# Root ḥ-m-d حمد



## Hulalessar

I know the root ḥ-m-d means "praise" and that it is found in several names, e.g Muhammad, Mahmud, Ahmed, Hamid, Hamdi. On looking up the meaning of these names I was expecting to find they all meant something different connected with praise, but they are all said to mean "praised/worthy of praise". Is that correct, or do they have different nuances of meaning?


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## HotIcyDonut

Muslims sometimes call the prophet أحمد instead of محمّد, if it's of any relevance, you can occasionally hear something like أمّة أحمد and such


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## WadiH

Hulalessar said:


> I know the root ḥ-m-d means "praise" and that it is found in several names, e.g Muhammad, Mahmud, Ahmed, Hamid, Hamdi. On looking up the meaning of these names I was expecting to find they all meant something different connected with praise, but they are all said to mean "praised/worthy of praise". Is that correct, or do they have different nuances of meaning?



They do have different meanings or at least nuances of meaning.

Muhammad and Mahmud are passive participles derived from two different verbs (_Hammada _and _Hamada_, respectively).  The form _Hammada _(known in foreign grammars as Form II) is an intensive version of the verb _Hamada _(known as Form I).  So you can say that _MaHmuud _means someone who is praised/deemed praiseworthy, while _Muhammad _is someone who is highly praised/deemed very praiseworthy.

_Haamid _is an active participle of Form I, so it means "one who praises".

_aHmad _is not a participle but rather a comparative or superlative adjective.  So the name means "most praiseworthy".  As @HotIcyDonut mentioned, it is used as an alternative name for the prophet Muhammad.

_Hamdi _seems to be a more recent form.  I don't really know its origin or exact meaning other than that it is related to the H-m-d root and seems to have arisen in the Ottoman era along with similar names like Ramzi, Saadi, Sabri, fatHi, etc.


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## Hulalessar

Thank you for the explanation.


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## Mahaodeh

WadiH said:


> _aHmad _is not a participle but rather a comparative or superlative adjective. So the name means "most praiseworthy"


Are you sure about that? To me it seems to mean “most praising”. If one says هذا الرجل أحمد الناس, I would understand that he is أكثر الناس حمدا لله and not أكثر مَن يحمده الناس.

How would you understand it?

قارنه بتعبيرات مشابهة مثل: هذا أكرم الناس وهذا ألأم الناس. كلاهما يعني: هذا أكثر الناس كرما وهذا أكثر الناس لؤما لا هذا أكثر من يكرمه الناس وهذا أكثر من يتلائم عليه الناس.


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## WadiH

I don't know about that ... أكرم الناس could also mean "one with most dignity/honor".  Here's another example: فلان سعيد، فلان أسعد الناس.  By the same token you can easily imagine فلان حميد، فلان أحمد الناس.


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## Mahaodeh

WadiH said:


> أكرم الناس could also mean "one with most dignity/honor


That is what I meant.


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## WadiH

But كرم as كرامة means honor (by others) so it’s similar to “praised” or “praiseworthy”.


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## Mahaodeh

I understand, but isn’t صيغة التفضيل derived from الفعل المجرّد? 
كَرُمَ يَكرُم means “he becomes honorable” not “he is honored” as opposed to أكرم يُكرم and كرّم يكرّم. likewise حَمِدَ يَحْمَدُ means he praised not he becomes praised [by others], so I would expect that اسم التفضيل would follow the basic verb as it’s derived from it, no?


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## Abu Talha

Mahaodeh said:


> I understand, but isn’t صيغة التفضيل derived from الفعل المجرّد?
> كَرُمَ يَكرُم means “he becomes honorable” not “he is honored” as opposed to أكرم يُكرم and كرّم يكرّم. likewise حَمِدَ يَحْمَدُ means he praised not he becomes praised [by others], so I would expect that اسم التفضيل would follow the basic verb as it’s derived from it, no?


For what it's worth, I follow and agree with your logic. However, there are a set of اسم تفضيل that give the meaning of the مفعول, e.g.: أشهر ، أشغل ، أبلّ ، أخوف ، أخشى.

Regarding أحمد , Lane cites a proverb العَوْدُ أَحْمَدُ and gives the meaning "Repetition is more deserving/attributive of praise." This indicates to me that أحمد can be added to the set of اسم تفضيل that give the meaning of the مفعول. 

