مصباح

Arabic

FWOTD – 21 November 2015

Etymology

Tool noun from the root ص ب ح (ṣ-b-ḥ); compare صَبْح (ṣabḥ, “dawn”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /misˤ.baːħ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

مِصْبَاح • (miṣbāḥ) m (plural مَصَابِيح (maṣābīḥ))

1. lamp
   • 7th century CE, The Quran‎^[1]:

     مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ

     maṯalu nūrihi kamiškātin fīhā miṣbāḥun

     The likeness of his light is like a niche with a lamp in it.

2. headlight (of a car)

Declension

Declension of noun مِصْبَاح (miṣbāḥ)

Singular	basic singular triptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	مِصْبَاح miṣbāḥ	الْمِصْبَاح al-miṣbāḥ	مِصْبَاح miṣbāḥ
Nominative	مِصْبَاحٌ miṣbāḥun	الْمِصْبَاحُ al-miṣbāḥu	مِصْبَاحُ miṣbāḥu
Accusative	مِصْبَاحًا miṣbāḥan	الْمِصْبَاحَ al-miṣbāḥa	مِصْبَاحَ miṣbāḥa
Genitive	مِصْبَاحٍ miṣbāḥin	الْمِصْبَاحِ al-miṣbāḥi	مِصْبَاحِ miṣbāḥi
Dual	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	مِصْبَاحَيْن miṣbāḥayn	الْمِصْبَاحَيْن al-miṣbāḥayn	مِصْبَاحَيْ miṣbāḥay
Nominative	مِصْبَاحَانِ miṣbāḥāni	الْمِصْبَاحَانِ al-miṣbāḥāni	مِصْبَاحَا miṣbāḥā
Accusative	مِصْبَاحَيْنِ miṣbāḥayni	الْمِصْبَاحَيْنِ al-miṣbāḥayni	مِصْبَاحَيْ miṣbāḥay
Genitive	مِصْبَاحَيْنِ miṣbāḥayni	الْمِصْبَاحَيْنِ al-miṣbāḥayni	مِصْبَاحَيْ miṣbāḥay
Plural	basic broken plural diptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	مَصَابِيح maṣābīḥ	الْمَصَابِيح al-maṣābīḥ	مَصَابِيح maṣābīḥ
Nominative	مَصَابِيحُ maṣābīḥu	الْمَصَابِيحُ al-maṣābīḥu	مَصَابِيحُ maṣābīḥu
Accusative	مَصَابِيحَ maṣābīḥa	الْمَصَابِيحَ al-maṣābīḥa	مَصَابِيحَ maṣābīḥa
Genitive	مَصَابِيحَ maṣābīḥa	الْمَصَابِيحِ al-maṣābīḥi	مَصَابِيحِ maṣābīḥi

Descendants

• Maltese: musbieħ
• → Persian: مصباح (mesbâh) (obsolete)

References

• Wehr, Hans (1979) “صبح”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic مِصْبَاح (miṣbāḥ, “lamp, light”).

Noun

مصباح • (mısbah) (plural مصابیح)

1. lamp, especially an oil lamp

   Synonyms: چراغ (çirag), سراج (sirac), قندیل (kandil), لامپه (lampa)

2. sort of large bowl for wine

Descendants

• Turkish: mısbah

Further reading

• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “mısbah”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 3204
• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “مصباح”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[2], Constantinople: Mihran, page 1178
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687) “Lucerna”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum‎^[3], Vienna, column 975
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680) “مصباح”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum‎^[4], Vienna, column 4696
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “مصباح”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[5], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 1877