كاد

A root ك و د (k-w-d) hasn’t developed. The term is suggested as a borrowing from Old South Arabian 𐩫𐩵 (kd, “to almost do”, form I), related to 𐩫𐩵 (kd, “to treacherously endanger; to start a prosecution against”, form II).

كَادَ • (kāda) I (non-past يَكَادُ (yakādu), verbal noun كَوْد (kawd) or مَكَاد (makād) or مَكَادَة (makāda))

1. to almost do something (with following non-past or with أَن (ʔan) + subjunctive)

   Synonyms: أَوْشَكَ (ʔawšaka), (rare) كَرَبَ (karaba)

   كِدْتُ أَذْهَبُ ― kidtu ʔaḏhabu ― I almost went

   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 2:20:

     يَكَادُ ٱلْبَرْقُ يَخْطَفُ أَبْصَارَهُمْ

     yakādu l-barqu yaḵṭafu ʔabṣārahum

     It is as if the lightning almost snatched away their sight.

2. to hardly do something (negated, with following non-past)
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 2:71:

     فَذَبَحُوهَا وَمَا كَادُوا يَفْعَلُونَ

     faḏabaḥūhā wamā kādū yafʕalūna

     They slaughtered her, but they hardly brought themselves to do it.

3. as soon as (negated, with following non-past)

• Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017), Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 1126
• Freytag, Georg (1837) “كاد”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 4, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 69a
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “كاد”, 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 2, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 941b
• Steingass, Francis Joseph (1884) “كود”, in The Student's Arabic–English Dictionary‎, London: W.H. Allen, page 900
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “كود”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 991

كَادَ • (kāda) I (non-past يَكِيدُ (yakīdu), verbal noun كَيْد (kayd) or مَكِيدَة (makīda))

1. to plot, to scheme
2. to plan or intend to commit crime

• Freytag, Georg (1837) “كاد”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 4, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 73b