اسم- “ism”
It is a word whose meaning is understood independently of other words and of tense. There is no direct equivalent in English; it includes various parts of speech like nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and and even some prepositions.
Some of the primary characteristics of this class of words include:
- Being both the subject of a sentence (مسند اليه, “that which has something assigned to it”) and the predicate (مسند, “that which is assigned”);
- Accepting the definite article ال;
- Capable of being singular, dual, or plural;
- Capable of being masculine or feminine.
There are various categories of isms, depending on what aspect of the ism is intended. In Morphology, the primary category is in terms of:
- اسم مجرد (base form) or مزيد فيه (increased form);
- in terms of the base form, an ism can either be three-lettered (رجل “man”), four-lettered (جعفر “a small rivulet or brook”) , or five-lettered (سفرجل “quince”). This is as opposed to the verb, which can only be either three-lettered or four-lettered.