But this does not mean, I don't think, that it can't also mean أكثر حمدًا لله .

--
Questions I have:
Are there other classical Arabic names on the pattern of the اسم تفضيل ?
Is it possible for the name أحمد to be based on the verb, meaning "I praise", like يعيش and يزيد or are such names only in the third-person, not the first person?


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## Romeel

Abu Talha said:


> Questions I have:
> Are there other classical Arabic names on the pattern of the اسم تفضيل ?


أشرف
أكرم
أسلم


Abu Talha said:


> Is it possible for the name أحمد to be based on the verb, meaning "I praise", like يعيش and يزيد or are such names only in the third-person, not the first person?


إذا فهمت سؤالك هذا على نحو صحيح فالجواب

حمده
يعرُب


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## WadiH

Abu Talha said:


> Regarding أحمد , Lane cites a proverb العَوْدُ أَحْمَدُ and gives the meaning "Repetition is more deserving/attributive of praise." This indicates to me that أحمد can be added to the set of اسم تفضيل that give the meaning of the مفعول.



Yes this is the example I had in mind but for some reason forgot to mention.



Abu Talha said:


> Questions I have:
> Are there other classical Arabic names on the pattern of the اسم تفضيل ?
> Is it possible for the name أحمد to be based on the verb, meaning "I praise", like يعيش and يزيد or are such names only in the third-person, not the first person?



Yes, the examples given by @Romeel and also أسعد, أمجد, etc.  I think it's unlikely that these names are verbs.


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## Abu Talha

Romeel said:


> أشرف
> أكرم
> أسلم





WadiH said:


> Yes, the examples given by @Romeel and also أسعد, أمجد, etc.  I think it's unlikely that these names are verbs.


Thank you both.

I agree that these are definitely names that are used today. But were they used in the pre-classical period as well? I cant recall any such, but I don't know that many either.


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## Mahaodeh

From the top of my head I can think of الأرقم بن أبي الأرقم. I’m not sure it’s actually اسم تفضيل though. 

There is also الأعشى but that’s not a given name, it’s a title.


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## WadiH

There was a pre-Islamic Yemeni king called أسعد أبي كرب, but most names have a definite article like الأرقم.


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## Abu Talha

Thank you both.


Mahaodeh said:


> From the top of my head I can think of الأرقم بن أبي الأرقم. I’m not sure it’s actually اسم تفضيل though.
> 
> There is also الأعشى but that’s not a given name, it’s a title.


I too think these both may not be أفعل التفضيل. Rather they look like أفعل الألوان والعيوب.


WadiH said:


> There was a pre-Islamic Yemeni king called أسعد أبي كرب, but most names have a definite article like الأرقم.


I think this fits the bill.

By the way, I thought of looking up Verse 61:6 in a couple of linguistic tafsirs. أبو حيان in البحر المحيط mentions:


> وأحمد علم منقول من المضارع للمتكلم، أو من أحمد أفعل التفضيل



And ابن عاشور in التحرير والتنوير incidentally also cites the proverb العود أحمد to arrive at the meaning.

Lastly, I remembered that personal names are a big part of Arabian inscriptions. If you enter search term ʾnʿm (أنعم) in the database here: http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/OCIANA, there are quite a few hits, all Safaitic though, as far as I can see.


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## Romeel

Abu Talha said:


> By the way, I thought of looking up Verse 61:6 in a couple of linguistic tafsirs. أبو حيان in البحر المحيط mentions:
> 
> وأحمد علم منقول من المضارع للمتكلم، أو من أحمد أفعل التفضيل
> And ابن عاشور in التحرير والتنوير incidentally also cites the proverb العود أحمد to arrive at the meaning.


نعم

عندما تقول *أحمدُ الله

أحمدُ *هنا فعل مضارع

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لكن عندما تقول *عمران أحمدُ رجل في القرية*
أحمدُ هنا اسم تفضيل


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## WadiH

It just doesn't make sense to me why a given name would be in the first person rather than the third.


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## Abu Talha

Certainly, the examples I see in the grammar books for العلم المنقول من الفعل are in the third person, or from فعل أمر. It would be nice to see some evidence to support أبو حيان 's statement.


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