الممات وما في معناه من الألفاظ في معجم لسان العرب: دراسة في المصطلح والدلالة

Abstract EN

Arabic language philologists have been absorbed in collecting, defining and etymologizing Arabic lexis.

They were competing against each other in surveying, classifying, and ranking these words in terms of eloquence and usage; consequently, a myriad of linguistic treatises have been written, and numerous comprehensive dictionaries of Arabic have been composed.

Lisan al-‘Arab by Ibn Manzour (d.711 AH) is one of the largest Arabic dictionaries.

In its fold, it includes five books, which are ranked among the most important lexical and lexicographical writings.

Lisan al-‘Arab is an encyclopedic dictionary; that is why it has been selected to be my main source for etymologizing words, collecting obsolete, archaic, disused words, etc., in addition to other words of similar meanings.

The research aims to study and establish the origins of the various terms used for labeling words as obsolete, which are semantically similar.

After displaying scholars’ views thereon, past and present, the research concentrates on IbnManzour’s system of reporting obsolete words.

It is a multi-approach system due to the multiplicity of sources of different approaches on which Ibn-Manzour relied.

Light is also shed on the reasons for the neglect and death of certain words-most important of which are phonological and semantic factors, besides the appearance of borrowed words.

Moreover, the different types of obsolete words (nouns and verbs) in Lisan al-‘Arab are highlighted.

The main research objective is to reveal how much attention linguists paid to Arabic lexis through history, with particular reference to the efforts of IbnManzour in stating the multiple views on the death of words in Arabic.

All these efforts serve the mother tongue, Arabic, and keep its stylistic sublimity and ranks alive.

It is worth mentioning that a lot of abandoned and obsolete words can be resurrected, derived from and re-activated instead of using un-Arabic borrowed words.