be barren

Conjugation

Noun

مَحْل • (maḥl) m

1. verbal noun of مَحَلَ (maḥala) (form I)
2. verbal noun of مَحِلَ (maḥila) (form I)
3. sterility, barrenness, dearth
4. an unidentified fish
   • 1154, al-ʾIdrīsīy, نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق, الإقليم الأول - الجزء الثاني; commented by Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne, Goeje, Michael Jan (1866) Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne par Edrîsî‎ (in French), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 378

     -->

     :

     وهذه البحيرة من أعاجيب الدنيا وذلك أن بها اثني عشر نوعاً من السمك يوجد منها في كل شهر نوع واحد لا يمتزج بغيره من أصناف السمك فإذا تم الشهر لم يوجد شيء من ذلك النوع في الشهر الآتي ثم يوجد في الشهر الآتي صنف من السمك آخر غير الصنف الأول لا يمتزج بغيره هكذا لكل شهر نوع من السمك لا يمتزج بسمك غيره إلى كمال السنة هكذا في كل عام وهذه الاثنا عشر نوع من الحوت التي ذكرناها هي البوري والقاجوج والمحل والطلنط والاشبلينيات والشلبة والقاروض واللاج والجوجة والكحلاء والطنفلو والقلا.

     This lake is one of the wonders of the world, for it has twelve species of fish, each month one is found therein, not mixing with any other species than itself, and when the month ends, nothing of that fish is found in the coming month, then in the coming month an other kind of fish is encountered, different from the first kind and not mixing with anything other than itself, thus every month a species of fish that does not mix with other fish, up to completion of a year and so every year, and these twelve species of fish that we have related are .

Etymology 3

From Ancient Greek μοχλός (mokhlós, “bar, lever”)..

Alternative forms

• مُخْل (muḵl), مَحَال (maḥāl), مَحَالَة (maḥāla), مَخَال／مِخَال／مُخَال (maḵāl), مِيخَال (mīḵāl)

Noun

مُحْل • (muḥl) m

1. (archaic) block and tackle, muffle, lever
   • a. 943, سنان بن ثابت, edited by Mohammed Abattouy, On the Theory of Simple Machines, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin MS 3306‎:

     المحل: لا فرق بينه وبين القرسطون في حكمه

     The lever: There is no difference between it and the steelyard.

   • 1377, Ibn Khaldun, Prolegomena‎:

     وَرُبَّمَا يَتَوَهَّمُ كَثِيرٌ مِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ إِذَا نَظَرَ إِلَى آثَارِ ٱلْأَقْدَمِينَ وَمَصَانِعِهِمِ ٱلْعَظِيمَةِ مِثْلَ إِيوَانِ كِسْرَى وَأَهْرَامِ مِصْرَ وَحَنَايَا ٱلْمُعَلَّقَةِ وَشَرْشَالَ بِٱلْمَغْرِبِ إِنَّمَا كَانَتْ بِقَدْرِهِمْ مُتَفَرِّقِينَ أَوْ مُجْتَمِعِينَ فَيَتَخَيَّلُ لَهُمْ أَجْسَامًا تُنَاسِبُ ذَٰلِكَ، أَعْظَمُ مِنْ هَٰذِهِ بِكَثِيرٍ فِي طُولِهَا وَقَدْرِهَا لِتُنَاسِبَ بَيْنَهَا وَبَيْنَ ٱلْقَدْرِ ٱلَّتِي صَدَرَتْ تِلْكَ ٱلْمَبَانِي عَنْهَا، وَيَغْفُلُ عَنْ شَأْنِ ٱلْهِنْدَامِ وَٱلْمُخَالِ وَمَا ٱقْتَضَتْهُ فِي ذَٰلِكَ ٱلصِّنَاعَةُ ٱلْهَنْدَسِيَّةُ.

     warubbamā yatawahhamu kaṯīrun mina n-nāsi ʔiḏā naẓara ʔilā ʔāṯāri l-ʔaqdamīna wamaṣāniʕihimi l-ʕaẓīmati miṯla ʔīwāni kisrā waʔahrāmi miṣra waḥanāyā l-muʕallaqati wašaršāla bi-l-maḡribi ʔinnamā kānat biqadrihim mutafarriqīna ʔaw mujtamiʕīna fayataḵayyalu lahum ʔajsāman tunāsibu ḏālika, ʔaʕẓamu min hāḏihi bikaṯīrin fī ṭūlihā waqadrihā litunāsiba baynahā wabayna l-qadri llatī ṣadarat tilka l-mabānī ʕanhā, wayaḡfulu ʕan šaʔni l-hindāmi wal-muḵāli wamā qtaḍathu fī ḏālika ṣ-ṣināʕatu l-handasiyyatu.

     Perhaps, if many think about the remnants of the ancients and their great buildings like the arcade-yard of Khusrow and the pyramids of Egypt and the connected cambers and Cherchell in the Maghreb, they were in their size piecemeal or collective work and one has to imagine their bodies to match that, much so in their length and scale to find an analogy between them and between the scale from which these buildings have risen; one fails to pay heed to the employment of machines duplicating power and the block and tackle and that which one availed oneself of in such engineering work.

Declension

Egyptian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic مَحَلّ (maḥall).

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Noun

محل • (maḥall) m

1. store

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic مَحَلّ (maḥall).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaħall/,

Noun

مَحَل • (maḥall) m (plural مَحَلَّات (maḥallāt))

1. shop, store

   Synonym: مَكَان (makān)

2. place, location

   Synonym: دُكَّان (dukkān) (archaic)

Moroccan Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic مَحَلّ (maḥall).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maħalː/

Noun

محل • (maḥall) m (plural محلات (maḥallāt))

1. place, location

   Synonyms: بلاصة (blāṣa), موضع (mūḍaʕ, mūṭaʕ)

2. store

   Synonym: حانوت (ḥānūt)

Persian

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic مَحَلّ (maḥall).

Pronunciation

Noun

مَحَلّ • (mahall)

1. place, location

   Synonyms: مَکان (makân), جا (jâ)

   مَحَلِّ کار ― mahall-e kâr ― workplace

   محل تصادف ― mahall-e tasâdof ― location of the accident

   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 3786:

     در محل قهر این رحمت ز چیست
     اژدها را دست‌‌دادن راه کیست

     dar mahall-i qahr īn rahmat za čīst
     aždahā rā dast-dādan rāh kīst

     Wherefore this mercy in the place of vengeance?
     Whose way is it to give the hand to a dragon?”

2. residence, quarter

Descendants

• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਮਹਿਲ (mahil)

  Shahmukhi script: محل (mahal)

• → Urdu: مَحَل (mahal)

Punjabi

Punjabi Wikipedia has an article on:

محل

Wikipedia ^pa

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian محل (mahall), from Arabic مَحَلّ (maḥall).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Punjabi) Phonetic: mǣ́lă IPA^(key): /mɛː˦lə̆/

Noun

محل • (mahal) m (Gurmukhi spelling ਮਹਿਲ)

1. mansion, palace
2. wife

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic مَحَلّ (maḥall).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ħall/,

• Audio (Amman)

  (file)

Noun

محلّ • (maḥall) m (plural محلّات (maḥallāt))

1. place, room

   Synonyms: مكان (makān), مطرح (maṭraḥ)

2. shop, store, department store

   Synonym: دكّان (dukkān)

Urdu

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian محل (mahall), from Arabic مَحَلّ (maḥall).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /mə.ɦəl/, /mɛ.ɦɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɛl, -əl

Noun

مَحَل • (mahal) m (formal plural محلات, Hindi spelling महल)

1. palace
2. woman's quarters

Declension

Further reading

• “محل”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
• “محل”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary , Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2024.
• Qureshi, Bashir Ahmad (1971) “محل”, in Kitabistan's 20th Century Standard Dictionary‎, Lahore: Kitabistan Pub. Co.